How Does Alan Bennett Reveal The Speaker in 'A Lady of Letters' And Provoke Both Humour And Sadness In The Audience.

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Kate Healey  21st  Century Drama

How Does Alan Bennett Reveal The Speaker in

‘A Lady of Letters’

And Provoke Both Humour And Sadness In The Audience

Miss Ruddock is an ordinary middle-aged woman. The room in which we see her is simply furnished and there is a bay window’

However basic these opening stage directions to ‘A Lady of Letters’ may appear, they do in fact hint at the dominant theme of the monologue, loneliness.  Alan Bennett uses stage directions minimally yet effectively throughout, on stage the actions speaking equally as loudly as the carefully chosen and structured words.

The fact that Irene, the protagonist, is middle-aged and still a ‘Miss’ hints at the idea of her being a lonely person, and in addition the ‘simply furnished’ room physically displays the isolation Irene feels.  With this lonesome atmosphere established it could be expected that the ‘Bay window’ would be a refreshing opening to the outside world, from which Irene is clearly cut off.  However instead, it acts as a barrier making Irene a prisoner in her own home.

The dramatist’s use of a monologue is an effective vehicle for conveying loneliness, and clearly reflects it, as is alone on stage, the intensity of the focus is on Irene, and this allows her character to be developed and revealed fully, with a feeling of intimacy created with the audience. The character is speaking to them directly in the mode of a soliloquy, engaging the audience to the maximum.  In using this form the playwright also creates audience/actress interaction, with the viewers playing the role of the confidant, and the speaker confiding in them, becoming the friends that are lacking in the speakers life.

One of the many things Irene reveals to the audience is the death of her mother, the only person to provide her with a sense of belonging.

‘My mother knew everybody in this street.’

This then brings the audience to realise that it was this bereavement that triggered Irene’s obsessive letter writing, and that she subconsciously adopts this obsession as a means of gaining contact with the outside world, as well as gaining some kind of recognition. However in some instances her constant strive to be acknowledged accentuates a selfish element in her character. And, for example in the quotation below she sees the ramp as a monument to herself, not as an achievement for the disabled people whom it helps.

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‘Whenever I pass I think,’ well, that’s thanks to you Irene,’ My monument that ramp.’

 However Bennett does also use phrases like this to strike a desperate note in Irene’s character. Furthermore his use of mimetic language and reported direct speech bring the dialogue of others into the monologue, so that the audience can see Irene’s world in more detail, provoking both sadness and pity in them.

Irene consciously confides the loss of her mother to the audience.  However Bennett discloses more about both Irene and her personality through what she says unconsciously, using ellipses and non-sequiturs to make the ...

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