She wanted to call him John but the midwife said ‘He wasn’t fit to be called anything’. This shows in those days, they would just chuck it in the rubbish. Doris wanted to look after it, but it went. This shows that Doris is caring and loving. She wanted something else to love.
Doris feels he is being singled out because of her age. Zulema wants her to go into Stafford house. You can tell this by how she says ‘I am the only person that stands between you and Stafford House’. This shows she is treating her like a child and not an adult. ‘The Ewbank is out of bounds’ means if you use the Ewbank I’ll send you to Stafford House.
She gets cross when a little boy goes to the toilet in her garden. You can tell this by her shouting through the window. ‘The cheek monkey. He is spending a penny.Hey’.
This shows that she is very careful about hygiene and is cross because the place will stink. On the other hand when the boy comes into the Garden she says to herself. ‘Here. Somebody coming. Salvation’. This shows the audience to start with she was happy because she was going to be o.k., but when she scared the boy off she had a pause to think about what she had done and was upset. She tried to comfort herself by saying ‘He wouldn’t have known what to do anyway’.
The importance of the language is shown right from the beginning when she uses words like ‘Ewbank’ and ‘Hoover’. This shows us that the language is changing all the time. Also names have changed since 1910’s when Doris was born. You can tell this because she says ‘they don’t get called Doris now. Alice and Doris, Mabel and Gladys. Antiques’. This shows us that people don’t call them old, museum names anymore. People in the 20th century are called James, Paul and Sam etc now. In the next generation the names will change again. This shows language is always changing from century to century.
Doris’ characterisation is made by the writer, actor and director. Doris makes some of the text up herself. You can tell by ‘a kiddy’. She changes it from the script and in the play she says ‘a baby’. This shows us that she changes it to feel more like the character. She feels from her personal experience that it will come across better if she charges it so she feels more comfortable with it.
She is constantly talking to the audience to show that she is isolated. If someone was there it doesn’t have the same effect that she is old, lonely and rapidly decaying. You can tell she is decaying by her actions as she eats the cream cracker she finds under the settee. She is so tired a weak she can’t bring herself to get something to eat.
The monologue makes Doris talk to the audience through the camera as if they are confidante. She is talking to them as an individual. She tells you her innermost thoughts to make you feel what she feels. You can tell this because she tells you about her still-born baby. This shows that she can open like a book and speak about anything towards her audience. This also shows that she is proud, but she got older and found it difficult to cope. She has learnt to live with it because you can not undo the past.
Hird has portrayed Doris effectively. You can tell this when she starts crying because music comes on. This tells us that she is upset about something. The music comes on when she talks about her past. This shows she is upset about something. She is always putting herself down.
The playwright helps show Doris’ situation. Doris is living on her own with no children or people she sees regularly. Bennett purposely made this happen because he wants you to be drawn into Doris’ life. This shows that he has though of all possible angle to present it to the reader. Bennett talks about other people through Hird. This is to overcome the problem of only having the one person restriction. He is very successful at using more people. You can tell this by the end of the film knowing a bit about Zulema, some about Wilfred and the still-born baby. This shows that she in her own way is describing these people and more but doesn’t know it. The monologue is easier to follow than 2 people or more. This shows us that if there were more people then they would reassure her that her life is o.k.
The camera angles, lighting and music all make the play more effective that just a radio script, which to start with it might have been. The lighting had an effect on the style of the scene. To end with it was darker inside, than it was outside. You can tell this because she says ‘I wish I was ready for bed. All washed and in a clean nightie’. This shows that she has made the step in wanting to die now. It is darker inside because her body has given up and the darker it gets inside the more depressed and upset with life she is. The time frame the drama is set in is from early morning to the darkness of night. You can tell the exact time because the leaves are on the path. Also that autumn represent old age like spring represent birth. It is November and December represents death.
The music is old and upsetting because it is used when she is crying about her past and how it was better then. The music is old fashioned and played with brass instruments like Horns, Trombones and Trumpets. These make a sharp sound. They are played slowly. This shows that they are played slowly because the slower the music the more depressed she is. At the end of the first screen the music is played at a stately tempo because she hasn’t made any decisions yet about wanting to die. But the time the end comes around she has made life changing decisions and doesn’t wasn’t to be live anymore so the tempo of the music has slowed right down.
The camera work in the play is mostly a close up of her face. There are a few shots of the room. This tells us the small confined space Doris has to stay in all day on her own. This shows her life is within the smaller space around the kitchen and the bathroom. In the second scene she is sitting with back to the door. This tells us that she has moved, so if someone comes to the door she will be able to get help. The camera is faced down from her in a high angle shot to show that she has less authority than the audience. She is useless and should be treated like a little child. She has been left crumpled to the position by the door because her legs have given in.
The play wouldn’t be very effective as a radio play because she is completely isolated and it wouldn’t have the same feeling. Hird is a fantastic actor and you would miss out on her emotions and her body language.
The story of Doris affects me in some ways. My Grandma is 71, but she is not as isolated as much as Doris. At least one relative, me or my brother does her shopping and go there as much as we can. She can not walk as she is waiting for a hip replacement so getting cups of teas every time I go up there is getting on my nerves! It has made me realise to respect the elderly because one day I will be old and I won’t want to be dumped in a home where they stink of pee!