A method Bennett uses to create a unique voice is to write the language of his character to be appropriate in some way to his or hers social background. For example in “Soldering On”, Mural displays a high level of education and knowledge with such comments as “ Started life as a workhouse during the Napoleonic wars, and qua building, not displeasing”. Also he creates an accent (graham in “chip in the sugar”, “mam”), this helps develop the characters tone and voice. Terminology that suggests a nostalgic tone in the character for a previous era is detected, in particular - in “chip in the sugar” with words such as “grand” and “windcheater”. In “ Chip In The Sugar” Bennett characterises Graham as a “mothers boy” with a gossipy effeminate style of speech; querulous and full of clichés. Bennett creates Grahams unique voice by, in fact, making him sound very much like an old lady at times, giving the audience the impression that he has taken much of the character of his mother over the years, this, while sending a message about manipulative mothers, also, once again, provides a humour interest.
While in “Soldering on”, once again creating a character whose story is tragic yet believable, Bennett portrays a very different character and with that character comes a very unique voice for her. Muriel Carpenter is the most socially elevated of Bennett’s characters, a middle class, middle aged woman from an elegant, affluent background, who is newly widowed. Her story, like others, a episodic narrative portrays an “old school” - a “ memsahib” type woman whose life is run almost on military lines, these military lines are the main influence in her unique voice which does provide the interest in this monologue, (even the title suggesting roots of the army) with such quotes as “people trooping through the house” and “buck up girl”, even at her husbands funeral she refuses to let the side down by “ blubbering”. Combing such terminology with rather “horsy” language for this character, with a great deal of public school colloquialisms, Bennett manages to have emerge a rather overbearing woman at first. But what also slowly emerges is the facade she is maintaining, like all the other characters in the collection, and it is this discovery of this facade that the audience undertakes that adds huge interest to these monologues.
The way Bennett uses his ability to create a unique voice to his advantage is the key to his success and the interest of the monologues. He uses each characters voice to earn sympathy from the audience and so as to have the key characters somehow liked by the audience. If you look at all Bennett characters one of the consistent features is that all have an invisible barrier between themselves and the “real” world. Each character is inadequate in some way which they keep hidden from the world (and in some cases themselves) - Grahams possibly homosexuality and real neurosis -Susan’s alcoholism and loss of faith -Mrs Ruddock’s vindictive poison pen letters -Lesley’s promiscuity and lack of talent - Murail’s despair and disgust with her family and her reduced circumstances and finally, Doris’ wish for death. Despite all this, his characters are rarely seen as bad people or unlikeable for that matter, the reason for this is how we relate to the characters, sympathise with the characters and are amused by the characters all of which would not be possible with out Bennett using the ability to create a unique voice for each character.
Each character keeps up pretence of “normality” and Bennett shows us, through his brilliantly subtle use of language, how each person struggles to maintain their personal facade. How he unfolds the truth of his character lives is what keeps up the dramatic tension and atmosphere, how the audiences have to pick out Bennett’s subtle hints at the truth. Take “Bed among the Lentils” for example, Susan’s uninterested answer to her husband saying “Susan’s all in favour. She’s keener than I am, aren’t you darling?” To which she answers “more sprouts anyone”. The fact that she doesn’t care enough not even to disagree or even display a reaction shows the audience just how indifferent she is to anything towards the church and hinting at what kind of a marriage it is. Once again a wonderfully subtle hint at how she feels about Ramesh when she states “ he calls me Mrs Vicar too, only it’s different. He has lovely teeth” is a fine example at how Bennett slowly unravels the truth, this is another method Bennett uses to provide interest.
Bennett’s observation of people is always accurate but also sardonic. The way he portrays his less central characters from a secondary point of view is both interesting and entertaining. Even with this characters he is able to create a unique voice through what we are told by the central characters. Looking at a chip in the sugar, for example, he draws recognisable portraits of both Vera and Frank Turnbull. Of course they are one dimensional, being seen through the biased eyes of a jealous son, Graham. However this was always Bennett’s intent, part of the fun with Frank and Vera is how much Graham resents them and the situation so much that he exaggerates their annoying habits of behaviour, appearance and most importantly speech, which gives us an idea of not only what they are like but also what kind of a person Graham is.
Overall Bennett has written a collection of fantastic monologues, in which he has created a unique voice for each character. It is this unique voice that makes the characters easy to envisage, interesting and entertaining. He has done this by carefully crafting their language, reactions to situations and behaviour to mould many complex characters, careful not to give too much away but to leave space for us, the audience to fill in. He shows the self-preservation that people use when discussing themselves and small hints at untruthful comments to display to its audience there is more than meets the eye. At no time in any of the monologues are we told the full facts, we are left to make our own assessments of them, using our own perceptions, opinions and perhaps our own prejudices, too. The fact that Bennett can create this unique voice helps us view the persons account in a far more cynical way, forcing us to make up our own account of what actually happened, this is what I feel provides the main interest in these monologues.
