"That's why these tragedies happen, nobody watching," and "At least it's an outing," are just two extracts that reveal her seclusion and solitude. The fact that Irene sits and looks out of her window all day watching and disapproving of her neighbours simply underlines her confinement. Bennett also applies satire to show how others judge Irene and it is not just she who criticises others, but also the doctor, the vicar and the social workers.
Irene’s life is filled by correspondence, she even writes personal replies to circulars from the optician and, typically, Bennett lifts this irritating habit to ridiculous heights by telling us about her letters to the queen concerning dog dirt outside f Buckingham palace.
Furthermore, it can be said that Irene's sense of loneliness has led her to become prejudiced, which in turn led to insanity. She has imagined events in her head and wrote malicious letters to fill the cavity left behind by loneliness which when you look at in depth, makes you have great sympathy for her.
The infrequent references to ‘mother’ lead us to believe that the change in Irene happened when her mother died.
It comes as a surprise to us when we find out that the "kiddy" had died of leukaemia and the parents were out visiting the child in hospital when all along Irene had lead us to believe that they were abusing the child, as that is what she thought. This makes us feel somewhat ashamed of Irene's actions, as she couldn't have been further from the truth. Our opinion of Irene suddenly changes; Bennett has manipulated our sympathies. When Irene talks about the neighbours, it acts as the climax to the scene and is usually followed by a blackout. Bennett cleverly uses this so that little information is discovered about the family and the subject changes, so we do not consider many possibilities.
Later on in the play, Bennett describes Irene at home looking out of her window again. He cleverly introduces dramatic irony to the scene as we become aware that Irene has forgotten her letter writing boundaries and she is heading towards trouble once again, "he wants reporting". Her judgmental side shows once again as she writes herself into bother.
Susan is secretly an alcoholic, which is another expression of her isolation. She drinks to make herself feel better for a while. Geoffrey knows about the problem but refuses to acknowledge it, which makes Susan's isolation worse. Marriage should be the closest of relationships but within it they feel alienated.
"The subject's never discussed"
Instead of changing her life with Geoffrey, Susan decides to have an affair with Mr Ramesh, who owns the local shop. She feels she needs someone to talk to and by having an affair feels she will be loved. This affair is also a distraction from her marriage and its problems. Even when she sleeps with Mr. Ramesh she tells us
"It's the first time I really understand what all the fuss is about"
From the first moment Susan talks about Mr. Ramesh you feel her become more positive and generally happier than she had ever been previously. She even goes as far to complement him on his ‘athletic figure’ and ‘lovely teeth’. Susan feels attracted to him because he is the mirror to the life that she opposes, for starters he supports a different religion, he is of Indian colouring and is the age of the generation below. It is because he is ‘so wrong’ that the contrast between them actually draws them closer.
It makes me feels as though this is the most uplifted Susan has felt for a long time.
Irene’s happiest time arrives at the end of her monologue, which is very unusual in Bennett’s writing.The revealing last line in the ending paragraphs is about the policeman at No 56 and how "He wants reporting" Just from that one line, we know she is going to do just that, and this will lead to her imprisonment.
The change in Irene is probably the most startling of all the pieces, for in prison, she finds freedom and acceptance and blossoms into a really fulfilled, busy person. It is ironic that she is forced to associate with the type of people who would have been her victims outside, and her former social conscience is at last given a practical way of expressing itself. In conventional society, Irene was a misfit; in a society of misfits, she becomes conventional. We begin by seeing Irene as a busybody, then as a malicious troublemaker and finally as an admirable, liberated woman. Prison, for Irene, is not gaol, but everyday life outside.
Each monologue makes you feel sympathetic towards the characters involved because of the ordeal they have been through. At the end of 'A Lady of Letters' you feel happy for Irene because of her new found friends. Through out ‘Bed among the lentils’ you feel sympathy for Susan as she is constantly disregarded in her marriage, but then finds a new interest in Mr. Ramesh who not only provides sanctuary for her, but access to another way of living and he encourages her to stop drinking. Her adultery, with Ramesh Ramesh, is made to seem not only natural, but also acceptable, Bennett cleverly drawing a comparison between the repression of Christianity and the universality of Hinduism.
Susan is a changed woman at the end of the story, having, for the time being, given up drinking. It is not clear, though, what she will do next. She is still "Mrs Vicar", but we are left in a state of uncertainty as to whether this state of affairs will last or not. Her attitude has not softened at all. She is still as incisive in her assessment of her own situation as she was at the beginning. She is well aware of her situation but she has not yet decided what to do about it and Bennett once again leaves us unsure as to the future life of a character. We should in fact not pity Susan as she is in a situation where she could change it. Her passiveness should not be sympathised with, but as this is a monologue on initial reading you believe everything you are told which is extremely biased.
Susan remains, despite her reformation, a vicar's wife who has lost her faith and is still dissatisfied with her marriage and her husband.
The language each character uses is appropriate in some way to his or her social background and Bennett combines humour to invite the audience and let them empathise with the characters more. The language is quite varied and conversational. It is not like someone is reading from a script. It is as though they are talking honestly like in a diary, because Alan Bennett has written in 'thinking time' and pauses for contemplation. The language that is used has colloquialisms that women of that generation would be using. For example I noticed that Irene refers to children as "Kiddies".
In ‘bed among the lentils’ the tone used through Susan is sarcastic and quite bitter. ‘I could only find 10p’ when asked to donate during a sermon about sex. In ‘A Lady of letters’ Irene often talks as though she is writing a formal letter, as quite often she is in fact reading one aloud that she had previously written, no matter how ridiculous.
Since all the pieces were intended for performance, there is a rhythmic quality to the text, which makes it sound most effective when read aloud. In fairness, the text also stands reasonably well as a series of short stories, but the idiomatic language does become rather repetitive, as does the inconsistency of grammatical structure.
Although none of the characters intend to be funny, Bennett makes each of them speak in ways which cause the audience to laugh either at their situations or their turn of phrase, for example, Susan's account of the flower arranging session with Mrs Shrubsole. Bennett's characters are realistic, but he is able to skew the characterisations just enough to achieve caricature while retaining audience sympathy and belief. In fact the humour mostly comes from the seriousness of the characters, all of whom use what they perceive to be appropriate language to recount their stories. The audience, therefore, laughs at their situations and at their pretentious behaviour and often their ignorance within those situations. Bennett says that his characters are "artless" and that they "don't quite know what they are saying".
Bennettt's humour is often at the expense of other people's suffering. Each of the stories deals with rather serious social issues and our laughter may sometimes be inappropriate. Susan, for example, is an alcoholic, and her behaviour during the flower arranging is caused by her drunkenness and in normal circumstances, we would not find either that, or her adultery with the Indian shopkeeper at all amusing. The fact that we do is because of her sarcasm and Bennett's talent for delivering his brilliantly chosen wit.
In his other sub characters, vicars and social and community workers, Bennett also seems to draw stereotypical portraits, not only in appearance, but also in the jargon, which such people normally speak. One of the consistent features of theses stories is that there is an invisible barrier between the main characters and the "real" world. Each person has a secret which is well hidden; perhaps subconsciously known, but never revealed or acknowledged voluntarily. They both hide their weakness - Susan's alcoholism and loss of faith - Miss Ruddock's vindictive poison pen letters. Each character keeps up a pretence of "normality" and Bennett shows us, through the eye of the camera, how each person struggles to maintain a facade. The characters don't seem to talk to the audience, but at it.
The final lines of both monologues are very revealing, Irene’s especially. ‘And I’m so happy’
Previously it has been made clear that she had been very depressed for sometime so this is a startling change for her, even though she has become one of her typical victims: people that smoke, and have been to prison, and she’s even beginning to consider the idea of relations with a man again. Her out come is positive and couldn’t be in more contrast with Susan’s bleakness through her lack of enthusiasm to better her life. We are given no indication at all whether Susan was just going to stay miserable or if she was finally become something she aspires to. I think that she fantasizes a lot, not fully thinking through it through. We had been told previously that she had fantasized about becoming a ‘woman of substance’ and now she is, all she can do is complain.
Even though their out comes are different at this point their characters are quite similar as they require an outside force such as an introduction of another person to initiate a change within in them. As I said earlier it is as though Susan is Irene’s past and Irene is Susan’s future.
