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Key Relationships GapFill
You must fill all the gaps before clicking ‘Check Answers!’ This quiz focuses on AO1 (Read, understand and respond to texts) and AO2 (Analyse the language, form and structure).
There are three key relationships between the characters in Blood Brothers: Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons, Mickey and Edward, and Mickey and Linda.
At the beginning of the play, is out of work and we see her struggling to pay her bills. She is sure that things are about to change for the better though, as she is due to start a new job: 'When I bring home the dough, We'll live like ' (Act 1, p. 7).
The relationship between Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons is from the start as Mrs Lyons is Mrs Johnstone's employer and we already know that Mrs Johnstone will rely on this job to buy food for her children. Mrs Lyons clearly has power over Mrs Johnstone and her family's well-being; this is perhaps why Mrs Johnstone agrees to Mrs Lyons' plan. Mrs Lyons plays on Mrs Johnstone's fear of as well as her empathy. Later in the play, Mrs Lyons has lost her hold over Mrs Johnstone. When she offers Mrs Johnstone money to move away, Mrs Johnstone is able to refuse her this time; Mrs Johnstone no longer relies on Mrs Lyons and realises that the threats she used earlier in the play – 'Don't you realise what that is?' (Act 1, p. 22) – now have no power as they would reveal Mrs Lyons' lie to her husband and Edward. Mickey and Edward's relationship also changes throughout the play. At first, they are enamoured with one another but develops into envy, the catalyst for the deaths at the end of the play. Like that of Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons, Mickey and Edward's relationship is unbalanced due to the different they belong to. When Mickey finds out that they are twins he is 'almost uncontrollable with rage' and asks his mother, (Act 2, p. 106). This highlights the difference between the two brothers: one had privilege and opportunity, whereas the other went to prison and was unemployed.
Mickey and Linda's relationship demonstrates the inescapable nature of their social class: he is following the same path as his mother, who says she would be a 'hypocrite' (Act 2, p. 88) if she was angry when Mickey tells her Linda is pregnant; she says to him, 'You've not had much of a life with me' (Act 2, p. 88). It is Linda's with Edward that pushes Mickey over the edge. Mickey says to him, 'Just one thing I had left, Eddie – Linda' (Act 2, p. 105). Mickey's difficult life is highlighted here, and the divide between him and Edward is made clear when he says, 'Well, how come you got everything... and I got ' (Act 2, p. 105).