Blood Brothers: Overview (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Blood Brothers: Overview

The Blood Brothers question is part of Paper 2, Section A of your GCSE examination. You are expected to write one essay-length answer to one set question and, unlike with the Shakespeare and 19th-century novel questions, you will not be given an extract from the text. This can seem daunting at first, but this page contains some helpful information, and links to more detailed revision note pages, that will enable you to feel confident answering any question on Blood Brothers. This page includes:

• A summary of Blood Brothers

• Blood Brothers plot

• A brief overview of what is required in the exam

• Blood Brothers characters

• Blood Brothers context

• Blood Brothers themes

• Blood Brothers quotes

• Top tips for the highest grade

Blood Brothers summary

Blood Brothers is a two-act musical written by English dramatist Willy Russell and first performed in 1981 as a school play in Liverpool (Russell is a qualified school teacher). Two years later it opened at the Liverpool playhouse before transferring to London’s West End in the spring of 1983. It is often described as a Liverpudlian folk opera, and as a musical, contains musical numbers: both orchestral pieces, and songs sung by the various characters. It employs a narrator, who performs a role similar to that of an Ancient Greek chorus, and other elements of a Greek tragedy: tragic heroes, a tragic finale and an exploration of themes like fate and superstition. For more details on Russell’s use of tragedy, and his employment of montage, stagecraft and other dramatic devices, see our Blood Brothers: Writer’s Methods and Techniques page.

Blood Brothers plot

The plot of the musical follows the lives of twin brothers - separated as children - from their birth until they reach adulthood. One child remains with their working-class mother, while the other is taken (by nefarious means) to be brought up in a middle-class family. The musical sees them meet up (by chance) when they are seven years old and establish a strong emotional connection - they ironically call themselves ‘blood brothers’ despite not knowing about the true nature of their relationship. The rest of the musical explores ideas about class, destiny and circumstance, and nature versus nurture, as we see the brothers driven apart and ultimately succumb to a tragic fate. For a more detailed summary, please see the Blood Brothers: Plot Summary page.

How is Blood Brothers assessed in the exam?

• Paper 2 requires you to answer four questions (three on poetry) in 2hrs 15min. That means you have approximately 45 minutes to plan, write and check your Blood Brothers essay

• Paper 2 is worth 96 marks and accounts for 60% of your overall GCSE grade

• The Blood Brothers essay is worth 34 marks in total, because it also includes 4 marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar

• Section A of Paper 2 contains the Blood Brothers question and you are required to answer only one of the two printed questions on the play

• Unlike the Shakespeare and 19th-century novel questions, you will not receive an extract of the play in your exam

• It is also a closed-book exam, which means you will not have access to a copy of the text in your exam either

• You will be asked a question that asks you to analyse and write in detail about an aspect of Blood Brothers

For a much more detailed guide on answering the Blood Brothers question, please see our revision notes on How to Answer the Modern Prose and Drama Essay Question.

Blood Brothers characters

Willy Russell includes a fair number of characters in his musical. However, the characters you should focus on when revising Blood Brothers are:

• The narrator 

• Mrs Johnstone

• Mrs Lyons

• Mickey 

• Edward

• Linda

It is always vital to remember - when considering Blood Brothers, or any text - that characters are deliberate constructions created by a playwright for a purpose. These characters often represent ideas, or belief systems, and a writer, like the politically conscious Russell, uses these characters to explore these ideas and beliefs through them. For more details on how Russell uses his characters in Blood Brothers to explore politics, culture and society, please see the Blood Brothers: Characters revision notes page.

Blood Brothers context

Understanding how to include context in a GCSE essay is challenging, so it is first necessary to figure out what examiners really mean when they talk about context. They define context not as historical information, or biographical facts about a writer, but as the ideas and perspectives explored by a writer through their text. Therefore, the Blood Brothers context you should explore in your essay response is not historical information about Thatcher’s government, or facts about Willy Russell’s own life, but ideas about:

• Conservative ideology

• Social class

• Gender

Lots of these ideas and perspectives are still relevant today, so your own opinions on them are valid, and examiners welcome them in an essay. For a detailed breakdown of the contextual topics listed above, see the Blood Brothers: Context page.

Blood Brothers themes

Understanding the themes that are prevalent in Blood Brothers will enable you to reach the highest levels of the GCSE mark scheme. This is because to be rewarded top marks on your essay, you need to take what examiners call a “conceptualised approach”: a detailed and perceptive exploration of Russell’s ideas and intentions. The main themes explored by Russell in Blood Brothers are:

• Nature versus nurture

• Social class 

• Superstition and fate

• Violence

You are encouraged to explore other themes that Russell explores in his musical, because bringing original ideas when interpreting a text is always rewarded highly at GCSE. However, the above list makes a great place to start, and detailed breakdowns of each of these themes can be found on our Blood Brothers: Themes page.

Blood Brothers quotes

It is of course important to learn quotations for your Blood Brothers exam question, especially since it is a closed-book exam and you will not have a printed extract on your paper. However, it is worth stating here that examiners value “references” to the musical just as highly as direct quotations: this is when students pinpoint individual moments in the musical, rather than quoting what the characters say. In order to select references really successfully, it is extremely important that you know Blood Brothers itself very well, including the order of the events that take place. This detailed act-by-act breakdown of the plot will help you to revise the chronology of Blood Brothers.

Of course, it is also useful to revise a few - very well selected - quotations from the play that can be used in a variety of essays on different themes and characters. Luckily, we have made that selection for you! For a ‘translation’ and detailed analysis of each of these quotations, see our Blood Brothers: Key Quotations page.

Top tips for the highest grade

Please see our revision pages on the Modern Prose and Drama exam for guides on:

• Structuring the Blood Brothers essay

• Blood Brothers methods and techniques

• How to include context in a Modern Drama essay

• Understanding the Blood Brothers mark scheme

• A Modern Prose and Drama model answer