A world driven by money, status and power

The central theme in Blood Brothers is social class and the ways in which it shapes the course of people's lives. The play opens by giving the audience a raw window into social class in Thatcher-era Britain. Mrs Johnstone, a working-class single mother who is pregnant with twins, is shown struggling to pay for milk for the family, while her children complain about not having enough to eat. Class inequality is shown to be dehumanising - when the middle-class Mrs Lyons, for whom Mrs Johnstone works as a maid, proposes to take in one of the twins at birth, Mrs Johnstone is reluctant, but ultimately accepts because she feels a responsibility to give at least one of her children the chance of a better life. Class is also a source of power - when Mrs Lyons decides that she wants to remove Mrs Johnstone from Eddie's life, she can simply use her wealth to sack her with a large severance package. Ultimately, Eddie and Mickey's lives are fundamentally shaped by their differing class backgrounds, as Mickey leaves school early to work in a factory, and is later made redundant during a recessionA period of economic decline. A recession occurs when a country's Gross Domestic Product falls for six months in a row. , whereas Eddie goes to university and begins a political career. Class is therefore shown to structure human relationships and social outcomes in varied and multiple ways.

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Russell presents childhood as a crucial stage in human life and development, and in doing so, reflects on the balance between nature and nurtureCare for something, especially while it is growing. in shaping individual outcomes. Eddie and Mickey, as twins with who share a seemingly irresistible personal bond, are as similar by nature as two people can be, but their different upbringings fundamentally structure the course of their lives. Mickey grows up surrounded by poverty and violence - his single mother struggles to put food on the table, and he is bullied harshly by his older brother Sammy. He also plays violent games on the street with his friends. Through his life, he never escapes the grip of poverty and violence. Eddie, on the other hand, grows up in a comfortable and refined middle-class environment. Mickey is never able to escape poverty and violence in his adulthood, while Eddie passes comfortably from university into local politics. Russell thus signals that nurture is more important than nature. The way that one grows up has a fundamental impact on the course of the rest of one's life.

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Early in the musical, Mrs Lyons predicts that the twins will suffer a terrible fate if they are allowed to meet in life. This foreshadows the end of the musical, when both are killed in a tragic accident. The narrator poses the question of whether it was superstition or social class that caused this outcome - in this way, Russell poses the question of whether human decisions or class dynamics are more important in determining the outcomes of people's lives. Could the twins' fate have been avoided if they had been kept separate, as Mrs Lyons suggested, or was the separation imposed by their different class backgrounds responsible? Russell does not offer a definitive judgement one way or another - it is left to the audience to decide.

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Civil service posher today than in 1960s

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Russell highlights the relationship between work and mental health in capitalistRelated to an economic system based on private ownership of businesses and goods. society. Work serves as a crucial source of self-worth. Mickey's decline begins after he is made redundantNot needed any more. Someone who is made redundant loses their job because their work is not needed. in the midst of a recession. He is not responsible for the loss of his job, but he nonetheless never truly recovers. Depression is also represented as a dangerous spiral. Mickey's desperation following the loss of his job leads him to join Sammy in an ill-fated robbery, in which witnessing a murder leaves him traumatised. After being imprisoned, he becomes addicted to antidepressants. Mickey never recovers his self-worth - one of his final acts is to insist that he could have had Eddie's success, if only it had been him who was given away. Russell therefore shows that class shapes people's mental wellbeing as much as their physical circumstances.

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Russell poses the question of whether morality is possible in a class-riven society. Mrs Johnstone faces impossible moral choices due to her social condition. Her fateful decision to relinquishVoluntarily cease to keep or claim; give up. a child, which ends in tragedy, was well-intentioned, an act of love to give at least one of the twins the chance of a better future. Later in the play, Mickey faces a similar calculation and makes the same choice - he decides to rob the garage in order to provide for his child, who was born shortly after he was made redundant. Russell suggests that these impossible moral calculations are unavoidable for everyone who belongs to a disadvantaged social class.

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