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Quotes and Themes in Tally’s Blood

|Love & Family |

| | |

|• From the start of the play it is clear that Rosinella and Massimo have a good relationship and care deeply for |STAGE DIRECTION: (smiles with great affection, squeezes her cheek between his thumb and forefinger.) |

|each other. | |

| |MASSIMO: That’s ma heart, Rosie. And she’s beating just for you.   |

|Even after their relationship goes through a difficult stage, Massimo declares his love, once again, for Rosinella | |

|at the end of the play. | |

| |MASSIMO: Listen, Rosie, I thought you went to Glasgow to buy |

|Family means everything to Rosinella and she always puts Lucia’s needs before her own. This is probably because she|yourself a new coat. |

|has been unable to have her own child. |ROSINELLA: Oh, but see when I saw that wee dress I just had to get her it |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: Nobody loves their family like Italians |

| | |

|The love between Bridget and Franco is genuine, even if Rosinella doesn’t believe it. Franco puts Bridget’s |FRANCO: I wouldn’t want you to regret it.   |

|feelings before his own, buys her gifts that symbolise love and even saves his final words for her in a letter on |FRANCO: "In Italy if you love someone, you buy them gold."  |

|his death. |(He offers his arm and she snuggles in) |

| |BRIDGET: But I love Franco, Mrs Pedreschi. I need him.  |

| | |

| |BRIDGET: I was pregnant and it was Franco’s baby. |

| | |

|Hughie and Lucia’s relationship grows over time. They start off as childhood friends, but Hughie soon falls in |LUCIA: I'm your 'ginger-sister'. |

|love. He struggles to hide his feelings for Lucia, but can’t bring himself to tell her until the very end of the |HUGHIE: And I'm your 'ginger-brother'. |

|play. | |

| |HUGHIE: We want to be together forever, our hearts united – like two lovebirds, up a tree in spring. |

| | |

|Bridget tries to persuade Hughie to find someone else. She sees herself in Hughie and his relationship with Lucia. |BRIDGET: Would you really want to go through life, loving the one person you can’t have, rather than looking for |

|In the end she encourages him to tell her in a letter, mirroring what happened with Franco. |someone who might make you happy? |

| |BRIDGET (to Hughie): Write her a letter, tell her how you feel. A letter is something that can be cherished... keep|

|Rosinella looks on Lucia as her own child and struggles to remember that Luigi is her father and is entitled to |it safe for the rest of her life. |

|look after her. |ROSINELLA : You said you got plans for my Lucia. |

| |LUIGI: She's my lassie |

|Her love for Lucia often blinds her to doing what is really in her best interests – like her love for Hughie. | |

| |MASSIMO: Oh aye, ‘Lucia, Lucia’. You love her that much you don’t want her to love anyone else. |

|Rosinella helps Hughie and Lucia be together at the end. They ‘rescue’ Lucia in a way that mirrors her own | |

|elopement with Massimo. |STAGE DIRECTIONS: Rosinella gives her a reassuring nod: Hughie holds out his arms and Lucia goes into them. |

|Poverty: |

| |MASSIMO: Listen, Rosie, I thought you went to Glasgow to buy |

|• Lucia is thoroughly spoiled by both Massimo and Rosinella. |yourself a new coat. |

|Although.. |ROSINELLA: Oh, but see when I saw that wee dress I just had to get her it |

|• Rosinella needs to make personal sacrifices for Lucia’s sake. | |

| |MASSIMO: Just you have it, Luigi... |

|• Luigi is jealous of Massimo’s apparent wealth, compared with his Italian poverty and relieves Massimo of his |LUIGI: (Feigning surprise) Oh, grazie. |

|jacket, his photo of Lucia, his shirt and finally his trousers. | |

| | |

|• The Pedreschis are better off than their neighbours, because of owning their own shop. This is reflected in |BRIDGET: I'll pay you back, Mr Pedreschi. Somehow. |

|Bridget’s need for £2, and Massimo’s ability to give her the money. £2 was a lot of money in the 1930’s. |MASSIMO: Listen, hen, you've no to bother about paying it back, you hear? |

| | |

|• Costume reflects the differences in wealth in TB. Lucia is bought a new dress, whereas Hughie is scruffy looking.| |

|Even when Hughie is older, he is still poor. The lack of clothing is an indicator too. Franco expects Bridget to | |

|have something to wear a corneet on (like a bracelet or necklace) – she has nothing. We know the Rosinella and |(Hughie, scruffy looking, short trousers) |

|Massimo weren’t always this way though, and had to work hard. | |

| |ROSINELLA: (To Luigi) And I cannie tell you a lie - he hasn't got a |

| |penny to his name. |

| | |

| |FRANCO: Don't tell me - you don't have a watch. |

| |BRIDGET: It doesn't matter. I still love it. |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: (Cagey) I didn't have much of a wedding, hen. We |

| |were awfy poor in they days . |

|War: |

|We see the negative effects of war: |MASSIMO: I hope and pray it's just talk. Nobody really wants a war. |

| |FRANCO: I know a lot of people who do. |

|• Native citizens and immigrants fearing it, and it being an outlet for aggressive people to kill other |MASSIMO: Like who, for instance? |

|humans. |FRANCO: A lot of the young guys that come into the shop. To hear them talk you'd think they can't wait. |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: But it's got nothing to do with us, Massimo. We're Italian, we just live here. It's not our country. |

|Rosinella is naive and doesn’t think the war will affect them. | |

| |LUIGI: What's left of Cassino? You tell me that. Every single street - |

| |(Makes exploding noise) |

|• The destruction of the war is clearly evident in TB. Streets of Italy destroyed by soldiers, shops destroyed | |

|by aggressive citizens, and family lost to the killing fields. |ROSINELLA: The war killed that many young men. |

| |ROSINELLA: Franco's dead - and may God forgive you, lady, for dragging his name through the mud. |

| | |

| |MASSIMO: Eight years' work gone in eight minutes. |

|• We also see the racism which develops from the war. Earlier in the play Bridget says Massimo has nothing to worry| |

|about as everyone in the town likes him. However, in war he is just labelled a Tally and victimised by this. |ROSINELLA: Arrested? You? Ma, what you done? |

| |MASSIMO: I'm a... Tally. |

|• The Arandora Star was a real ship used to deport enemy aliens (people living in Britain but from enemy | |

|nationalities). She was sunk in controversial circumstances by a German U-boat with a large loss of life. The ship |MASSIMO: I didn't know, before I left, what had happened to my faither. [...] Arandora Star. |

|was bearing no Red Cross sign, which could have shown that she was carrying prisoners, and especially civilians. | |

| | |

|Hughie enacts a playful scene with Lucia that represents the war between Italy and Britain | |

| |STAGE DIRECTIONS (He circles her, still an aeroplane) |

|Prejudice & Nationality |

|• Rosinella disapproves of Franco’s relationship with Bridget. |ROSINELLA: You're surely no keen on this Scotch girl? |

| |FRANCO: What if I am? |

| |ROSINELLA: Then she must be giving you something you can't get from an Italian girl. I'm telling you, you better |

| |watch yourself. |

| | |

|• She assumes all Scots girls have looser morals than Italian girls. |ROSINELLA: Franco, he's Italian, he's played around a wee bit with some Scotch girls - so what? You're not the |

|• Rosinella is openly hostile towards Bridget. |first and you'll not be the last. |

| | |

|• She believes that they are only interested in a man for his money. |ROSINELLA: These Scotch girls they're all the same. They just go out with you for one thing. Because your faither's|

| |got a shop and they think you've got money. |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: (To Lucia) Listen, hen, you're Italian, that makes you special. O.K. so the Scotch people let their |

|She thinks that Italians are better than Scottish and reinforces this idea on Lucia |lassies go anywhere, do anything they like because they don't care as much. |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: She's to marry an Italian. |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: Nobody loves their family like Italians |

|She lists lots of reasons why she thinks this and what evidence she bases it on. However, the audience of the play | |

|can see that Hughie disproves her ideas, and Bridget is not what Rosinella thinks she is. |ROSINELLA: I don’t know anybody works so hard as the Italian Men |

| |(In the background, Hughie works like a Trojan) |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: Italians are good for this country. Who else is prepared to work till eleven o'clock every night. eh? |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: But it's got nothing to do with us, Massimo. We're Italian, we just live here. It's not our country. |

|Rosinella thinks that her nationality will somehow protect her from the war. | |

| | |

| |MOB: Get the Tallies! Fascist bastards… Get the Bastard! Waste the place! Fascist pigs! Greasy Tallies! |

|• A mob attacks the shop; most likely people who once bought things from them. Now they turn on the Pedreschis just| |

|because they are Italian. |MASSIMO: Eight years' work gone in eight minutes. |

| |ROSINELLA: Arrested? You? Ma, what you done? |

|• The police arrest Massimo. |MASSIMO: I'm a... Tally. |

| | |

| |LUCIA (Pretending to be Hughie’s teacher, as he –unwillingly- plays the role of an Italian child): Too long! I |

|• Lucia acts out extreme anti-Italian prejudice when playing ‘schools’ with Hughie. |can't spend all day with one child. I've got all these other little children to see to as well you know. Little |

| |SCOTTISH boys and girls. |

| | |

| |MASSIMO: I always thought I was lucky. I had two countries. Now I feel I've got nowhere. |

|Massimo feels like he loses his identity during the war and struggles over his nationality. Franco, on the other |FRANCO: I was born here. That makes me British |

|hand, is clear about his nationalty and that is why he joins the British army. | |

| |HUGHIE: Tally's Blood... Oops, sorry Mrs Pedreschi, I meant to say 'raspberry'. |

|• The racist language Hughie hears is so frequent and normalised he uses it without thinking. | |

| | |

|Rosinella’s prejudice towards Bridget leads to her having an abortion. The news is devastating to Rosinella as she |BRIDGET: I was pregnant and it was Franco’s baby. |

|realises the part she has played. |Slow realisation with Rosinella, increasing horror as Bridget speaks. |

| |BRIDGET: You made me think I was nothing to him – just a wee Scotch tart to practise on. |

|However there are moments in the play that stand against prejudice and differences in nationality... | |

| | |

|• Massimo is gentle and kind with Bridget in her distress. | |

| | |

| |MASSIMO: Listen, hen, you've no to bother about paying it back, you hear? I was awfy fond of your daddy. He was a |

|The relationship between Hughie and Lucia is genuine and they don’t care that they are different from each other. |good man and I know you mother's had it hard since he - since she lost him. Here, hen, is three pounds enough? |

| | |

| |LUCIA: I'm your 'ginger-sister'. |

| |HUGHIE: And I'm your 'ginger-brother'. |

|At the end, Rosinella puts her prejudice aside and helps Hughie and Lucia be together. | |

| | |

| |STAGE DIRECTIONS: Rosinella gives her a reassuring nod: Hughie holds out his arms and Lucia goes into them. |

|Gender |

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|• For Rosinella marriage is the inevitable – and desirable – destination for all women. She has chosen a suitable |ROSINELLA: She's to marry an Italian. |

|husband for Lucia and even offers advice to Bridget on how to find a man for herself. The stereotype here is that |And |

|all women should marry. Rosinella also insists that Lucia learns to cook and clean, an expectation of the women of |ROSINELLA: Franco will be marrying an Italian girl. |

|that era. | |

| |LUCIA: I'm doing the cooking these days. Auntie Rosinella says I've to learn to look after the house. |

|• Bridget’s father exercises control over her behaviour. | |

| |BRIDGET: I told you I cannie dance. My da'll no let us go to the dancing. |

|• According to Franco, Italian girls are highly controlled by their fathers too – this is confirmed by Rosinella | |

|later in the play. |FRANCO: Honest to God. They're no allowed past the doorstep. |

| |And see if you fancy someone over there you've to go to the house and sit with the whole family. |

| | |

| |ROSINELLA: My father locked me in my room because I said I wasn't going to marry. |

| | |

| |BRIDGET: I just don't want you to end up like me. |

|• Bridget is not a stereotypical girl. She is confident, and independent enough to get herself employed as a bus |HUGHIE: What? You mean a bus conductress? |

|conductress. Yet she is lonely and unmarried and, for that reason, will be viewed differently by society. | |

| | |

|• Women are less likely to want to consummate a relationship and feel pressurised into it. Nervousness often | |

|accompanies this. Men did not receive the same stigma as women for having multiple relationships. |FRANCO: It's O.K. Nobody will come in. Come on. Sit down. |

| |(He sits with his back to the crates, pats the ground beside him) [...] |

| |BRIDGET: What was that? |

|Women are more likely to manipulate to get what they want; men are more likely to use brute force. |FRANCO: Relax, Bridget. You're a bag of nerves. |

| | |

| |LUCIA: If I want something I'm not supposed to get -I just - cry. |

| |Rosinella: Where we come from anyway, if a boy and a girl stay out together all night, then they must be married |

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