A handbag - lesson three

In today's lesson we all sat down and showed our teacher what we have come up with. We the spoke about what we think so far of our characters and what we think that they had done.

Allan

We came to the conclusion that Allan was abused when he was younger. Physically and sexually. We then looked at some subtext in some of his dialogue and it seemed as if his step dad caught him red handed and maybe killing an animal (which is an early sign of a serial killer). We think this as he says "He caught me red handed and then beat me". I think this conclusion as it would be a bit far fetched to beat someone up for playing a video game. I also think that he was sexually abused when he went to London as he talks about middle class men and a cloak room and later on in the play he assumes that all middle class men are gay and therefore pedophiles. I don't think that it's him being spiteful (even though it is) but I think that it's his own conclusion as it's something that he's gone through.

Rose

For Rose's character, everyone always mentions that she's drugged up and constantly imply about young children, Piano Wire and a hammer. Rose always acts rather sharply when any of thee words are mentioned and always says "Not my ...". When I think about what Rose could have potentially done, I think that she was baby sitting and then strangled a child with piano wire and then beat another child with a hammer. And they drug her up with medication because she is rather intelligent and therefore find herself in bigger trouble.

Specs and Irene

Specs and Irene are hard to comment on as they have both been in there for a very long time and yet we aren't really told much about their past. (Other than the fact that Irene has killed her family, however I feel as if that he might have been framed for it or she really regrets it and wishes that she had never committed the crime). I can imagine that Irene could potentially be in there being falsely accused which is why she is so observant and has such a bad attitude towards everyone in there, however it would be rather strange as he's been in there for 11 years. Specs is a mystery to try an figure out what he has done in the past. We are not told anything about his past other than he has been there the longest yet no one knows. One thing that I would question about specs is his stutter. He speaks perfectly when he is reading however when there is nothing for him to read he has a really bad stutter and it seems rather suspicious at times.

George and Kinsey

George and Kinsey are some of the worst characters in there from what we have gathered from our discussion. We all believe that these two characters are representing Robert Thomas and Jon Venables. The two children that abducted, tortured and murdered a two year old named Jamie Bulger. Robert and Jon lead the two year old to railway tracks and began to torture him. They threw blue paint at him, threw bricks and stones at him and then fractured his skull in ten places by smashing it with an iron bar. They then shoved batteries into his mouth (accused of the anus but they denied it) and then dragged his body on to the tracks in and covered him in rubble, hoping he wouldn't be found. His body was found two days later and in half.

We are believed to think that George and Kinsey are based on these two as they both got there together. They used to steal from shops (Robert and Jon stole the paint, batteries etc) and then used to run in front of a car to try and get an insurance claim. (Robert and Jon were considering throwing Jamie Bulger off a bridge and into oncoming traffic). They also seem to have a lot of past between the two characters that no one other than them know about.