themes

Question 1

the number 7

Answer 1

7 year jumps throughout the play
7 years old when mickey/eddie meet
7 kids before twins
7 years bad luck if mirror smashes
7 layers of hell 
all links to superstition/ foreshadowing the deaths

Question 2

superstition

Answer 2

mrs j highly superstitious enables her to be manipulated
used to foreshadow tragic events
mrs l uses superstition to her advantage but it makes her paranoid and she ens up believing her own lies
new shoes on table, one magpie, the number 7, the boegyman

Question 3

games

Answer 3

toy guns- when shot can get back up so no consequences real guns, real consequences as mickey finds out. sammy/mickey playing with guns foreshadows the incident that lands them in jail

Question 4

marilyn monroe

Answer 4

constant parallels made
mrs j= beautiful/happy
pregnant= twice the size of Mm
mickey=drug abuse, death likes to her suicide

Question 5

hopes and dreams

Answer 5

mrs j dreams of husband coming home, money to support kids “bike with both wheels on”
linda dreams of happy life with mickey
mickey dreams of linda and being self sufficient “it was all counselor eddie”, equal to siblings “you let our smamy go”
eddie dreams of linda “ then marry me”
mrs l dreams of having a loving son- “i’d always be there if his dream were a nightmare”
wanted to be normal when he was a kid “you say the most smashing things”

Question 6

class divide

Answer 6

the lyons have money to waste - mrs l willing to pay £50 to make mrs j leave. mrs l can give eddie more oppertunities than mrs j could.
the johnstones are disliked, the collecters don’t give them the benefit of the doubt neither does milkman, when police man talks to mrs j he is threatening. but with mrs l he is polite and jokey. at 18 eddie is immature still kid but mickey is forced to grow up and provide for his family

Question 7

thatcherism

Answer 7

time period of BB, she caused great depression, lots of jobs lost and people had a low quality of life, lead to depression, mickey and his addiction, effected lower class more and she was widely disliked for it
"just another sign of the times"

Question 8

dancing

Answer 8

dancing is an allegory to happiness, when mrs j is happy and with her husband she goes dancing then he refuses and they end up divorced. mickey and linda plan to go dancing representing how they hoped for a happy life together at the wedding but they never go as mickey is arrested, this shows how their life together is over before it really began, and mickey and linda are never happy again