Talking Heads - Lady of Letters by Alan Bennett.

I believe if you said Miss Ruddock did not care about anyone but herself I think you will have been mislead. I just think she often says the wrong thing at the wrong time. For Instance when the police officers come round to Miss Ruddock and mention the little boy who had died Miss Ruddock wrongly asks “What of? Neglect?” and the police officer replies “No, Leukemia”. You can tell from Miss Ruddock’s face when she is telling us about this that it does really bother her and she does care and realizes she should not have said what she said.

Miss Ruddock is the kind of woman who will not change what she does because someone tells her to. She is warned not to write any more letters or she will be put in prison but as usual Miss Ruddock has a comment about something and this time it is about the magistrate. She describes what he looks like, she says “Big fellow, navy blue suit, poppy in his button hole. Looked a bit of a drinker.” She really cannot help herself. She always has something to say. From that one line we get the impression that she may not stop the letters and may get sent to prison despite all the warnings that the police have gave her.

The end of this scene is very important and very well written. Miss Ruddock is talking about the policeman at No 56 and the last line of the scene is “He wants reporting” Then it leads into the most important scene in the play – the prison scene. Just from that one line “He wants reporting” We know she is going to do just that and report him, and this will lead to her imprisonment. With this Alan Bennett was able to skip a small part of the play and go straight to the prison scene which is very effective in a play like this when the first shot of Miss Ruddock comes up in the prison scene it seems like we have moved onto a new play. Un-like all the other scenes in the play there is a lot of light in the shot. You can tell by Miss Ruddock’s voice that she is a lot more happy and bouncy. She also seems to be less quick to criticize people about what they do.  At one point she is talking about her room mate, Bridget and she says “she’s been a prostitute on and off and did away with her kiddy, accidentally, when she was drunk and upset. Bonny little face, you’d never think it”. This is not the Miss Ruddock we have seen in the rest of the play, usually she would be condemning Bridget about what she had done but not now.

The way she talks to other people and how she lets people talk to her. In the scene where Miss Ruddock explains that the two social workers have been coming round and how one of them calls her Irene and Miss Ruddock tells us she does not like being called Irene. Now that she is in prison she accepts everyone and what they call her. When Miss Ruddock is telling us about the conversation her and Lucille had she mentions that Lucille said “You’re Funny you, Irene”. So Miss Ruddock now that she has friends and people to talk to, she does not mind what name people use to address her. In conclusion I think that Miss Ruddock was seeking some kind of attention when she wrote a letter to someone, she had no-one in her life to talk to so she just sent letters and complained about anything just to be able to tell someone something. Then Miss Ruddock got put in jail. She suddenly had friends to talk to about anything she wanted…so there was no need for argueing or causing trouble. If anyone else got sent to prison they would be really upset…not irene, She just looked at it as a new start in life, a new chance to gain some friends and some new skills. I wonder how it is going?