Doris then decides to see if she can get to the front door and open it and wait till someone walks past. A full camera shot of Doris shows her struggling to lift her self up so she can move to the front door, she then says, "This must be what they give them frame things for." With the music still playing the lights fade as Doris is still helplessly struggling to move her self. The music in this scene portrays a dramatic theme to the viewer; it also seems to follow the actions that Doris is making e.g. struggling. Blackout. The blackout at this point is yet again happening on a high point in the monologue, trying to capture the audience’s attention.
With the music still playing the lights fade back in to a dark hallway at the bottom of some stairs. The camera is on a diagonal shot of the room with a front door straight ahead, the door is very large and the catch is very high up on the door, with a window to the right of the shot with a slight light seeping through. The audience can see the bottom part of the stairs to the left, and a door way to the right. Doris slumped up against the door, with the letterbox above her head looking very tired and worn out.
The music begins to fade as Doris begins to speak; the light from the window is on one side of her face. Doris begins to bring more of her past into the monologue; she talks about a pram that used to be in the hallway. The camera slowly zooms in as she talks about the pram and Wilfred. She says, "You couldn't get past it. Proper prams then, springs and hoods. Big wheels. More like cars than prams. Not theses fold-up jobs. You were proud of your pram." This shows the audience her age, because of the way she talks about the prams that are around nowadays. She then begins to talk with her eyes closed as she remembers; she has a smile on her face. She pauses with a slight smile on her face, looking at the floor.
The camera zooms out (to the same open shot from the beginning of the scene) as Doris changes the subject. She talks about how 'Zulema's regime' "Lock it and put on the chain, Doris. You never know who comes. It may not be a bona fide caller." She then goes on to say that she never gets a bona fide caller, and how she had a couple come round braying on the door. "They weren't bona fide callers, they had a bible. I didn't go. Only they opened the letter-box and started shouting. 'Good news'" She begins to moan about them even more because they left the gate open, and she calls it hypocrisy because they say they love god and therefore care about everyone but they left her gate open. This shows the audience that she is very set in her ways and believes that you should treat people with respect.
The camera zooms out and we see Doris leaning against the door with her eyes shut, we hear some footsteps up the path and a leaflet drops through the letterbox onto Doris who is sitting directly below it. The footsteps then quickly disappear again. Doris opens her and eyes and sees the leaflet and begins to bang on the door, "Hello, hello. Help. Help. Oh stink." She reaches for the leaflet with a struggle; she is trying to guess what it says. She reads it "Grand carpet sale."
Doris looks at the place where the pram used to be, the camera zooms in slowly to a close up of Doris as she begins to talk about her baby boy, John, whom died. As she talks about what happened, the camera slowly gets closer and closer to Doris to show how she gets upset and finds it hard to speak and she begins to cry as she talks about it. Doris also feels hurt because of the way the midwife and Wilfred were talking when she is talking about it, her speech is slow and full of lots of tiny pauses, "I wanted to call him John. The midwife said he wasn't fit to be called anything and had we any newspapers?" Wilfred said "Oh yes, she saves newspaper. She saves shoe boxes as well." This upset Doris we can tell this by t her face expression also her tone of voice.
Although A Cream Cracker under the Settee is a dramatic monologue we are presented with a range of characters.
Threatening to use the cream cracker as evidence to get rid of Zuleema. Doris manages to constantly bring sanitation and cleanliness into the conversation, whatever the case, never forgetting to emphasize its importance. One of the things that Doris talks about is when she miscarriage John. The nurse attending to Doris wasn't sensitive or sympathetic and made the baby out to be some thing that was dirty and messy. It seems that Doris got no support from Wilfred either. During the pregnancy, Doris must have made a tremendous effort to prepare everything (such as the pram), so that the child could be bought up in the right sort of environment. Each thing would have to be sterilized, so it would be safe for the baby, however the midwife contradicted this. Doris may have felt the need to continue this routine as her own way of handling the situation, and become obsessed.
Zuleema reflects all of the prejudice that Doris has about other groups of people. Doris resents Zuleema for having to rely on her and not having the independence. To clean the house for herself. The fact that Zuleema is from a different ethnic group (we can tell this from her name) only provokes more resentment and grudge on Doris' part. Zuleema is made out to be a patronizing person who has no respect for the elderly, and tries to be an authoritarian. She sounds intimidating as she constantly threatens Doris with mentions of Stafford House. Doris simply reacts with cheeky or sarcastic comments, letting us know that she is not bothered and knows that Zuleema is just trying to influence her. Although there is regret and I suspect anxiety in her tone of voice. Doris doesn't want to be stuck in a place where she will threaten with irreverence. She has unfounded impressions of the home, which are based on nothing, no experiences. This is very exasperating as she is throwing false accusations at Zuleema about going 'daft' in the place.
Zuleema
A lot has changed since her time; however Doris is convinced that society has taken a turn for the worse. She has a very negative attitude towards today's youth. She stereotypes them. Doris makes no effort at all to try and socialize with the neighbors. She tends to keep herself to herself in the neighborhood where she lives and doesn't make a single effort to get to know the neighbors. She uses the excuse that 'folks started to come and go. You lose track' she cannot keep up with who's moved in where, but it is also her prejudice which prevents her from doing so. The Marsdens and their 'funny daughter' Yvonne were the only neighbors that she knew anything about. Remarks that she makes such as 'I don't think they're married half of them', and 'they come in the garden and behave like animals' proves that she is influenced and is prejudging the young couples. The younger generation does not have any morals or manners, and youth ethics are declining. Doris, however longs for the days 'When the people were clean and the streets were clean and you could walk down the street and the folks smiled and passed the time of day’,’ all them years ago when we were first married and I was having the baby.'
This gives another reason as to why Doris likes everything hygienic. Doris associates cleanliness with the past, and wants to keep things that way. She is nostalgic for her golden past; she cannot resist looking back at the 'good old days' in coloured spectacles. Doris refuses to admit that there have been some positive changes since her time.