A Cream Cracker under the Settee
A Cream Cracker under the Settee After nearly three decades of uninterrupted success in the fields of satire (Beyond the Fringe), theatre (40 Years On), TV dramas (An Englishman Abroad) and film (A Private Function), Alan Bennett broke new dramatic ground when this series of monologues appeared on BBC TV in 1988. Each tale gives us privileged access to the innermost thoughts of an individual, who, although we only hear his/her side of the story, frequently reveals more about him/her than intended. The situation of Doris is that she is a 75 year old woman that has dizzy spells and works too much for her age. She has a high hygiene conduct and always wants to make sure everything is clean. As a cause of this, she slipped off a buffet, whilst dusting picture of herself with her late husband - Wilfred, falling to the floor, and possibly breaking her leg. Doris has pride of her house, and continuously makes sure all of it is as clean as possible. There are lots of aspects in her relationship that can cause us to feel sympathetic towards Doris, for example, her relationship with Zulema seems fragile and harsh, as to where Doris freely expresses her feelings and emotions of her thoughts of Zulema. At times, Doris imitates particular phrases Zulema has told her, and gives her own thoughts on how Zulema acts towards Doris. This gives an insight into how Doris will not retaliate
A Cream Cracker Under The Settee - Imagine you are directing the play for television. How would you do it and why?
A Cream Cracker Under The Settee Imagine you are directing the play for television. How would you do it and why? A cream cracker under the settee is about an old lady called Doris. While her helper is away, Doris accidentally falls while dusting a picture of her late husband and her. In doing so Doris injures her leg and is unable to get up. She starts to think about her present and past and how things were when her husband was around. Through the duration of the play, Doris character starts to change. First from being a house-proud nagging old woman to a thoughtful and pleasant woman. For the setting of this play I would choose an old semi-detached house as it says in the subscript. I would choose this house to be in a quiet area in a pleasant neighbourhood. This is because Doris is in her 70's and would live somewhere quiet. The house would also have a front garden with a bush. This is because in the play Doris speaks of her husband and her discussing weather to have a bush. Doris says, "I didn't even want the bush to be quite honest". The inside of the house would have a lot of old pieces of furniture. The furniture would probably be of a set because Doris' character is quite neat and would have things that match. The specific pieces of furniture I would have are a settee, an ewbank, a chair and a buffet. This is because these are the main pieces of
Alan Bennett
YEAR 12 - ALAN BENNETT Bennett's style of writing is very unusual, as he does not explain what is happening until the very end. He has a very individualistic style of writing. His style of writing consists of a build up to a climax and then he applies a dramatic twist at the end of the play. By doing this, Bennett arouses a range of mixed emotions. Bennett has a certain structure, which is crucial to how he constructs his monologues. Bennett drops subtle hints about his character's true nature throughout his monologues. Many of the hints are implied and the further you read, the more explicit the hints become. Dropping subtle hints like this is a very clever way of building up tension and suspense. Bennett's characters are very complex and the characters have no introductions as such. The reasons behind Bennett choosing to focus his monologues on quite a mature central character is that they are more experienced in life. However, as the reader we expect them to behave in a particular way when certain situations are presented to them. He gives the readers a chance to build an identity, a character profile for themselves. The relationships between the characters are never as straightforward as the reader or the audience tends to imagine. The fictional characters are always drawn directly from normal, everyday people. Bennett constructs the characters, as the public would
Consider the dramatic effectiveness of Alan Bennett's "A cream cracker under the settee".
Consider the dramatic effectiveness of Alan Bennett's "A cream cracker under the settee". Alan Bennett's "A cream cracker under the settee" is full of dramatic technique. The play was one of the first monologues, and therefore was, in a way, one of the new sensations of the mid-eighties. The idea behind the play is simple; the main character, named Doris, is in her seventies and lives on her own, save for weekly visits from her minder/'cleaner', Zulema. A crippling accident during Zulema's absence causes Doris to reflect on her past and present life. In many ways the play is a Satire, which portrays the discriminatory treatment of the elderly. There is a wide range of dramatic devices in the play, such as; pause, flashbacks, imagery, repetition, register, emotive language and irony. Pause is used continuously and regularly by Bennett throughout the play, it can be used for a verity of reasons, in this particular example it is used as a way to change the subject; "I can nip this leg and nothing. (pause) Ought to have had a dog." This is one example of the many ways Bennett has utilised 'pause'; it is also used in the play as a 'thinking time' for the audience, allowing a dramatic line to 'sink in'; "Oh hell, the flaming buffet went over. (pause) You feel such a fool." The pause in the last quote also doubles as a time for the audience to picture a previous scenario,
How does Alan Bennett maintain the audiences interest in A Lady of Letters?
GCSE Literature Post 1914 Drama How does Alan Bennett maintain the audience's interest in 'A Lady of Letters'? Most plays maintain their audience's interest by including a diverse range of characters and many different scene changes, but A Lady of Letters is not most plays. Written by playwright Alan Bennett, A Lady of Letters portrays only one character - Irene Ruddock. Whereas most plays have the option to, for example, create and develop relationships between the characters, dramatic monologues do not have this option, due to there only being one character. Bennett, however, has the talent and ability to overcome these problems and more. One of his techniques is gradually revealing information about Miss Ruddock, which is vital to the progression of the story. It also makes it feel quite personal to the audience and gives the impression that you are getting to know her, but then, Bennett slips in another technique: making the character change dramatically. Apart from maintaining interest, this strategy should also create it by opening up a new branch of the story for the audience to think about and explore. Also, Bennett does manage to introduce new characters to the story, but in description form rather than in person. Despite the absence of the person, this technique can be used very cleverly. By just using a description, you can still get to know a lot about the
Comment on the dramatic techniques of Alan Bennett in 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee', in terms of both its writing and performance.
Comment on the dramatic techniques of Alan Bennett in 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee', in terms of both its writing and performance. 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee' is a monologue, which is a play with a single character. The character is Doris, a seventy five year old widow, who lives on her own. She has home help that visits once a week. In this monologue form, information is gradually revealed by the one character - Doris. We find out she's had an unhappy life; eventually we find out why. Doris looks back nostalgically on her childhood and early marriage, the times in her life when she was truly happy. Something changed her life. At first the reader is unaware and even misled by Bennett. Doris describes Wilfred as "dad", and thus he misleads the viewer into thinking there was a baby. We later find there was a baby, but it was a stillbirth. Doris didn't like the midwife's attitude when she wrapped the baby in newspaper then put it in a shoebox. Doris felt she was treating it like dirt. She says, "He wasn't dirty, little thing". This could have been the start of Doris's hygiene obsession. Also, Wilfred did not help her much. Her husband wanted to get a dog instead. Her marriage wasn't great, Wilfred was a dreamer and frustrated Doris. Wilfred started little projects like an allotment, but never did anything with them, and then he moved onto something else. Doris
How does Bennett arouse our sympathy for Doris in "A Cream Cracker under the Settee"?
How does Bennett arouse our sympathy for Doris in "A Cream Cracker under the Settee"? Alan Bennett's monologue, "A Cream Cracker under the Settee" manages to take a subject matter which is in itself dark and less than uplifting, and transform it into a touching, yet humorous insight into the life and thoughts of an elderly widow. The success of the monologue depends on the reader identifying with the central character and feeling sympathy for her situation. Doris lives alone. Thus Bennett's monologue immediately encourages the reader to empathise with Doris by focusing on an issue which is very important to many people: the fear of losing independence. This is first highlighted through the very mundane task of dusting the house. We can see this when Zulema, Doris' home help, reportedly says: "You are now a lady of leisure. Your dusting days are over." It is clear throughout the script that Doris has been very house proud. However she no longer has control in this area of her life as she is visited every week by her Social Services appointed home help. The way in which Doris describes her conversations with Zulema makes it clear to the audience that she feels Zulema has power over her therefore could force Doris into residential care at Stafford House at any time, apparently threatening, "I am the only person that stands between you and Stafford House." Zulema is, in
Talking Heads
Wednesday, 31 January 2007 Philip Partridge English Talking Heads - Who do I feel the most sympathetic towards? In the following essay I shall attempt to explain two characters from the Talking Heads monologue written by Alan Bennet. The characters in question are Irene Ruddock, and Graham. The question posed is who do I feel the most sympathy for. I shall start by giving a brief sketch on the two characters. Irene Ruddock leads a lonely life of little existence. She spends all of her time writing off letters of complaint and making assumptions about other people that are completely wrong. The way in which she is portrayed by the author comes across to one, as if she is a depressed state of mind. The author gives the impression that Irene leads a sheltered life, one that is free of any emotion and empathy for others, and that she hasn't learnt about the outside world with reference to swear words and bad language and about the opposite sex. In order to maintain her equilibrium and to make up for what she lacks she spends most of her time snooping around other peoples lives and making them a misery. It is due to this "clam shell" life style, that she doesn't have many friends. Because of all her poison letters that Irene has been writing she gets a knock on the door one day from two Police Officers wishing to
“A cream cracker under the settee” - Production Analysis
The production is introduced to us at the start with a slow, lonely atmosphere. This is portrayed through the soft music, and the actual layout of the scene. My aim of this coursework is to analyse the production "A cream cracker under the settee" and show how it actions help support the character's words and situation. The production is based on an old woman named Doris, on the verge of being moved to a nursing home against her own will. She is portrayed to us as a bitter, stubborn old woman who feels her space is being invaded by her carer Zulema. The true context of who she really is, is shown later on in the production, and it is very different from the original view that we are given. The way she truly is, is shown through her past. The first scene is a shot of a room full of old-fashioned furniture and an old fashioned layout. The camera is in a diagonal shot of the room showing two arm chairs with the crochet rugs draped over the back of them. Behind the far armchair in the background there is a large window with net curtains, this is the only source of light in the room at the beginning of the scene. On the right hand side there is a small fireplace, with ornaments on the mantelpiece. You can also see a small sideboard with objects placed on it and a fallen buffet on the floor, with a smashed photo by the side. There are also other objects in the surroundings. The
Outlining and discussing the issues of Alan Bennett's 'Talking Heads' character Irene Ruddock and how he scripts it so that we sympathise with her.
A Lady of Letters In this essay I will be outlining and discussing the issues of Alan Bennett's 'Talking Heads' character Irene Ruddock and how he scripts it so that we sympathise with her; I will be outlining the facts about why and what she has done, the effect and impact it has on people and how Alan Bennett makes us have mixed feelings towards her. Irene Ruddock is a middle aged woman who is lonely and always has been since her mother died. She turns to the pen for comfort and support and uses complaining to people as a way of passing her time. Bennett uses her to show people what is wrong with society, although if they were his views he is a very stereotypical person. He also shows that she doesn't fit in with the world she lives in, she is too much of a perfectionist and is stubborn, she only accepts her ideas and thoughts and expresses them to the world as if they all thought the same and tries to change the world to one in which she is comfortable in.. Alan scripts her in a way that tries to show that she has no-one to confide in, and speaks directly to the audience. The message that he tries to give in my opinion is that it is not the crappy government in the country that makes the minor changes; it is lonely people and a pen. The purpose of 'Talking Heads' is to show different peoples views on society and life from their point of view, giving us vivid and detailed