A Cream Cracker under the settee - Doris

that she is prejudiced and Doris replies “ I am where hygiene is concerned”.Doris is not very politically correct she calls her old neighbours daughter “the funny daughter” in the text this is offensive as the girl probably suffered from down syndrome. The text shows that Doris has not always been alone; she had a husband called Wilfred who is mentioned many times during the monologue. This makes the audience more sympathy for Doris as she does not have a husband to live with. When Wilfred was alive Doris had a baby but it did not live. We assume it was either stillborn or a miscarriage because Doris doesn’t give us a definite idea of how it died. We do know that it was a long time ago because when Doris asked the midwife about naming the baby the midwife says “it’s not fit to called anything” but nowadays a midwife would me much more caring about the situation and comfort the mother. Doris also says the midwife asked them if they had any newspaper to wrap the baby up in. this makes us feel sympathy as we couldn’t imagine that happening these days.Doris has had hardly any contact from the outside world. In the monologue we learn her only contacts are Zulema the person who delivers the leaflets and the local policeman. This shows Doris is extremely lonely and she says she never has any “bone fied callers” this shows there is no one around to come and see her especially, such as a friend or part of family. Doris says “don’t know anybody round hear now” this expresses her shortage of contact from the outside world and her isolation is made even worse by the loss of her baby. Bennet at this point is getting across the idea that neighbours are not what they used to be when Doris was young and that they don’t have has much respect for her as they used to.We all have many choices that we can make in life but this is not the case for Doris. Her only two choices are to stay where she is and be lonely or move to the old folks home. This makes the audience feel sorry for Doris because the only two choices she have are both quite bad. Doris’ decision lies mainly in the hands of Zulema. In the text Zulema says “what you don’t understand Doris is I am the only person who lies between you and Stafford house” Zulema also says “ I have to report on you. The welfare say to me every time “ well Zulema how is she coping?” this shows that after every time Zulema visit’s, the people of the welfare want to know if she is capable of living on her own or if she would be better of moving to the home. If Doris moves to the home she beliefs she will lose all her dignity, so she fights against Zulema to stay at her own home. Doris uses humour all the way through the monologue some being intentional and some unintentional. Some intentional humour is when she says “ love god and close all gates” this is funny because Doris is saying there care more about god than actual people because they didn’t close her gate when they were handing out religious letters. An example of unintentional humour is when Doris says “I ought to put a sign on my gates “not my leaves” this is unintentional but it still makes the audients laugh due to the irony of the joke. Humour is important in the text because it shows what type of person Doris is.Zulema is the only person who comes around to see Doris and Doris does not even really like her. Doris believes that Zulema is patronising and that Zulema is a dictator. She says “when she’s gone dictating” this shows that Doris is quite happy when Zulema leaves. Doris also uses the phrase “the Zulema regime” this means that Doris sees Zulema as someone who tells her what to do. Furthermore Doris is quite scared of Zulema this is shown because when Doris falls over when she is dusting, Doris hides the duster so that Zulema doesn’t know that she has been trying to clean up. Zulema tells Doris what she can and can’t do. Doris knows that the ewbank is out of bounds, Zulema says “Doris. I don’t want to hear that you have been touching the ewbank” in other parts of the text Zulema is quite harsh to Doris. She says “you can’t run anywhere. You’re on trial here.” this shows that Zulema beliefs Doris is now too old to run. When Zulema says “you’re on trial hear” it can be seen metaphorically. It could be interpreted as Stafford house being a prison because they keep you in and take away your identity. This again makes the audience feel sympathy because many of us have a grandparent like this who cannot do much but still belief they can.Allan Bennet uses the monologue form to good effect and a play wouldn’t work as well. If it was a play we would probably hear more from Zulema because she is younger. But Bennet does it as a monologue so we understand that we should listen to old people’s point of view as well. Bennet also does it to make us think about how lonely old people must really feel, because in most of our families we have someone like Doris but we care for them. But in Doris’ case she has no one. The television producer of the cream cracker under the settee enhances the audience’s sympathy for Doris. The television program shows Doris in her sad and lonely way. It shows Doris to talk to the picture of Wilfred as if he was still alive and she also carries it round on every scene this shows that she still loves him. In each scene the light gets more and more dim showing that Doris is more and more desperate for help. The camera angles are vital as it usually just shows Doris sad face for sympathy but at the start of each scene it shows the whole room to emphasise what a struggle it must have been for Doris to get there.Bennet presents Doris very well. I can relate to how she must feel as I have a great grandma who lives on her own. My grandma has been continuously asked to move to a home but she always refuses just like Doris.As part of the audience I like Doris and I belief she is funny and easy to relate to. I believe the purpose of the monologue is to make us more respectful to older people and for us to understand how they must feel.