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Bennett makes us want to ask many questions. “It is such a silly thing to have done.” This makes us want to know what she has done, and what is silly. Bennett uses everyday experiences. “I should never have tried to dust.” This is good, as nowadays people can relate to the quotation. Doris is an interesting character, she is old. “Doris is in her seventies.” The means she can tell us all about the 20th century.
Bennett’s play ‘A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.’ (A Cream Cracker) is a monologue. Monologue is a Greek word, mono, meaning one and logue, meaning to speak or talk. Doris is a character in her seventies, and the only speaker in the play. Advantages of this are, you get to know the character - Doris - very well, this makes the play easier to follow, also with just one speaker more interesting stories can be told. But having one speaker could also be a disadvantage, this is because the play relies heavily on one performance, which after a while could get tedious. Bennett employs the technique to make the play more interesting, it helps us to understand more.
Bennett puts other speakers in the play. “Well Zulema, how is she coping?” and “I don’t want to hear that you’ve been touching the Ewbank.” Bennett uses different speakers so the play isn’t just one old lady talking and it doesn’t get boring. Bennett uses unusual language. “You don’t have to swill the flags.” This makes the play sound more realistic as you can relate to it. Bennett uses different length sentences. “What you don’t understand, Doris, is that I am the only person that stands between you and Stafford House” this is a long sentence showing Zulema, a much younger woman than Doris, bossing her about in her own home, “home hindrance.” This is a short sentence showing Doris complaining about Zulema.
One of the issues Bennett highlights in the script is that people don’t care about appearances anymore. “Them’s her leaves” is a quotation to show this. I know people don’t take into consideration what front gardens look like. Also people didn’t use to take other peoples feelings into consideration. “The midwife said he wasn’t fit to be called anything and had we any newspaper?” Doris wasn’t cared about and didn’t even get to see or grieve for her baby. Doris had no visitors. “Don’t know anybody round here now.” This shows nobody cares about Doris, and people that do visit don’t stay for long, and don’t really want to visit Doris.
During the last sentences of the play Bennett shows us that the play is pessimistic. He shows this by Doris dying on her own, and that no-one cares about the old people in society any more. Also Bennett shows the end of the play as optimistic. Bennett shows this by Doris’s choices. When the policeman asks if she is alright her response was “No. I’m alright.” This shows that Doris’s 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 tells us that Doris has given up, and knows it is time for her life to end, and that it is “done with now”. But also Doris dies with happy memories of when she was younger “I was little on baking night, I sat in front of the fire with my long hair still.”
Is the play boring and pointless? Some people think it is, whereas some don’t, my opinion is that no, the play isn’t pointless because it has taught us that people just don’t care about the elderly anymore, or that people don’t care about appearances anymore because their gardens are a mess. Is the play boring? My opinion is yes, on the surface it is. But no, I think the play has a deeper meaning as there is always something happening in the play.
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