What impression does Bennett create of Doris'

What impression does Bennett create of Doris’ character and her life, in ‘A cream cracker under the settee’, and how successful do you find the BBC TV production starring Thora Hird?

The monologue was interesting and I really enjoyed reading and watching it. It is set in the 1980’s, northern England, Leeds-Bradford. The monologue involves was Doris, who doesn’t go out, because she is afraid she might bring dirt into the house and was afraid of the younger generation. My first impressions of Doris from the monologue are that she is an old lady who lives on her own and somebody who lives a bleak life. She doesn’t like people disturbing her and believes that she can look after herself. As the monologue develops I get the impression that she is a bossy kind of person, because she keeps telling people that she will definitely not be going into Stafford House. She doesn’t like her cleaner and wishes she could do things for herself. In the past Doris was married to Wilfred, and Doris was expecting a baby, but unfortunately it died and not long after Wilfred sadly died. Doris passed has shaped her present because she has been left on her own she can’t cope and has to have somebody caring for her. Since Wilfred died her cleaner Zulema who is the person that Doris doesn’t practically like and always complains about her, has looked after her in way. At the present time Doris is happy living at home on her own and just wishes people would stop making such a big fuss about her and Stafford house. From the BBC TV production you can see what Doris is like and how her life is.

The choice of monologue form that Bennet uses is especially good for this character because she has to talk to herself. We are her only listeners. This is why she tells the audience what is going on and nothing much else.

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Doris has mixed feelings about her past, when she was living with her husband before the baby died she was very happy, but when the baby died she was really upset. When her husband died her feelings had changed again, she felt very lonely. Doris now lives on her own, but has Zulema cleaning and watching out for her. However people are trying to persuade Doris to go into Stafford house, which is an old people’s home. Doris doesn’t want this though and as lots of objections about it

“ I don’t want to be stuck with lots of old lasses. And they all stink of pee”.

Doris also has views about how life where she lives has changed. She says it used to be quite peaceful and you had neighbours looking after you, but nowadays she says she doesn’t even know her neighbours. She complains that dogs just walk into her garden and wee where they want, because people never close her gate

“ You see Zulema should have closed that, only she didn’t”

but it isn’t just her that don’t close it other people leave it open too. She also hates people complaining about the leaves in her garden when actually they aren’t her leaves. I think this is very strange because people don’t really care whose leave are whose. The fact that she does change her obsessive streak about cleanliness is very strange, because she always goes on about everything must be clean.

Doris still wants to carry on doing jobs around the house but she is constantly reminded by Zulema that she is old and should not be doing these jobs “You are now a lady of leisure, your dusting days are over” these are the phrases that are going round in Doris’s head because she is afraid of being sent to Stafford house. Zulema is constantly threatening her

“ I am the only person that stands between you and Stafford house. I have to report on you, the welfare says to me every time, well Zulema how is she copying? Wouldn’t she be better off in Stafford house”.

The writer by using these phrases makes me feel sorry for Doris because I know the last place Doris wants to be is Stafford house. She wants to stay in her own home. I think the writer is trying to make the reader think that Zulema is bullying Doris.

I think Bennett is suggesting to the reader that Doris is being bullied, but Doris isn’t going to tell anyone because she knows she will end up in Stafford house. I think we are made aware of this by how Zulema makes Doris feel a troubled woman, her house is dirty and she doesn’t like it. She thinks she has to clean it, but then she falls. She doesn’t want help from the policeman because she thinks he will put her into Stafford House. However I think Bennett makes the reader think that Doris may not be aware of how old and incapable of living alone she is, especially when she falls off the buffet. The writer does make you wonder if Doris would be better off living in Stafford House where she would receive constant care and attention.

Things that make me laugh in the monologue are when she says “them’s her leaves” because what does it matter people won’t care whose leaves they are. Another thing that makes me laugh is when she eats the cream cracker from under the settee, which could have been there for ages and it was dirty so it should have been against her rules anyhow. It also destroyed the evidence she had against Zulema, but it is funny when she says she could just put another one there. I also find it funny when the boy comes and pees in her garden and she frightens him off when she could have got help from the lad. This is tragic really though because it was Doris chance of survival.

Before I watched the BBC production I designed a stage set and Doris’ appearance. From reading and listening to the monologue I imagined the room to be fairly empty with not much furniture because she doesn’t want Zulema around her house for too long. I thought there would be a coal fire with an old surrounding and with a rug in front of the fire with the ewbank behind the door. I pictured that the walls and carpets would be fairly bright, but where beginning to look tatty. I imagined Doris appearance as an old lady sat in her chair by her fire, very wrinkly with grey curly hair, wearing a red cardigan and a long blue skirt, with a walking stick on her chair arm.

After watching the BBC television production I thought the set was fairly similar to how I had imagined it, but there was more furniture than I expected. There was a buffet, coal fire with a grey tile-surrounding, clock on top of the fireplace, brown cupboard and net curtains. The colour scheme was very mixed there was a brown carpet, but the chairs were cream and so were walls. The overall atmosphere of the room was very dark and gloomy. The room was mainly set out around the fireplace.

I thought Doris looked how I had imagined her from listening to the monologue. Her appearance was mainly how I had described her: glasses, wrinkly, wavy grey curly hair, but I didn’t expect her to have a chubby face. She was wearing a flowery dress with a pink cardigan over the top of the dress. I thought the performance of Thora Hird did influence my thoughts towards Doris as a character because she carried out the role just how I had imagined Doris i.e. her dress and her age.

I thought Thora Hird’s West Yorkshire accent was right for the part because she was slow, however on occasions quite amusing phrases were used. Seeing Thora Hird perform the role enhanced my enjoyment of the monologue, because although she was old she performed the part of Doris just like an old lady and made it interesting with her accent and by the way she said the amusing phrases that Bennet put into the monologue

The director made use of the lighting by having it very dull to make it look like an old house. The sound he used was of a cornet and trumpet played with long drawn out notes with a piano in the background playing slow and soft. The overall music was sad.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed listening and reading the monologue. I like the way Bennet has added amusing phrases to the monologue to keep you interested and also by how he makes you feel sad and upset for the situation Doris is in. It is amusing in ways, but sad in many other ways.

Tom Galloway