Links To Help You
Themes |
Guns The boys play with Guns as a kids game, they are inocent play thigns back then- but theya re still obsessed with them. Edward gives Mickey a toy gun when he moves away, they play with an air gun. Even as Teens they shoot a gun at the fun fair. Then as adults Guns cause both their deaths (and Mickey's imprisonment. |
Social Class
As Children and Teenagers the differences in the boys resulting from their economic circumstances are not a problem, they in fact make them like each other (Mickey likes that Edward gives him sweets, Edward likes that Mickey says swear words). As children it is just clothes and accent, as adults it is the choices and opotunities they have- which is why it is not fair on Mickey |
Fate and Superstition
The Narrator represents the superstition that the boys will die at the end of the play and can't escape this fate. Initially it is the working class Mrs J who is superstitious (shoes on the table, swearing on the bible)- but madness drives Mrs L to be superstitious too. |
Friendship/ Brotherhood/ Family
The boys have great loyalty to each other as 'blood brothers', all they want is to be friends and support each other (Edwards wears the locket well after he moves away and hasn't seen Mickey for years) Mickey idolises his brother Sammy as a child, then is unable to avoid living the same lifestyle. |
Parenting
Based on the prologue of the Narrator- the whole play is about us 'judging for ourselves how the mother (Mrs J) came to play her part'(sic) Mrs J is a loving Mother and is naturally warm, but financially is unable to give her children opportunity- Mrs L can afford to give Edward all he wants, but we see her hit Edward and let her paranoia come between their relationship. So who had the better unbringing? Also it's totally Mrs L's fault they die, she told Mickey about Linda and Edward! |
The Role of The Woman
It is actually, in many ways, the fault of the 3 main female characters that Mickey and Edward die- but also the play explores traditional gender roles. husbands are basically absent (Mr Lyons always working, Mr J has left the family) Women are destined to become mothers- Linda and Donna Marie both become pregnant, Mrs L can't get pregnant, she feels like a failure as a woman. Mickey feels imasculated by Linda in 'The Pills' scene- she sorted out a house and a job and not him, he earlier feels bad about being unable to provide for his family (you're a D-head scene). Linda doesn't want to be just a housewife (Narrator- there's a girl inside the woman waiting to get out) hence the affair with Edward. The thing that drive Mickey to crime is actually Linda- he commits the robbery so he can take her out, he wants to shoot Edward because of the affair. |
Growing Up
The play is essentially a portrait of Mickey, Edward and Linda growing up- we see them at 7,14,18 and in their early 20s. But also their is a sense of what 'Growing up' is, at 18 (you're a D Head) Mickey 'had to grow up' and Edward didn't. Pregnancy has forced young people to become adults. As children the class devide did not matter, as 'grown ups' it did. |
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