Mrs Johnstone

Test your knowledge with free interactive questions on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.

Mrs. Johnstone: Impoverished

Mrs. Johnstone and her family live in poverty. This is what forces her to give Edward to Mrs. Lyons. However, she does have a 'happy-go-lucky' attitude, embracing what life throws at her.

Cycle of poverty

Mrs. Johnstone and her family are trapped in a cycle of poverty, and this makes it difficult for her to take care of her large family.
Her husband has left her for a woman who “looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe” (Act One), but she remains optimistic that their luck will change one day (although she doesn’t have a plan):
- “When I bring home the dough, we’ll live like kings, like bright young things.” (Act One).

Giving Edward to Mrs. Lyons

It is this desperate state of poverty which ultimately causes her to give away one of her children, Edward, to the wealthy Mrs. Lyons.
She imagines how much better things would be for the child in a house where “he wouldn’t have to worry where his next meal was comin’ from.” (Act One).

Burden of children

The fact that Mrs. Johnstone has so many children obviously adds to her financial burden, and Russell could also be subtly drawing attention to religious attitudes which forbid the use of contraception.
Mrs. Johnstone is also described, on several occasions, as looking much older than she actually is. This suggests that her hard life has taken its toll on her physical appearance:
- “She is aged thirty but looks more like fifty” (Act One).

Happy-go-lucky?

Despite her impoverishment, Mrs. Johnstone seems to be able to take a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life, not letting the smaller challenges that life throws at her break her spirit.
She rarely tries to control events that happen in her life, and seems to attribute most things to fate or good and bad luck.
- For example, she is overjoyed when her family is rehoused to the countryside, but never considers why this has happened:
- “Oh, bright new day, we’re movin’ away.” (Act One).

Escapism

Mrs. Johnstone is lively and loves to “go dancing” (Act Two), with an obvious interest in show business because of her repeated references to the Hollywood icon “Marilyn Monroe”.

Mrs. Johnstone: Impulsive

Mrs. Johnstone sometimes behaves in a way which shows her to be rash and impulsive, meaning that she rarely thinks about the consequences of her actions.

Making mistakes

Instead of dealing with issues as they arise, or learning from her mistakes and avoiding repeating them, Mrs. Johnstone instead tries to ignore or run away from her problems.

Misdemeanours

This can be seen through some of her relatively minor misdemeanours, such as her tendency to purchase things from catalogues without considering how she will pay for them:
- “Y’ shouldn’t sign for the bloody stuff, missis. If y’ know y’ can’t pay, y’ shouldn’t bloody well sign.” (Act One).

Consequences of giving Edward away

However, it could also be said that this tendency to not think about the consequences of her actions is one of the reasons why she gave Edward to Mrs. Lyons in the first place.
She was dazzled by the thought of her child growing up in a “palace” (Act One) like Mrs. Lyons’ house, and didn’t fully take into account the guilt and shame she would ultimately spend the rest of her life running away from.