How far do you agree that Mrs Johnstone is an irresponsible mother?

To what extent is Mrs Lyons a dislikable character?

To what extent do the characters cause their own fates?

How far do you sympathise with Mickey's actions in the musical?

To achieve the highest marks in your exam response, you will need to offer a personal and perceptive interpretation.

This means that you need to:

- ask questions of the characters

- think about all of the different ways we might view them - positive and negative

- think about whether they change throughout the musical

- try to evaluate how far we can say they possess a particular characteristic

Remember that you will also need to show close analysis of the writer's techniques in presenting a particular character and relate your ideas to the key contextual factors surrounding the musical.

In this activity, you will evaluate how each character is presented in 'Blood Brothers'.

You should always refer to your own text when working through these examples.  These quotations are for reference only.