The audience to empathise Essay Example for Free

The audience to empathise Essay Willy Russell was born and brought up in, Whiston just outside Liverpool. He was born in 1947. Russell comes from a working class background. He grew up with mostly women around him: his mother, grandmother and his aunts. This had a big influence on his work and writing about women, and class, such as Shirley Valentine, Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons and Rita in Educating Rita. After leaving school with one English O-level, first he became a ladies hairdresser and ran his own salon. Russell then undertook a variety of jobs, also writing songs which were performed in local folk clubs. Besides he wrote songs and sketches for local radio programmes. At 20 years of age, he returned to college and became a teacher in Toxteth. Around this time he met his later wife Annie and became interested in writing drama. Carol Chandler is the first character we meet in Our Day Out. She is the main character in the play. Carol is a thirteen year old girl who is described as arriving to school in her uniform which Willy Russell describes as doubling up as Sunday best. She is an underprivileged young girl and she goes to a class for unintelligent people in a secondary modern school in Liverpool. Mrs Kay in Our Day Out is a teacher what acts more like a mother towards carol. Carol is seen cuddling up to Mrs Kay on the coach. This is something a mother would do. Mr Briggs finds that Carols and Mrs Kays relationship strange, as he is not as open with his emotions as Mrs Kay and Carol. The moment on the cliff is a changing point in the play. Carol realises she has confidence, by telling Mr Briggs what to do. But the reason for her sudden confidence is because. Carol becomes aware of the fact that she is unable to change her life due to of her back ground and abilities. This is why she keeps asking Mrs Kay when they have to go home. In this scene Mr Briggs finds out that the children in the progress class are not too bad and his he grows very close to Carol in this scene and he appear to be a pleasant person compared to other people misconceptions and he is mean because he does not understand the pupils in the progress class. In the play Our Day Out, some of the characters are very much at contrast to each other. Mr Briggs, a teacher is a very insecure character; his behaviour is due to not wanting people to see who he really is. His philosophy is that everything has to be organised and in place. An example of this is when he makes the pupils stand in a straight line. Stop! Slater, walk walk! You boy come here. Now stop. Willy Russell is making a point that he is trapped in his own view and in reality, things arent always as straightforward and in place as they seem. An example of this is when the children are in the shop and the counter cannot be seen for pushing, impatient kids. If Mr Briggs were at the counter then this would not have occurred, as his own regimented ideas would have been practiced. Mr Briggs like many other characters is trapped in to their class. Rita (Susan White) in Educating Rita is the main character in play. She is a women in her late 20s who is a hair dresser. But she has got bored with her life and the way she lives it . She is looking for something more in her life but does not know what it is. so she goes to the open universty to help her find what she is looking for. Frank is a fifty year old university lecture whose boredom and isolation have led him into being an alcoholic to alleviate his depression. Due to his excess drinking Frank has started giving Open University courses to cover his drinking cost, thus teaching Rita. Frank refers to Rita as breath of fresh air scene1 act1 because she is different compared with the other types of students that go to the univisty. Rita is probably a hairdresser because Willy Russell was one; this probably matches his struggling in his education Rita and Franks relastionship is built on frank teaching rita. When Rita gets what she wants from the course ie a new life she loses intrest in the course. When Rita came into the room talking in her common accent and swearing, Frank is shocked as he was expecting a polite lady with a upper class manner like the rest of his students. You can empathise with the way Rita wants to move her life on a find some thing better Willy Russell show us this in a very simple but effectiv way that puts across many feelings of power and life. Mrs Johnston from Blood Brothers is a working class women from liverpool who has 7 children and 2 more on the way. In the play her life is contrasted with Mrs Lyons. Mrs Lyons cannot have children but is upper class; she has a rich husband and a good lifestyle. At the beginning of the play Mrs Johnston is described as being 30 but looking 60, she has been let down in life and is stuck, so when Mrs Lyons suggests that she have one of the twins, This seamed like a very good idea at the time because Mrs Johnston would not be able to survive with any more children. Blood brother is a very good example of the contrast of two very deferent lives. Mrs Johnston gets a job as a maid for Mrs Lyons who is a middle class person with a big mansion for a house, however there is only two people living in it. Hello, Mrs. Johnston. How are you? How are you enjoying the job? Oh its, its smashing thank you, Mrs. Lyons. Its such a lovely house its a pleasure to clean it Yes, its a pretty house isnt it? Its a pity its so big. Im finding it rather large at present When Mrs Johnston confides in her employer of her problem after she finds out she is going to have twins Mrs Lyons uses the situation to her advantage and persuades Mrs Johnston to give her one of the twins at birth and makes her take an oath on the bible that she will never tell anyone of the adoption as Mr Lyons is against it. She tells Mrs Johnston that when twins find out that theyre brothers that die. Mrs Johnston is a very superstitious is May because of her social class. Overall I think that Willy Russell get many important issues across the stage in his play he does this a very watch able way and enjoyable way. His characters in the play are very deep people that have lives that put across many problems in the world. He is very good at making us understand the Characters in the plays and their feeling. Willy Russell is a very talented play writer whose plays will last the test of time.