Explain how Alan Bennett conveys the changes that take place in Miss Ruddock, during the course of the monologue?

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RAJIV PATEL 10/6

Explain how Alan Bennett conveys the changes that take place in Miss Ruddock, during the course of the Monologue?

Lady of Letters presents an ordinary middle-aged woman in a furnished room with a bay window. As we know, a bay window is arched it allows you to look further out into the world, we as an audience get the impression that she’s more of a observer rather than an participant. Miss Ruddock is a typical woman of her generation; she is a busybody with a compulsion to write letters about all that she finds objectionable, such as complaining about hearse drivers who smoke at a crematorium.  We also get the sense that her childhood memories are based on traditional attitudes and values. We as an audience, sum up the impression that Miss Ruddock is aged between 40 and 60, who was unable to keep up with the dramatic change of world, in the course of her life. Her only real contact is through her bay window, where she looks out at people’s lives, without actually interacting with them, we also learn that she has become an obsessive letter writer because she hasn’t got a place in society. Miss Ruddock letters are a form of communication to her.

        

Initially, Miss Ruddock creates the impression that she would like to be recognized as an upper class and sophisticated character. This is created, from the letter she wrote to the crematorium, complaining about the lack of service, where she seems to be convincing and knowledgeable when writing very formally. As well as this, we as an audience also discover that, there may be signs that she was just acting posh. For example, the word “tab-ends,” she used was one of the words that created the impression she’s may be acting posh. We also get the impression that, she has stayed in the same environment, in which she was brought in; this is supported by the local dialect. When she pretended to have a place in society, she combined a mixture of formal English, that sounds artificial and her local dialect to achieve this.

 

Miss Ruddock also seems to be very lonely. This is because, she looks out at people’s lives, without actually interacting with them and she uses her letters as a way of communication. From one point of view we feel sorry for Miss Ruddock, because we as an audience think she is writing pointless letters, which is not going to have any affect on the crematorium as it is not worth complaining about. She also creates the impression that, she attempts to be the guardian of the society and it’s her duty to inform others in the society, of what’s going on, and this is assumed because of they letters she writes. In the beginning our sympathy is evoked further, because we as an audience think that she feels she’s doing things in the interest of the community .For example: to improve the service of the crematorium for other people. When really we as an audience know, that she just needs someone to reach out to and contact with.

It is also important to remember that, it isn’t that Miss Ruddock doesn’t choose to participate or not have friends. It is the circumstances she is in which makes it difficult for her to find opportunities to participate. When she lived with her mother, she was used to the environment she lived in and it was because of these familiar environments, that people in the same generation like her feared less crime, therefore people of her generation believed this led to the increase in security and with her having a role in society, society was more stable. Nowadays society in more transient, because change is taking place faster than ever before and people like Miss Ruddock fear more, because their not used to hearing about crime, their not used to who lives, five houses down on their street anymore. It is a modern multicultural world full of dramatic change, which has brought about insecurity for people like Miss Ruddock, and it’s because of this insecurity that imprisons her, in her own house, which brings about her being lonely.  Being isolated in her own house and being back to the same place everyday, we feel Miss Ruddock is trapped as an observer of the world rather than a participant, although she may think she is. One of things that reinforce she is trapped in her own house is the clothes she wears are old and dull, typical of her generation because but you wouldn’t see many people wearing them. The tight collar of clothes may also represent the enclosure from the rest of the world.  This is highly contrasted with the clothes that the younger generation wear. It may also be argued that her actual character is exact opposite to what young people are nowadays. For example, it is thought that: young people don’t write many letters and don’t stay in the same place every time. When we watch the video monologue, we feel she is trapped, isolated and cut off from the world, is that through out the course of the monologue, Miss Ruddock seems to always come back to the same place. We as an audience may be annoyed by this, because we are often used to change with our lives. It could also be argued that, because Miss Ruddock is used to the similar environment, as with her mother and her furnished room, which the reason for her staying in the same environment, is that it brings ever more security.

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We as an audience get assumption that Miss Ruddock listens to the media, for example “I’m just waiting for the paper coming”. When Miss Ruddock hears about crime, murder and attacks on elderly people, from the media, which in fact doesn’t represent a reliable piece of evidence; this is sure to make her even more terrified of the world and might prevent her from making friends and having a role in the society. Miss Ruddock thinks it enables her to be more aware of the outside world. Miss Ruddock has a very stereotypical view of everyone I think this ...

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