miss johnstone

“the mother so cruel, there’s a stone in her heart”

• suffers from judgement not only from narrator but also from society

• “stone” noun narrator implies mrs j is cold as she gave one of her children away implying she didn’t love the child

• use of hyperbole proves to be the opposite and she is a caring mother

• audience sympathise w mrs j

• would have been judged by society for being a single mother and not having the perfect nuclear family

“i love the bones of every one of them”

• mrs j is a devoting mother who has an overwhelming love for her kids

• the noun “bones” portrays that she loves all her kids with an equal amount and makes time for all of them despite her financial problems

• russel intends to show the importance of love and relationships and how they override poverty

“i was sexier than Marilyn Monroe”

• recurring motif of “marilyn monroe” who is a ubiquitous symbol throughout didactic play could present mrs j as a sex symbol for men or prehaps the tragic ending to marilyn monroe foreshadows the tragic ending mrs j will face

• but marilyn monroe lived the glamorous life that everyone wanted which is the antithesis to mrs j’s life

• looks were all she had going for her when she was young and now that has been taken away

• perhaps she craves conformation from men to tell her she is attractive implying she was reliant on men “he told me” so now her husband left her life has gone downhill

• russel highlights how society is obsessed with looks and appearance

• contrast to by the time i looked…

“by the time i was twenty-five i looked like forty-two”

• hyperbole emphasises the hard life mrs j was having even from the right exposition of the play

• evident mrs j struggled after having children evoked sympathy this is because she could not keep up financially with the demands of having children

• therefore her physical appearance may be a metaphor for the poverty she is trapped in

• cyclical structure

• twenty-five implies she was having kids young due to her catholic beliefs of using no contraception

• exhausted by life

“i don’t want your money”

• mrs j character has developed

• she is no longer emphasising for herself and focusing on delivering a better life for herself and her children

• the use of the modal verb dont implies she can now stand up for herself and mrs lyons can no longer manipulate her which disempowers mrs l

• mrs j also juxtaposes mrs lyons where a fresh starts for mrs j has improved her life however, its just made mrs l more paranoid

• challenges social class stereotypes as mrs l here is a microcosm of the ignorance of the upper class’ ignorance as they presume that a working class person like mrs j would do anything for moeny

• contrasts when mrs l was able to manipulate her

“Mrs Lyons shows the Bible to Mrs Johnstone”

• stage directions and religious imagery

• mrs l manipulates mrs j by playing on her superstion and religions showing her intelligence

• “bible” noun symbolic of a pact thats can’t be broken cause mrs l knows mrs j won’t go back on a sworn oath

• mrs j would think she was sinning

• fear of hell at this time

• blackmail shows mrs j naivety and is manipulated by mrs j

• important part of the play as there is no going back

• fits into the stererotype of being easily manipulated working class

“say it’s just a story”

• ultimate breakdown of mrs j

• thought she was getting her life together + audience had hope for her but fate came crashing down on her

• emphasises how the pact she made was destined for death and made her lose her two children

• creates almost cyclical structure as she is in a similar state to how she was at the start of the novella, unhappy and exhausted by life

• noun “story” implies she doesn’t see her life as a life instead its just a story implying that her struugles she has faced are so horrific and almost unrealistic so it can’t be true life

• or could suggest that she hopes her life would be like a story as most stories have happy endings which is a direct contrast to the end of this tragedy

• made worse by the fact that she had just started her new life link

• imperative shows desperation say

“bright new day, we’re goin’ away”

• optimistic for a new start

• adjective “bright” portrays despite how difficult her life becomes she never loses her sense of hope, so bright could also be reflective of her personality

• However, it comes just after the Lyons family have moved, so we suspect that they are going to end up in the same place (foreboding).

• makes the ending worse

• audience know that nothing in mrs j life can be purely good foreshadowing tragic events to come

• excited to leave behind her bad reputation

“that other child of mine”

• still cares for eddie after all the years shows her attributes to being a good mother

• moun child - doesn’t refer to him directly symbolises her desire to try and repress her love for eddie as she know she must try and move on from him

• or perhaps it is too painful to say his name as she regrets giving him away

• she hopes her moving allows her to do so

“there’ll be no more bloody warnings”

• mrs j and mickey treated harshly by police officer

• “no” imperative, police officer is a microcosm for the institutionalised prejudice placed on the working class

• anger from audience

• typical in 70s

• police officer treating mrs j bad implies that he has to deal with her children lots and this is a common occurance or just prejudice and eddie does same crime and treated a lot less harsh

“during the dance, she acquires a brush, duster and a mop”

• semantic field of cleaning alludes to her menial job she has to do in order to survive

• she acquires this “during the dance” implying she is constantly working

• stage directions

• shows she is happy and grateful to be working even if she is on a low wage and barely gets her by

• representative of how in 70s lots of working-class people lost their jobs so for her to just start one is something she appreciates grateful

• audience respect her for trying to help her situation even though they know she still struggles