Superstitions In Willy Russell's Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers was one of the most popular British musicals of all time. Written by playwright Willy Russell, it was presented on the stage of London in 1988, reviewers consistently praised the musical. Blood Brothers is one of the most successful and well known musical plays in history, making its audience plummet into mixed feelings of happiness and humour, and then into melancholy and sorrow. The play is an unbeaten piece of work that is still recognized by many critics and thrives in the hearts of its audiences around the world. The success of Blood Brothers over the three decades since it premiered, is not so much down to the score or even the final scene, but to the strength of the book and what it has to say about the apparent theme

In addition, the use of superstitions in the play by Willy Russell was executed flawlessly as it highlights the reason of the sequential events in Blood brothers. The play, looking at it from a wider scope, is wholly based on superstitions which are revealed by Mrs. Johnstone and frequently repeated by the narrator. the narrator is not only seen as the informant to the audience, but also acting as the conscience of all the characters in the play. This was shown throughout the play and the narrator especially focused on Mrs Johnstone when he kept saying:"Now ye know the devil 's got your number Ye know he 's gonna find ye". The narrator 's use of superstitions is utilized to create and make Mrs Johnstone feel trepidation and regret constantly over her decision of giving one of her babies away. At one point the narrator says:"You 're always going to know what was done, Even when you shut your eyes you still see, That you sold a son". The theme of superstition is depicted through the narrator at the start and stretches

There was irony using superstition imagery throughout on Mrs Johnstone as she believed the lie that Mrs Lyons told her that “if either twin learns that he was one of a pair, they shall both immediately die”. Yet she realised that she had made a terrible mistake by going against her instincts soon after. Therefore, by the narrator using superstition imagery, it’s reminding her of her foolishness and hence her most costly mistake. Thus the audience know that she is haunted by her past constantly. It sufficed to say that most of the consequences and most of the happenings in the play can be traced back to superstition. The theme of superstitions can be directly related to the main theme of social class distinction because if Mrs. Johnstone hadn 't have given one away, none of the conflict and divergence in play would 've greatly affected the characters in the story. Therefore, the ending of the play is a consequence of Mrs. Johnstone ignorance of