In A Lady of Letters how does Alan Bennett sustain the audiences interest in a play with only one character?

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Kirandeep Dhillon 10L

In ‘A Lady of Letters’ how does Alan Bennett sustain the audience’s interest in a play with only one character?

‘A Lady of Letters’ is a dramatic monologue by Alan Bennett produced in 1988 and was a part of a series called ‘Talking heads’ which was written for the BBC. It is based on many different ordinary characters and their views on controversial subjects like racism, society and politics etcetera. The protagonist in ‘A Lady of Letters’ is Miss Irene Ruddock – a middle aged woman shown constantly to be annoyed about social changes around her. The changes include immigration, marriage, fashion and loss in the sense of community. Furthermore, the government was run by the Conservative party where Margret Thatcher was the first and to this day the only female Prime Minister. This boosted the equality between men and women. Women began to wear more provocative and ‘manly’ clothing –which caused disapproval from older generations. Due to the changes in media and society, Miss Ruddock has a tendency to write many letters of complaint, which is shown by her having already written a letter in the beginning of her monologue. The plot itself is set in the 1970s where many different factors change in society which somewhat upsets an ‘old-fashioned’ woman like Miss Ruddock. The title brings irony to the monologue as the word ‘Lady’ is associated with someone with a higher status however, Miss Ruddock does not have status as she does not play a major role in society. Also, ‘a Lady of Letters’ suggests that Miss Ruddock has professional qualifications, where in actual fact she does not. As Miss Ruddock’s characteristics unfold the audience’s interest is sustained in the play.

The play is written as a dramatic monologue, and its genre is of a tragicomedy. A monologue allows the audience to observe the flow of thoughts and opinions in one character’s mind ultimately leading to the discovery of others’ opinions of the protagonist themselves. This is because the monologue allows that audience to almost eavesdrop in the protagonist’s thoughts as they subconsciously reveal what others think of them. As this happens subconsciously, the truth is always presented as the protagonist does not alter the conversations or situations they have experienced. This adds to the humour as Miss Ruddock herself does not realise her own character traits as she does not fathom others’ opinions of her. For example, when the police come to question her about the malicious letters she writes, she says: ‘What letters? I don’t write letters.’ He said, ‘Letters.’ I said, ‘Everyone writes letters. I bet you write letters.’ He said, ‘Not like you, love.’ I said. ‘Don’t love me. You’d better give me your name and number. I intend to write to your superintendent.’ She does not recognise that she has given herself away which ultimately suggests to the audience that she is a quite slow or rather dim-witted character or just does not realise that her letter writing is a problem as she views it as her ‘public’ duty. This sustains the audience’s attention in this play.

To keep the audience’s interest in the play where there is only one character, Alan Bennett has given the character, Miss Ruddock very fascinating and interesting characteristics which never fail to leave the audience surprised or perhaps even shocked. As Miss Ruddock lives alone, she has a lot of spare time which she uses to write letters. The audience, at first may think she is a normal woman who writes the occasional letter however soon, as the day develops, Miss Ruddock’s real colours begin to show; she is an obsessive and perhaps a mentally ill woman. This is shown when she replies to a standard card sent by the opticians. However, Miss Ruddock misunderstands and thinks they have sent a personalised card just for her and decides to reply. ‘I thought that is was nice so I took my trusty Platignum and dashed off an answer forthwith.’ This supports the fact that she is obsessive and that perhaps her letter writing is an activity to fill her time which.

Miss Ruddock is a very prejudiced woman. She regards herself right all of the time and judges other people on what they have and what they look like. An example is when a couple and their child move into the house opposite hers and she begins to judge them; ‘It’ll surprise me if they’re married. He has a tattoo anyway.’ She has clearly judged the couple on their looks and this is unfair as the only view she ever has is the one that looks out side from her bay window. This keeps the audience engaged as she is a very discriminative person and her views may cause offence to the audience.

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        A notable trait of Miss Ruddock is that she is very curious and often nosy. She constantly spies on her neighbours through the bay window in her living room. As she has hardly any business of her own, she wants to know everything about everyone else’s. ‘Where do they get the money to go out, that’s what I’d like to know?’ This shows her to be nosy and inconsiderate of other’s business and privacy, furthermore, she is prejudging them when she does not know enough about them to make such comments.

Moreover, Miss Ruddock is displayed to be very stubborn. ...

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