Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

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Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

How does Alan Bennett reveal Doris’ character, life and attitude in the dramatic monologue “a cream cracker under the settee”?

Many of Bennett's characters are unfortunate and downtrodden, as in the Talking Heads series of monologues that was first performed at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1992, and then transferred to television. This was a sextet of poignantly comic pieces, each of which portrayed several stages in the character's decline from their initial state of denial or ignorance of their predicament, through their slow realization of the hopelessness of their situation, to a typically bleak Bennett conclusion.

The dramatic monologue, “a cream cracker under the settee” is from that group of six. It is from the point of view of an elderly lady called Doris, who is insistent that the world of her time is much better then the present. She dwells on the past and tells of how things were back then, and how it has changed for the worst. She had fallen while cleaning a picture of her husband Wilfred and most of the monologue is from Doris sitting on the floor in her living room where she fell. Her attitude to the modern world is that it used to be better then it is now, this also shows why she is disapproving of her home help, Zulema, who had not cleaned the picture in the first place.

Throughout the play Bennett reviles Doris’ character by showing her affection to the past, she talks to old photographs of her dead husband, Wilfred, and talks aloud to him. This indicates Doris’ apparent loneliness and how she feels “left behind” by the rest of her generation. When talking about the people she new in the past like Wilfred, she takes on there voice, this shows how she...

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...e says it is and sends him away, “police man: are you alright? Doris: No. I’m all right.” This shows how Doris would rather die then loose her independence as she does not want anyone to think that she cannot take care of herself. This also shows how she has worked herself into a state of mind where she cannot allow herself to give in to the hardship of old age, and refuses to except anyone’s help, this could also be because she is embarrassed about the situation she has got herself into.

At the end of the monologue the last stage directions are “light fades” this shows how they are suggesting that Doris’ life has come to an end and she has given up, you can also take this view from her last line, “never mind. It’s done with now, anyway.” This leads us to the conclusion that Doris has given up, and knows it is time for her life to end, and that it is “done with now”.

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