Parents & Children

English Lit: AQA GCSE Blood Brothers, topic 4.1.1

The Johnstones as a Family

Many view Mrs. Johnstone as an irresponsible mother who can't control her children.

A good example of Mrs' Johnstone's liberated attitudes towards parenthood is when she allows her children to go to the cinema to see “Nymphomaniac Nights” and “Swedish Au Pairs” (Act Two), both of which are pornographic films which would not normally be considered appropriate for children.
She is also somewhat irresponsible when she makes excuses for Sammy when he burns down the school, blaming the teacher for letting the children “play with magnesium” (Act Two).

In the eyes of many people, Mrs. Johnstone gives her children too much freedom and this contributes to their unruly behaviour.
However, there are times when she imposes some boundaries on Mickey, the youngest child in the family.
The then-seven-year-old Mickey is “not allowed to go to the baths”, nor is he “allowed to play with matches” (Act One).

Mrs. Johnstone’s neighbours celebrate when they find out that the family will be moving away, with one neighbour observing that finally “it’ll be calm an’ peaceful round here” (Act One) when the Johnstones are gone.
This shows that people in the community generally have a low opinion of Mrs. Johnstone’s parenting capabilities.

Mrs. Johnstone acknowledges that she might appear “incapable of controllin’ the kids I’ve already got” (Act One), but she also makes it clear that she loves her family very much:
“I love the bones of every one of them” (Act One).
This creates the impression that Mrs. Johnstone is a good-natured and loving mother who is simply doing her best in the face of adversity.

Mrs. Lyon has a much stricter attitude to parenting than Mrs. Johnstone. However, the Lyons do not necessarily have a happier family life.

Mrs. Lyons works hard to present an idyllic picture of middle class decency. We soon find out, however, that her family is far from perfect.
There are several scenes of middle class domestic bliss in the Lyons household:
For example, when Mr. Lyons gives Edward a toy gun, and when Mrs. Lyons reads the family a story.

But, looking beneath the surface, we see that Mr. Lyons is often absent from family life, seemingly prioritising his career over his family.
This concerns Mrs. Lyons, who worries that Edward is “growing away” (Act One) from his father.

Of course, unknown to Mr. Lyons, this paranoia about their son not being close to them comes from the fact that he is biologically not their son.
Mrs. Lyons’ mental stability also begins to affect the Lyons’ family life as her feelings of paranoia eat away at her.
When Edward swears at her, she responds by hitting Edward “hard and instinctively” (Act One), showing her to have a violent side.