The Creation of Sympathy for Dorisin in Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

The Creation of Sympathy for Dorisin in Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

A monologue is a method of telling a story using only one person. This

person may be talking to themselves or to another group of people,

telling them an event or story, a discussion, or what is going to

happen. They may also comment on their thoughts and feelings during

that moment.

Bennett chose to use a monologue with Dorisin 'A Cream Cracker Under

the Settee' where Dorisspeaks to herself. She is talking in an empty

silent house to and she has no one else to speak to. Bennett has

particular parts of the monologue that make us feel more sympathetic

for Doris than others. Near the beginning, Doris is portrayed as an

out of touch, slightly mad old woman. The perspective of Doris is

changed from being a laughable character to feeling sorry for Doris

when she says, 'I sat for a bit looking up at me and Wilfred on the

wedding photo. And I thought, 'Well, Zulema, I bet you haven't dusted

the top of that. I used to be able to reach only I can't now.' We now

realise that Doris is quite incapable and also that she feels sad that

Wilfred has gone. This quote also shows that Dorishas shrunk in size

due to old age; this helps us to further develop our image of her.

Another part we feel sympathetic for Doris is 'The policemen comes

past now and again anyway. If can catch him. Maybe the door's a better

bet. If I can get there I can open it and wait while somebody comes

past'. This shows us that Doris wants to be rescued but as we see a

while later in the monologue she won't ask for help because she does

not want to be moved to an old peoples' home. She believes that all

her memories with Wilfred are linked with Stafford House and she still

believes that she is very capable of looking after herself. This makes

us think that Dorisis stubborn and unwilling for a change which again