they also often ended in an sad and sometimes shocking way. In A Cream Cracker Under the Settee Alan Bennett has addressed the issue of elderly people in our society...
Cream Cracker Under The Settee is a dramatic monologue written by Alan Bennett in 1987 for television, as part of his Talking Heads series for the BBC.
The reason...
manufacture and sale of biscuits and coffee mix. Its products include cream crackers, crackers, marie biscuits, sandwiches, cookies, and assorted biscuits as well...
that means less than matchsticks and spread caviar on their cream crackers."[1] This was reflective of the time. It was the decade of the blockbuster and Hollywood...
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 is desperate for company and misses them.
The whole play is set in the living room and hall of Doris’ house because she has fallen when attempting to dust an old photograph. She has an obsession with cleanliness and hygiene and does not believe that Zulema does a good enough job....
I think you've got some great analytical language like "forfeiting her independence" and "the hardship of old age" but tend to tell us the story too much. Assume the reader knows the text. Also, watch out for simple spelling errors "loose her independance" etc. Overall, though, you have excellent knowledge and express your ideas in an original way, delving deep into the meaning of what you are analysing. 'Making something of nothing' as they say. You focus on the symbolism of quotes which gives the reader an insight into Doris' forth comings and feelings. Very well done :)