Childhood: Mickey and Eddie Meet
The Meeting: Age Seven
Mickey and Eddie meet by chance when they are seven years old. Eddie has wandered from the Lyons’ garden into the Johnstone estate. Neither boy knows they are twins. Their meeting is one of the most important scenes in Blood Brothers because it establishes their instant connection — and the dramatic irony that the audience carries for the rest of the play. We know they are brothers. They do not.
The boys bond immediately. They discover they share the same birthday — a detail that delights them but horrifies the audience, who understands its significance. Eddie is fascinated by Mickey’s freedom: his swearing, his street games, his ability to play outside unsupervised. Mickey is fascinated by Eddie’s vocabulary and confidence. Each boy represents what the other lacks.
When Mickey and Eddie discover they share the same birthday, Mickey says: “we were born on the same day…that means we can be blood brothers.” The audience knows this is literally true. Russell uses this moment to create a painful gap between the characters’ innocent joy and the audience’s knowledge of the truth — and the fate that awaits them.
The Blood Brothers Pact
Mickey and Eddie make a pact to become blood brothers. They prick their fingers and press the cuts together, sealing their bond. Mickey declares: “We’re blood brothers now.” For the boys, this is a game — an exciting, slightly forbidden ritual that formalises their friendship.
For the audience, the pact is loaded with irony. The boys are real blood brothers. The childish ritual unknowingly mirrors a biological truth. Russell layers further irony: the word “blood” connects to the violence that will end both their lives. The innocent ceremony of childhood will be echoed by the bloody confrontation of adulthood. This is a hallmark of Russell’s technique — he uses childhood innocence to foreshadow adult tragedy.
Class Contrast in Language
Russell uses dialect to make the class divide audible. Mickey speaks in broad Liverpudlian working-class dialect: “Gis a sweet,” “dead good,” “the bogey man.” His grammar is non-standard and his vocabulary is limited but vivid. Eddie speaks in standard English with a wider vocabulary: he uses words like “smashing,” “splendid,” and “fantastic” — words that mark him as middle class.
Mickey’s language: Mickey swears casually (“I’ll friggin’ kill you”), uses slang (“Gis a sweet” for “Give us a sweet”), and speaks in short, punchy sentences. His language reflects a household where nobody corrects his grammar. It is energetic and authentic but marks him as uneducated in the eyes of authority figures like the police and teachers.
Eddie’s language: Eddie’s vocabulary is polite and extensive. When he hears Mickey swear, he is delighted rather than shocked — “You say smashing things, don’t you?” This reaction shows that Eddie’s sheltered upbringing has kept him from the raw, expressive language of the working class. He finds Mickey’s words exotic precisely because they belong to a world he has never experienced.
Russell’s point: The boys speak differently not because one is smarter than the other, but because they have been raised in different environments. Language is a product of class, not intelligence. This reinforces the nature versus nurture argument at the heart of the play.
The World of Play
The childhood scenes are filled with games: cowboys and Indians, guns, playing in the street. Russell presents childhood as a time of freedom and equality — the one period in the twins’ lives when class does not divide them. As children, Mickey and Eddie can be friends. They share games, jokes, and secrets. The games they play are innocent, but Russell plants seeds of the future: the children play with toy guns, and Sammy steals Mickey’s toy gun, and he has already burnt the school down. The line between play and violence is thinner than the children realise.
Linda is also introduced in the childhood scenes. She is confident, protective of Mickey, and unafraid of authority. Even as a child, she stands up for Mickey when others bully him. Russell uses Linda to show that working-class girls develop resilience early — she has to, because nobody else will protect those she loves.
The children’s gun games foreshadow the real violence of the climax. Russell uses the Chekhov’s gun principle: the toy guns of childhood become the real gun that kills Mickey and Eddie. Innocence and violence are two sides of the same coin.
“Dead Funny”: Comedy and Tragedy
The childhood scenes are some of the funniest in the play. Eddie’s delight at Mickey’s slang (“You say smashing things, don’t you?”), the boys’ attempts to act tough, and their innocent misunderstandings create genuine comedy. Russell uses tragicomedy deliberately: the laughter makes the audience care about the characters, which makes the eventual tragedy more devastating.
Russell uses comedy in the childhood scenes for three purposes. First, it establishes the boys’ genuine affection and compatibility — they are natural friends, which makes their separation crueller. Second, it lowers the audience’s guard, making the moments of foreshadowing (guns, Sammy’s violence, the Narrator’s warnings) hit harder. Third, it reflects Russell’s own experience of working-class culture: humour as a survival mechanism.
The phrase “dead funny” — Mickey’s slang for “very funny” — contains an unintentional pun that the audience catches. “Dead” is a word the boys use casually, but the audience hears it as a reminder of their fate. Russell embeds these double meanings throughout the childhood scenes.
The childhood section ends when Mrs Lyons discovers that Eddie has been playing with Mickey. Terrified that the boys will learn the truth, she persuades Mr Lyons to move the family to the countryside. The separation is sudden and painful. Eddie gives Mickey a toy gun as a parting gift — another moment of innocent generosity that will take on tragic significance later.