 Hello and welcome to this lesson where we will go over blood brothers, which is a modern tragedy by Willie Russell Now as you can see behind me Essentially what I thought would be really useful is to summarize using a mind map the entire plot in a nutshell so that you can Get a general understanding especially if you're advising this play for your exams for your coursework Okay, so what we're going to do within this lesson is basically go over all the main events that occur within this Modern tragedy, okay? Remember a modern tragedy or any type of tragedy is a play or a story Where you have a protagonist who tends to have a fatal flaw that leads to the downfall, okay? And of course in blood brothers. They are two protagonists Mickey and Edward both of whom are twins, okay? You could also arguably add Mrs. Johnstone, okay? But the main protagonists of course are the twins so let's go over the main series and sequence of events that lead of course to the Ultimate downfall and deaths of both twins, okay plot spoiler alert now the play and the Entire narrative begins when we learn about Mrs. Johnstone. She's a lady who's a single mother Who is a very struggling single mother? She already has lots of children lots of mouths to feed and she's really struggling to even keep up all these different children in terms of just looking after them and caring for them, okay and She discovers to her shock that she is pregnant with twins, okay, so she's wondering what I'm gonna do I'm just a cleaner. I literally can't afford the current children I have let alone add more children to my family. How will I feed them now? She is working for a boss and a lady who's called Mrs. Lyons She is what we would consider an upper middle class lady and woman who has a husband That's very financially stable and she's a stay-at-home woman who has been wanting to have a child for such a long time But she's not able to bear her own children now She realizes that her cleaner her employee Mrs. Johnstone is pregnant and she doesn't know what to do and Mrs. Lyons who really wants a child basically makes a bug in with her, okay? She makes a Faustian packed with her and she persuades Mrs. Johnstone to part with just one of her sons, okay? She tells Mrs. Johnstone look I'll definitely look after your son. Trust me. He's gonna be in good hands and on top of that You know, can you afford really to look after this child as a cleaner? Okay, and Mrs. Johnstone who was struggling to know what she's gonna do with these two twins This is music to her is initially, okay? So Mrs. Johnstone is persuaded and she does give her one of her sons and Mrs. Johnstone keeps one of the children, okay? So Mrs. Lyons has the son called Edward who's gonna be raised by her whilst Mrs. Johnstone keeps Mickey, okay? The other twin and of course they both promise that they will never let these two children know that they are related However, Mrs. Johnstone continues working for her and of course Mrs. Lyons who has a husband He's been traveling. She kind of she's very scheming So she figures out a way to kind of appear that like she's pregnant Her husband isn't there for most of the time anyway And then she manages to convince her husband that they did have a baby They're finally conceived and of course her husband Mr. Lyons is very happy, okay? So they raise a family and of course Mrs. Lyons within this family is anyone that knows that Edward is not her biological son Now Mrs. Lyons keeps of course employing Mrs. Johnstone But she gradually begins to dislike how Mrs. Johnstone when she comes in she fusses over Edward Of course Edward is her son So Mrs. Johnstone sometimes will fuss over her or over him rather whilst she's working around the house Mrs. Lyons who's very possessive of her son She doesn't like this and of course also remember that Mrs. Lyons is quite classist So also she doesn't really want Edward to have any of the you know working-class habits or attributes that her mother will have Okay, so she really doesn't like this and she ends up Firing Mrs. Johnstone who feels betrayed, okay? So even if Mrs. Lyons does offer her a payout Mrs. Johnstone does feel quite betrayed because she thought she would at least have the chance to see her son grow up Now there's a period which of course fast forwards And then we realize that Mrs. Johnstone and her son Mickey as well as her family lead a very separate life a much more difficult life as working-class people to Mrs. Lyons her husband as well as Edward, okay? However at seven years old both Mickey and Edward finally meet become really good friends and Adding to the mix is within the estate that Mickey lives in Linda the female friend the you know girl child They become a trio of three really good inseparable friends the only difference and of course at this age They don't quite understand class, okay? So Edward just kind of sees Mickey as somebody who really looks up to he gets a bit of a snobby primary school So he really just likes how edgy both his friend Mickey and Linda really are okay He really enjoys this so they become friends and they get into a little bit of trouble Okay, so Edward starts kind of mimicking What Linda and Mickey do as well as the other children the other working-class children and they start throwing stones up windows Which gets them into trouble with the police now Mrs. Lyons? Finds this out. Okay, and the police Catch all the children the police treat Mickey quite harshly when the police approaches Mrs. Johnstone He's very stern He tells Mickey and of course also his older brother who's called Sammy who's developed a reputation for being a little bit of a bad Mrs. Johnstone is really punished quite heavily in terms of the police giving her a stern warning when the police however talks to Mrs Lyons and Edward okay telling her that Edward has gotten himself into a little bit of trouble for throwing stones at windows Okay, he is much more kinder to her. He says, you know make sure I understand children like Edward can be a little bit You know boisterous, but be careful and again We can see here that even society begins to treat Edward much more favorably as a middle-class son of Prosperous parents then Mickey who's a working-class son of a single mother However, this is not enough Mrs. Lyons. She doesn't like this. She doesn't like the fact that her son is associating With his twin of course Edward does not know Mickey and Edward do not make the connection that they are twins Okay, so Mrs. Lyons convinces her husband that they need to move and they do so Okay, so they move and then again, there's a separation so Mrs. Lyons always comes in and Separates creates a wall between Edward and Mickey However, we then also realize of course the Johnstones who were housed by the council They can't afford to live in their own accommodation and also Linda whose family is housed by the council They are told that they're going to be rehoused and they end up moving to the same area That Mrs. Lyons and her husband as always Edward have moved to so then the story moves forward it starts shifting very quickly Okay, the play especially in that to really start speeding up in the narrative and the sequence of events get faster and faster So then Mickey, Linda and Edward end up reuniting as friends now as Teenagers okay in this new environment and of course we still know that there's a massive difference between Edward who goes to private school This is Mickey and Linda who goes to state school not a great quality of education They kind of get into a bit of trouble Mickey doesn't get great grades in his school And we start seeing an even bigger divide between Edward's life whereby he ends up aiming for and going to university versus Mickey who doesn't get any Qualifications and Linda who falls pregnant quite early. Okay, so Mickey Linda and Edward of course reunite again and become friends as teenagers until Edward ends up going off to university but of course Edward wants to carry on being friends and You know the Edward promises every time he comes back from university. He really wants to hang out Okay, now we then realize that Linda who? Her and Mickey of course now they mature and they become romantically involved and she ends up falling pregnant Okay, and she ends up falling pregnant fairly early And we also get the undertone that Edward might be in love with her But he hides this from her now Edward Linda falls pregnant and Mickey does marry her He does the right thing. He marries her. However Mickey Gets a factory job after he marries Linda and ultimately he ends up losing this factory job because of layoffs and We start realizing that whilst Edwards life is becoming much more stable. He's getting a good qualification He's going to get a much better paid job. He's going to have a lot of stability and in fact his dad is also an employer Mickey will find himself in the cycle of poverty that his own mother experiences the cycle of poverty Bad pay and constant insecurity and of course also he will become the father that becomes worried How can I provide for my wife Linda and our child? Okay now? Unemployed because Mickey falls unemployed. He loses his factory job He is given a proposition by his older brother Sammy the naughty one who becomes a criminal now Sammy Kind of portrays to make you look this crime a promissory. You're gonna be absolutely fine Okay, we're gonna get just this quick money. You need it. I need it. Let's do it Okay, so an unemployed Mickey commits a crime with Sammy. However, they are caught and they both end up going to prison Okay, which carries on that cycle of poverty amongst the working classes and also now we're seeing how the law treats Mickey quite harshly This is how the law will favor Edward and protect Edward whose middle class then in jail Mickey gets depressed. Okay, he finds that his life is going in a downward spiral He gets depressed he starts using pills to help with his depression However, he becomes addicted and he becomes almost a different person and even once he comes out Linda finds that there's an emotional disconnect between them and Don't forget Edward still lives in the same city and Linda and Edward still have a connection going on Okay, so Mickey ends up leaving prison after doing a stint in prison. He gets a new job However, we realize that Linda and Edward now they Kind of start having a light romance and they basically have an affair. Okay, which Mickey discovers and he becomes Devastated Edward who has everything is going to take the only good thing away from him Which is Linda and he cannot have it. So this therefore Accelerates the tragedy because Mickey ends up getting Sammy's gun He finds Edward at the town hall where he works. Okay, so he's getting a really nice comfortable job at the town hall He finds Edward and he threatens to kill him and of course Mickey who's in a rage his mother Mrs Johnstone is chasing him Mickey don't do this don't do this don't do this Okay, and Mrs. Johnstone is really really struggling whether she should reveal to him that they are related They are brothers indeed or to kind of try to control the situation She's figuring out what can I do to stop this tragedy from happening. However Ultimately Mrs. Johnstone because she realizes that Mickey is serious about committing this crime She reveals to both of them that they are twins Mickey who's waving around a gun ends up accidentally killing Edward as the police arrive and As Edward dies the police do shoot Mickey and Mickey also dies Okay, which of course finishes off this tragedy, which makes us really deeply reflect on class divisions And how life is very different depending on the environment that you grow up in okay And this is especially shown between both protagonists a character of Edward versus the character of Mickey Okay, so that's really it when it comes to understanding the sequence of events that happen within blood brothers And how especially within act 2 this tragedy accelerates to its ultimate tragic ending