Its great I don’t have to worry about dusting because once a week the cleaners come in and clean, but I will miss cleaning I find cleaning relaxing and makes me feel proud of my home. I wish Zulema had been a little more thorough; um… perhaps I wouldn’t have fallen.
Pause
To keep myself active I use the gas stove in my bedroom, I cook all of us old ladies cookies, and cakes, although the men moan that I don’t give them any. ‘Next time I say to them, haha.’ Since being the home I have spoken to some of the ladies and befriended them. I asked the ladies what impressions they had about the home. They all said they had the same thoughts but we were all wrong the home is splendid. I feel safe here now and knowing I don’t have to do any cleaning no more accidents, that’s a weight taken off my shoulders.
I think every day about my home, but Stafford house is my home now,
Well mine and Wilfred’s home now, until I depart, Then Wilfred and me will be together again. One thing I miss is not having Zulema here because of her funny ways! I hope she will come and visit me soon.
Commentary on my response to ‘A cream Cracker under the settee’-
By Alan Bennet
Doris’s situation is that she is a very independent woman. She finds it difficult to look after her home because of her age, which Zulema mentions “ You’re seventy five, who has a pace maker…. And doesn’t have the sense born with” So we know that Doris is in ill health and maybe losing her memory or forgetting things time and time again. Zulema says to Doris “ You don’t have to clean the bath, let the dirt wait ” Doris gets frustrated because Zulema does very little cleaning for Doris as we discover with the cream cracker. The dirt frustrates Doris because she has become obsessed and a routine with cleaning because when she was preparing for her baby, making a safe environment for the baby and hygienic. Unfortunately Doris miscarried her son John. The other thing Doris finds frustrating when she is trying to clean she has ‘Dizzy spells’ when cleaning up high. Maybe we can relate this to the accident that Doris had at the beginning of the play, that her head span when reaching up high to clean the dust on top of the picture frame.
Doris finds Zulema patronising because of her comments, Doris being a proud woman passes them off with sarcastic comments to Zulema “But your be in the unemployment exchanged” Doris says this when she finds the old cream cracker under the settee and remember it was quite a while ago she had them, knowing that it has been there for some considerable time. After Zulema mentions Stafford House.
Doris herself I think is an unsociable person, we see this in the monologue where she does not mention about interactions with the neighbours. Although Doris likes to know what is going on because she is curious. In the monologue Doris talks about standing behind the curtain at the neighbours across the road. Doris likes to talk about the past a lot; we see this by some of the sayings Doris says and how she talks about her departed husband. Saying like ‘the snecks loose, cheeky monkey, spending a penny’ Also about the neighbours that use to live across the road, the Marsdens.
We get a picture of Doris, from the ways she acts because of the way she does things and the way she talks about the past. Doris remembers a lot from the past especially about things that she planned and happened. Doris was looking forward a lot to having a child preparing the house ready for the baby and buying a ‘Proper pram…with springs and with a hood’ Doris compares the pram to a ‘car’ From this description of the pram, we get the impression that Doris was excited about the pram a lot and the pram was a big Victorian pram most probably she had seen it as a child or her mother had one. So when she was old enough to have a child she would have one to.
In my monologue I chose to mention about flowers because Zulema told Doris about how modern and up to date homes were now. “They have lockers now, and even flower beds” Also I added comments onto my sentences sometimes about Wilfred and Zulema linking my sentences to the past as Doris does.
The way Doris acts and the way she talks about the past has helped me understand about how old people act and why they curtain twitch. This is because they are unsociable and like to know what is happening with every one else. The way Doris does things is like my grandma, always buying papers and talking about last week’s news and why my gran looks behind curtains like Doris. If I look closer into the play the more I see my grandma, perhaps from reading this monologue it can help us understand why old people are always talking about the past and things that might of happened like Doris talking about how Wilfred wanted a dog. Also why old people become have obsession.
From reading the play I can say I enjoyed it, finding out how the older generation act and always moan. From the original play I liked the way Doris described old people in homes the way they ‘Smell of pee’ this is because obsession with hygiene. Doris also say that old people ‘Go draft there’ which I think I quite a good quotation and which my aunt says to. I think the way the original monologue was written has helped me a lot with written mine because it is easier to read and follow apposed to a biography.
By Patrick Vaughan.
