A Cream Cracker Under The Settee

"How does Alan Bennett use language, structure and form to infulence the audiences response to Doris in 'A Cream Cracker Under The Settee'?'

'Talking Heads' was a series of short plays for television, all of them were were written by Alan Bennet and most of them featured a solo female character. Alan Bennet has been qouted as saying that he wrote this particular play for Thora Hird exclusively.

The play uses themes of changes. Changes in society and how older people react to them. Often concerning the idea of diginity in old age to further push the message of his plays further.

The play focuses on the emotions of an older dear called Doris, she has lived a long life, and reminisces on it for the entirety of the play. The television verion of the play has long full face shots, which is quite odd compared to most television. This aids impact my removing all distractions and drawing the viewers attention in. Some people may find looking at a withered old person quite awkward, but this lends to the power of the film and the message, it also helps convey the direct emotions of Doris.

Alan Bennett weaves an intricate wed of emotions in the play, rising from lows to highs and most stops in between. This reinforces the kind of life Doris would of had, and also takes the reader or viewer on an emotional roller coaster.  Emotions are a good way to get your point across and connect with your audience. This is demonstrated especially on the television adaption with Thora Hird choking up on the "He wasnt dirty, little thing'' line.

The first we hear from Doris is that she has fallen and possibly broken her hip, whatever the situation, she can't move without pain. She feels stupid and old because of this, and this makes the reader feel pity. She also refers to herself in the third person "Oh you've done it now Doris'' perhaps indicating her lack of someone to talk to. The audience should feel pity for Dorist at that moment. Her accident came about through her own doing, so this probabally adds to her embarrasment.

Doris seems to have a poud, almost obbsessive, streak to her when it comes to cleaning. This is her rebellious side which crops up several times, Alan Bennet is implying she may that she is old but she is not going to let her standards drop, perhaps a nod to old age senility, from her being alone?

Even though the rebellious side is perhaps easier for some to cope with than the fall, it still adds to the pity from the audience, She appears to live alone and has to struggle to clean which is quite possibly the one thing that keeps her going and has now suffered the consequences, She is feeling silly and sorry for herself, or so the writing implies. 

It is worth noting the language used in these sections, it would seem to some people to be 'outdated' or 'old', which of course Doris is - she uses terms that may not of been used for years, her guilty pleasure was the Ewbank, a roller cleaning device, which she is 'forbidden' to use by Zulema. Zulema is her hired help who is there to clean and look after Doris, however Doris believes Zulema is picking on her, and is lazy at her job.

Doris would have most probally been in pain and upset, but Alan Bennett chooses to add more anger, resentment and even humour into the proceedings the firsts of which comes in the form of the lazy carer, Zulema.

Doris seems to feel intimidated and hateful towards Zulema who has forbidden her from cleaning, whoants her in a home, and wants her to sit back and be a normal old person. Doris doesn't want any of that. She lashes out at Zulemas standards and even accuses her of "half dusting" surely a shock to the audience who may not have realised just how quirky Doris is.

Alan Bennt utilises quirky old ladies in a couple of his plays. "A Lady Of Letters" is another play of his, and centres around a seemingly harmless, well spoken old woman who is thinking (out loud, as Doris does) about all her complaint letters. The woman appears to be harmless untill the true obsessivness of her 'crime' - to give away the ending - is revealed. This happens with Doris too, her character is slowly built up untill the climax of the play. The woman in "A Lady Of Letters" is almost a polar opposite of Doris in nearly all senses, and her twisting plot can get quite a shocked reaction from the audience.

The next character to be introduced is Doris' late husband, Wilfred. Alan Bennet uses his character almost like an 'invisible friend' for Doris, and she still speaks as if Wilfred is there with her - for example; "We're cracked now Wilfred". That line may seem weird to some people, but it helps them to understand that she still holds on to her past and youth. This can be quite insightful to some members of the audience.

Doris has a distinctively northen accent, which is reinforced even more by Thora Hird in the television version of the play. The accent also accommadates for the use of 'older' words and expressions - such as "Spending a penny".

The (quite humorous in delivery by Thora Hird) "spending a penny" section is interesting because Alan Bennet leans slightly towards social problems in his writing at that point. Doris doesn't know who her neighbours are or what they are up to. Neither did the woman in "A Lady Of Letters". So Bennet has now covered, age, social and next - historical issues.

The historical issue is Doris' child, and perhaps to an extent her cleaning obsession. This is another 'sad' moment of the play as Doris' And Wilfred's child was deformed and died at birth. This upsets Doris very much, and Thora Hird portrayed such by quavering her voice.

"The Midwife, wrapping him up in newspaper as if he was dirty. "He wasn't dirty, little thing.": this is a very powerful line in terms of language, using the simple term of 'dirty' opens up a whole lease of emotions, it harks back to peoples views of birth defects at the time, so this is also a historical issue and shows Doris' age (which is never confirmed in the play).

Even though Doris' baby never really 'lived' she still feels a strong maternal instinct which would tug at the heart strings of many of the audience, especially the mothers.

Doris displays many different emotions when she thinks (out loud, of course) about Wilfred and the baby. WIlfred seemed to be in denail about the baby's death and instead chose to take up hobbies. Wilfred asked Doris to get a dog, which many people would view as a 'replacment child' - a strong emotional image. "I don't think he minded. A kiddy. It was just the same as the allotment and the fretwork. Just a craze.". Maybe deep down Doris' knows that Wilfred did care, but there is nothing she can do now. Maybe it was just Wilfred's way of dealing with the grievance.

As the end draws near, the end of the play and sadly Doris' life, Doris has "immigrated" in her own words to the front door, to summon help. This is when she has a revalation that they would put her in the dreaded nursing home of Stafford House if they found her. She doesn't want to go there to "smell of wee" she wants to die in her nice clean bed, with dignity.

A policeman comes and asks if she needs help, and Doris (quite shockingly for the audience) chooses to say no and die alone, a shocking thought for many. At first her decision may not be apparent, but once it has had time to sunk in, you can see that Doris wants to end her life with the dignity she has left. Not at some horrid nursing home.

Throught the play, blackouts and music are used to simulate time passing, for example Doris suffling between the living room and the door, however nobody quite knows how long these blackouts are meant to signify, so she could of been on her own unable to move for a day or more.

As for the title of the play, while on the ground Doris' discovers a Cream Cracker (suprisingly) under the settee. She thinks she can use this as evidence against Zulema, it is a shame that she would never get the chance.