A cream cracker under the settee

Dramatic monologue is a variation of lyric song in which the character expresses his/her emotions, actions, feelings or motives. It is written to reveal the situation as well as the character.In striking monologue, a single speaker who is not the poet utters the poem at a critical situation thereby adding sagacity to the character. In fact, we come to know about the myriad aspects of the character by listening to the speaker. This was developed during Victorian era and Robert Browning perfected this form.In the dramatic monologue A cream cracker under the settee, Alan Bennett puts forrard his views on the societys treatment of the sr. and the consequences thereof. He accomplishes this by describing an elderly ladys view of the institution and her l unmatchedliness.The play starts with Doris, the elderly lady sitting on the floor of her living room. She has fallen raft while cleaning the photo of her late maintain Wilfred. She strongly believes that the world of her time is mu ch better than the present. She feels that populate of her time were cleaner and more than responsible than the people of today.This shows why she disapproves her domestic help, Zulema, who had not cleaned the photo in the first place. She enjoys her old memories and the lovely time she had with her husband as give the gate be seen by the way she talks to her dead husbands old photographs. This besides shows that she is lonely and misses company.She feels she is left behind by the people of her generation. This loneliness can also be attributed to the lack of self-understanding and the understanding of opposites. through with(predicate) the entire play, Doris attempts to alienate herself from the so-called corrupt society of today.Doris has a unequivocal obsession with cleanliness. In her younger days, she had forbidden her husband Wilfred from taking up any hobbies that could be messy. When they were younger, they had a tyke that died during birth.The nurse had wrapped the baby in newspaper, which according to Doris was dirty. This reveals that she did not want her child, even though dead, to be associated with anything dirty. She is really concerned about what her others would say if she is not spotlessly clean.This can be seen when the leaves from the next door blow into her garden and she says I ought to put a sign on the gate, not my leaves. She was scared that other her neighbors may not think high of her hygiene and so she asked her husband Wilfred to concrete the garden so that it would be easier to clean.While Doris is on the floor, she looks at her spousal relationship photo and talks to her husband about her loneliness and how she was happier in her days. Her triumph in her younger days could be due to various reasons and one of the important reasons would be the total independence and the ruler of the roost that she enjoyed. She also laments about the need for home help now. This is why she disapproves of her home help, Zulema.She cannot repeat that she needs Zulema because that means she is forfeiting her independence. She feels that she is not dependent on Zulema for anything. She gets very fussy when Zulema tells her youd be better in Stafford House. Stafford House is the local old age peoples home.Though Zulemas intentions were right, she said that because she treasured someone to take control of Doriss life, Doris felt that as an irreverence into her independence. According to Doris, Stafford House represents domination by others and the acceptance of her dependence on someone. She cannot accept her own inability to support herself physically.This yearning for independence is very evident when a policeman comes to check on her. The policeman asks her, are you alright? Doris replies, No. Im all right. This also reflects that she has gotten herself into a mindset which makes it difficult for her to accept the hardships and difficulties of old age.