Notes

ESSAY:

Mrs Lyons becomes violent towards Mrs Johnstone:

Russel shows that When Mrs Lyons realises that the Johnstones have also moved to the countryside (and Edward has been visiting them) she visits Mrs Johnstone to try to persuade her to leave.

Evidence
Wherever I go you’ll be just behind me. I know that now... always and for ever and ever like, like a shadow.

Analysis
Russel demonstrates Mrs Lyons becomes irrational and paranoid and accuses Mrs Johnstone of following her. She then lunges at Mrs Johnstone with a kitchen knife. This reflects how violence is linked to feelings of powerlessness and instability. Violence is a reaction by characters to their feelings of weakness and lack of control over what happens to them.

Mrs Johnstone is superstitious
How does Russell show this?
Russel shows how Mrs Johnstone is horrified when Mrs Lyons places new shoes on the table, revealing that she is superstitious.

Evidence
You never put new shoes on the table.

Analysis
Russel portrays that Superstition is immediately linked to the working class, because Mrs Johnstone is superstitious whereas Mrs Lyons isn’t. This gives Mrs Lyons power over her employee when she wants to make sure that Mrs Johnstone doesn’t tell anyone about the twins being split up.

Mrs Lyons makes up a superstition about the twins
How does Russell show this?
Russel presents Mrs Lyons uses her knowledge that Mrs Johnstone is superstitious to ensure that she does not tell anyone about giving away one of the twins.

Evidence
They … they say that if either twin learns that he once was a pair, they shall both immediately die.

Analysis
Russel presents that the story may be a cyclical structure. The audience is already aware that the twins will die because of the opening of the play, so everything that happens is linked to this. Although Mrs Lyons has invented the superstition, her behaviour allegedly leads to the tragedy of Mickey’s death because she is the one to point out to him that Edward and Linda have betrayed him.

Mrs Lyons Manipulation
How does Russell show this?
Russel states that In the song My Child, Mrs Lyons draws attention to all of the things she will be able to give to the twin that she takes, that Mrs Johnstone will be unable to provide.

Evidence
He’d have all his own toys and a garden to play in.

Analysis
Russel portrays that these things are taken for granted by Mrs Lyons, but are out of the reach of the Johnstone family. This emphasises the differences between them. It also suggests that what Mrs Lyons is offering the child is materialistic so the difference between the mothers is based on possessions, rather than love and care.