Studying Two Alan Bennett Monologues
Introduction
A monologue is a play with a single performer. The word monologue is
of Greek origin and comes from mono-logos. Mono means 'word of one
person' and logos means 'voice' hence monologue, 'one voice'.
Alan Bennett's work is impressive and his understanding of
characterization is second to none. He has an ability to capture the
life- styles and backgrounds of the characters he creates. The
language of each character brings forward clichés that can be humorous
although in my view this might not have been always intentional.
In carrying out my research I found an article in The Times Newspaper
where Alan Bennett recognized that although he calls this work a
series of monologues they could be plays. In fact, two of his
monologues have been lengthened to enable them to be performed in the
theatre.
The article also stated that they could, equally well, be called short
stories, for although none has a conventional short story
construction, each has a plot, of sorts. It is a measure of Bennett's
skill with language, that all of the scripts establish detail, plot
and development of character.
A Lady of Letters
Patricia Routledge was cast in the BBC production to play Irene
Ruddock, a middle aged woman who writes letters.
We soon discover that what she regards as her public responsibility
has in the past turned into libel.
As a result legal action has been taken against her and she has been
bound over to keep the peace by a court for writing invasive and
offensive letters to her neighbours.
Irene Ruddock is a lonely and sad woman. The death of her mother had a
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...nd she instead concentrates on the fact that:
"Her mother was blind, but made beautiful pastry and she raised a
family of nine in three rooms."
Another example of this is Irene's friendship with the pyromaniac
Shirley,
"She shouldn't actually be in here in fact, she's not all there, but
there's nowhere to put her. Apparently she sets fire to places…she's
got a good heart."
Alan Bennett makes 'A Cream Cracker under the Sofa' dramatic by
raising your hopes about Doris's chances of being saved, but the
audiences' hopes are dashed when she tells the police officer she's
ok.
Summary
Monologues written and directed, as were both "A Cream Cracker under
the Sofa'/'A Lady of Letters' provide audiences with thought-provoking
drama. I enjoyed watching and studying in detail Alan Bennett's
monologues.
new age they began to forget how times used to be as the people from
pity in the reader by reflecting on the traumatic childhood of her father, and establishes a cause
Louise Mallard has not yet heard the news of her husband’s death. As the news is revealed to her she went into a state of unhappiness, and she had a hard time “accepting the significance” (463). She “wept at once” with “wild abandonment” and the “storm of grief” (463), passed over and she went alone to her bedroom with no one to follow her. The author describes in the previous sentence that the storm of grief has passed over her,
First came the pride, an overwhelming sense of achievement, an accomplishment due to great ambition, but slowly and enduringly surged a world of guilt and confusion, the conscience which I once thought diminished, began to grow, soon defeating the title and its rewards. Slowly the unforgotten memories from that merciless night overcame me and I succumbed to the incessant and horrific images, the bloody dagger, a lifeless corpse. I wash, I scrub, I tear at the flesh on my hands, trying desperately to cleanse myself of the blood. But the filthy witness remains, stained, never to be removed.
In the poem “The Double Play”, the author uses metaphors, words, and phrases to suggest turning a double play in baseball is like a dance. Some words throughout the poem could be used to connect the idea of a double play being like dancing. One word that could suggest this is, the word used “poised”, “Its flight to the running poised second baseman” (12). Poised in this sense could mean that the player knows what he is doing and has mastered the double play, while a dancer can be poised meaning light and graceful. Another word in this poem that relate to a double play and dancing is the term “pirouettes”, “Pirouettes / leaping, above the slide, to throw” (13-14). The player is described to be doing a pirouette in the double play while in the
Through life, we often lose someone we loved and cared deeply for and supported us through life. This is demonstrated by the loss of a loved one when Esther's father died when she was nine. "My German speaking father, dead since I was nine came from some manic-depressive hamlet in the Prussia." (Sylvia Plath page 27.) Esther's father's death had showed that she was in need of a father figure for love, support and to act as a model for her life. Esther grew up with only the one influence of a parent, her
I walked into the room on New Year’s Day and felt a sudden twinge of fear. My eyes already hurt from the tears I had shed and those tears would not stop even then the last viewing before we had to leave. She lay quietly on the bed with her face as void of emotion as a sheet of paper without the writing. Slowly, I approached the cold lifeless form that was once my mother and gave her a goodbye kiss.
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
..., a loss that everyone can either sympathize or empathize. However, instead of focusing on the pain and heartbreak of not having a mother, the narrator instead takes strength in the fact that her mother is connected to nature. Although her mother is not physically in her life, her body has, instead, been buried in the ground like a seed. This brings the narrator solace because at least her mother’s essence will always be present as long as there are trees, grass, and animals.
Most women in Mrs Mallard’s situation were expected to be upset at the news of her husbands death, and they would worry more about her heart trouble, since the news could worsen her condition. However, her reaction is very different. At first she gets emotional and cries in front of her sister and her husbands friend, Richard. A little after, Mrs. Mallard finally sees an opportunity of freedom from her husbands death. She is crying in her bedroom, but then she starts to think of the freedom that she now has in her hands. “When she abandoned herse...
This poem is a firsthand account of how Anne Bradstreet was feeling when she experienced the loss of her granddaughter, Elizabeth. Although Bradstreet's attitude on Elizabeth's death seems to reflect her belief in God's plan, the diction suggests otherwise.
She would not have grieved over someone she did not love. Even in the heat of her passion, she thinks about her lost love. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked safe with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. Her love may not have been the greatest love of all time, but it was still love. Marriage was not kind to Mrs. Mallard, her life was dull and not worth living, her face showed the years of repression.
Robert Browning frequently wrote dramatic monologues to enhance the dark and avaricious qualities in his works. Browning's use of this particular style is to "evoke the unconstrained reaction of a person in aparticular situation or crisis" (Napierkowski 170). A poem may say one thing, but when mixed with dramatic monologue, it may "present a meaning at odds with the speaker's intention"(Napierkowski 170). This change may show the reader more insight into the poem without directly stating the underlying facts. The reader is allowed to "isolate a single moment in which the character reveals himself more starkly" (Napierkowski 171). Browning's use of dramatic monologue "disposes the reader to suspend moral judgement" (Napierkowski 171) causing a haughtiness to hover over many of his works.
Although “The Grave” seems to be about two children playing in their grandfather’s grave, it is actually about the realization of gender roles, coming of age, and mortality. Katherine Anne Porter wanted the reader to look beneath the surface of the story to find the many different underlying meanings. The main character Miranda is faced with the cold hard truth that life isn’t always sweet and pleasant as she watches her brother kill and skin a pregnant rabbit.
In Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “Fra Lippo Lippi” we as the readers are presented with a lot of background information about the speaker itself. This monologue overall subjects a monk/painter of Renaissance Italy. I find this monologue very interesting because of the fact that Browning uses sarcasm and witty personality in his favor at the beginning of the poem. The trait of the authorities being overzealous in the monk’s eyes is what charms the beginning first half of the monologue. For this writing assignment, I will analyze specific lines of 1-60; I believe the monk reveals a lot about himself as a character in the very first half of the poem which is why I find this of significance. While analyzing these specific lines, I will also describe how these lines help us as readers better understand this character in question.