Wednesday, 31 January 2007 Philip Partridge English
Talking Heads - Who do I feel the most sympathetic towards?
In the following essay I shall attempt to explain two characters from the Talking Heads monologue written by Alan Bennet.
The characters in question are Irene Ruddock, and Graham. The question posed is who do I feel the most sympathy for. I shall start by giving a brief sketch on the two characters.
Irene Ruddock leads a lonely life of little existence. She spends all of her time
writing off letters of complaint and making assumptions about other people that are completely wrong. The way in which she is portrayed by the author comes across to one, as if she is a depressed state of mind.
The author gives the impression that Irene leads a sheltered life, one that is free of any emotion and empathy for others, and that she hasn't learnt about the outside world with reference to swear words and bad language and about the opposite sex.
In order to maintain her equilibrium and to make up for what she lacks she spends most of her time snooping around other peoples lives and making them a misery. It is due to this "clam shell" life style, that she doesn't have many friends.
Because of all her poison letters that Irene has been writing she gets a knock on the door one day from two Police Officers wishing to question her. We learn that she has previously been bound over by the Courts, and due to her continued offending the officers have come to with a warrant for her arrest.
She ends up in prison, and it is ironical that while she was outside of prison in the free world she felt enclosed and a prisoner, yet as a prisoner in a jail she actually finds her freedom, teaching ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Because of all her poison letters that Irene has been writing she gets a knock on the door one day from two Police Officers wishing to question her. We learn that she has previously been bound over by the Courts, and due to her continued offending the officers have come to with a warrant for her arrest.
She ends up in prison, and it is ironical that while she was outside of prison in the free world she felt enclosed and a prisoner, yet as a prisoner in a jail she actually finds her freedom, teaching others how to write letters, and working for the Governors office as an admin clerk even gaining qualifications in administration.
She also makes lots of friends and from them she learns how to use bad language and all about the opposite sex. She also learns what it is like to be liked and sticks up for one of her friends when the prison bully comes round she tells her to "fuck up", even though she used the wrong word she feels she has done her duty to protect her friend.
She feels so happy in prison, perhaps this is due to the fact that her day inside is structured and she feels secure where as outside there is know structure to her life and because if this she feels insecure.
Graham comes across as very intellectual but rather a snobby individual. He reads the Guardian and uses complex words. Hinting that he may have had a good education .He is always smartly dressed, wearing a suit and tie all the time. It comes across that Graham has a sheltered life, almost in a similar way to Irene, having spent all of his life living at his Mother's house.
At first
Graham, comes across as a single bachelor, with no girlfriend, however when his mother makes reference to the male pornographic magazines that are kept under his bed, it becomes clear that he is gay but one who has not admitted his feelings.
Graham also mentions Dr Choudary, and as more description is given about Graham, it shows that Graham goes to meetings, mostly during the day throughout the week, He meets people and while not make close friends it is a change compared to staying in, which allows Graham to become socially interactive. It is also these very meetings that suggest that, perhaps Graham suffers from some sort of mental illness although this is not detailed in the story.
His relationship with is Mother is so close it is almost unhealthy, while in the town he was approached by a market research representative, who thought that they were husband and wife. This unhealthy relationship is compounded by the amount of time that they spend together.
Although Graham suffers from a mental health issue, I do not think that this detracts from his intelligence as he can come across as quite manipulative. To sum Graham up, even though, he has a mental disorder this does not detract from his intelligence and his ability to manipulate people for his own needs.
Based on the descriptions of the two characters, we can see that while Irene has caused a lot of upset and pain, she knows no better, and is afraid to venture into the outside world through her own fears and lack of confidence, something of which, Graham has a lot of. Graham on the other hand, shows an air of arrogance and snobbishness, while he is also portrayed as a manipulative and calculating individual. Looking at Irene it seems that she is blissfully unaware what damage her letters are doing, and while in prison she really blossoms, making new friends and gaining qualifications, where as Graham, doesn't make the effort to do any such thing.
I feel I am more sympathetic to Irene, as even though she has caused a lot of pain, it is clear that the shock of Prison, yet the close community that it has helped Irene gain confidence and friendships, and see that maybe it is best to keep some of one's thoughts to one's self.
Yet Graham fails, to make any impression, because of his selfishness, and unwillingness to let his mother enjoy herself and his unwillingness to help himself, it gives the impression that he isn't bothered with himself and as such why should anyone bother. His cold and manipulative personality is used only when he wants something, where as Irene uses her skill to make a change for good, even though it often does more harm than good. Its because of Irene's development and positivity when in Prison that makes a difference to her life, for this it makes me feel more sympathetic to Irene rather than towards Graham.
