Zulema is vividly brought to life through Doris, we are shown how patronizing and insensitive she is towards Doris, ‘You can’t run anywhere. You’re on trial here. For being on your own. For not behaving sensibly. For not acting like a woman of seventy-five who has a pacemaker and dizzy spells and doesn’t have the sense she was born with’. To Doris this must be quite hurtful, yet Zulema doesn’t seem to notice this, she is very inconsiderate and sees herself far superior to Doris.
Another character which is brought to life through Doris is her late husband Wilfred. At first the audience is not clear whether Wilfred is still alive, yet Doris explains how Wilfred was a dreamer, always scheming and coming up with ideas and plans, yet none of them ever happened, always coming up with excuses ‘When I get a minute Doris,’ Well, he’s got a minute now, bless him.’ This also explains that Wilfred has passed away. Doris shows that although Wilfred was very optimistic he was lacking the determination to follow his ideas through. Doris often adds a small joke to help keep the audiences attention in Doris’s situation. It is shown that Doris and Wilfred are completely different people. Doris is the one who keeps everything nice, clean and tidy, while Wilfred is very laid back with lots of little jobs to do but were never accomplished.
Wilfred always told Doris not to worry when things needed doing ‘I’ve got it on my list. I never saw no list. He had no list. I was the one with the list’. Jobs which Wilfred said he would do were the loose sneck on the gate and the allotment, which Wilfred said would allow himself and Doris to become ‘self sufficient in the vegetable department’, it never materialized.
The language Bennett uses in the monologue portrays Doris’s age. Doris calls Wilfred Dad, Wilfred calls Doris Mum, this links to the older generation as terms of endearment. Doris uses language which nowadays people would not use, such as ‘He’s spending a penny’ terms such as this would not be used very often or at all in the present day. Bennett has made Doris’s attitude towards the younger generation very arrogant. She complains a lot about them, she sees them as being very disrespectful, I think she thinks that people shouldn’t live together unless they are married ‘I don’t think they’re married half of them’ Doris judges people before actually getting to know them and in doing so has no friends around her, it is mainly her fault for not trying to get to know her neighbors.
The way in which Bennett makes Zulema speak through Doris is very precise, she speaks in very short and direct statements ‘You cant run anywhere’ ‘You’re on trial here’ this is very intimidating for Doris. For Wilfred, Bennett has made the way he speaks very proud and full of life, Wilfred shows his own self importance ‘The garden is my department’ and ‘The dog would be his province’ the words he uses are very powerful and meaningful yet are used for the most not very important events, makes things seem more important to him than they actually are for the fact that his ideas never became reality.
Bennett has used humor in the monologue to keep the speed and movement of the play flowing, Doris has a very down to earth sense of humor, such as when she explains about Wilfred ‘He’s got his little garden now’ this links to when Wilfred wanted a garden of his own but never accomplished it, and now that he has died has his own little garden. I also think Doris has humor through serious events, when the glass on the photo cracked and she says ‘We’re cracked now Wilfred!’ I think this could mean two things, she is implying that she may have cracked as well as the photo.
Bennett has used a variety of ways to keep the play flowing, one method is having Doris move her way around her home then stopping to relive memories and past events which is explained to the audience, although comic to the audience the events are very serious to Doris. One example of this is when Doris discovers the Cream Cracker under the settee and sees it as a way to confront Zulema about how lazy and useless she is. Doris is very excited about this and thinks she will be able to give Zulema a piece of her mind, yet later on in the play she eats it and realizes what she has done ‘Can’t report her now. I’ve destroyed the evidence’ once again humor is introduced into the play to keep the audience.
When Doris sits against the door a much more emotional and much more serious memory is brought up by the remembrance of the pram which had before sat in the doorway. Doris then explains about her baby which died. It is never explained how the baby died, and so the audience is captivated by this and want to know more about it. Bennett creates real emotion in this part of the monologue, he makes the audience feel that no one but Doris cares about what happened, even Wilfred, to him it was just another dream which never became reality, ‘I don’t think Wilfred minded. A kiddy. It was the same as the allotment and the fretwork. Just a craze’. When Doris wanted to name the baby even the midwife didn’t seem to care ‘I wanted him called John. The midwife said he wasn’t fit to be called anything... ’ This must have made Doris feel so alone and unhappy, losing someone so close to you and no one around you seems to care.
Something which Bennett uses to great effect is the use of time. The audience Is made to travel backwards and forwards through Doris’s life piecing her life together. When Doris talks about how when she was younger, she speaks in a very flowing way using the word ‘and’ a lot through this part of the monologue, ‘When people were clean and the streets were clean and it was all clean and you could walk down the street and folks smiled and passed the time of day…’ this reflects Doris’s happiness and how much more she enjoyed her life when she was younger and how much cleaner everything was which is what she is most concerned about. Though when Doris remembers about Stafford house her sentences become a lot sharper and to the point ‘A home. Not me. No fear’. I feel this shows the fear that Doris has over Stafford house, she is afraid and does not want to ever end up going there.
Bennett has a unique ability of bringing themes and characters into something which usually would just stick to one certain event and character. Bennett gives the audience an insight into an old woman’s life, which becomes completely believable and real.