The play Shirley Valentine is written by Willy Russell and her path to self-discovery. Shirley Bradshaw, who is previously known as Shirley Valentine, is a bored middle-aged housewife living in the suburbs of Liverpool in a small semi-detached house. Shirley who lives with her husband Joe is now in her early forties, with her children having left her, feels unhappy and unfulfilled. By the end of the play we see Shirley has changed, this essay shows how Shirley changes to become a confident woman and a woman in control.
             At the beginning of the play we see in the opening credits how Shirley life is dominated by domestic chores. We see in a series of paintings, Shirley cooking, cleaning, ironing and shopping amongst other things. When Shirley first talks we see her talking to the wall, "Hello Wall." This shows us that she is so bored out of her mind that she resorts to talking to the wall.
             All throughout the play we see Willy Russell use different dramatic techniques. At the start we see her talking to the camera, to us the audience. He does this to show us what Shirley is thinking and feeling; she speaks to the camera,
             "I know I'm wicked aren't I? Drinkin."
             Willy Russell does this because it gets the audience on her side, to help us understand her more and it makes it personal.
             We know she is unhappy and bored with her life when she starts talking about her life to us using flashback techniques. Willy Russell uses flashbacks because it gives us more knowledge about Shirley's past and her thoughts. In his flashbacks he has flashbacks where Shirley can analyse what is happening and can help us to understand how she has changed.
             Shirley is unhappy with her life and her relationship with Joe since it isn't what it used to be. We see her unhappiness when Shirley says she would have left Joe ages ago.
             "I always said I'd leave him when the kid's grew up. But the time they...