How does Bennett explore the ordinary, uneventful Essay Example

of life is dramatic irony and self-revealing irony, for example, the character Leslie in Her Big Chance talks highly of her film and gives it great importance, however through dramatic irony we have come to realize that it was only a cheap 'porn' movie thus undermining its significance, and the director ignoring her opinion subverts her values and beliefs, revealing how desperate her character is, as a result we (the audience) believe that she has become accustomed the starring in pornographic movies.

Leslie's perpetual repetition of 'professional' suggests her attempt to embellish events in order to give it some sort importance and significance in order to make it sound 'eventful' to contrast it with her 'dull ordinary and uneventful' life. On top of this, Bennett uses the monologue structure to force the characters (without self-awareness) to talk to us as if we were counselors which shows a form of desperation. In real life, we wouldn't bother going to counselors unless we had problems ie. , feeling desperate about certain things.

Furthermore, monologue structure allows for self-revealing irony which also reveals loneliness as well as desperation. In Bed Among the Lentils, the character Susan reveals to us that she's an alcoholic because she doesn't understand why the woman at the shop didn't smile at her when she 'spends enough'. Because the character Susan is an alcoholic we begin to see her problems and realize that not only is she lonely, but she is also desperate, sexually deprived, as a result she seeks sexual satisfaction from Mr. Ramesh.

Moreover, Bennett also explores the uneventful life through loneliness which is also brought forward by the character's large appetite for self-absorbed gossips.

The character Susan constantly gossips to us (the audience), about other characters such as Mrs. Shrubsole because she thinks is better that others and thus more intelligent. Therefore, the character Susan feels 'trapped' because she is too educated and is trapped by her intellect. The fact that they are 'talking in their heads' emphasizes the point that they are 'trapped'.

The character Susan sees the absurdity of the lives of her society but cannot escape it, because she is not able to use her powers of analysis in her mind, trapping her as she in controversial in her mind. On the other hand, other characters are not as educated because they use cliche s which could be Bennett's device to indicating how dull and uneventful life can be for there is no sense of originality. The character Mrs. Ruddock in Lady of Letters also gossips but in a different form, she is not intellectual enough to carry analysis in her head as she often uses cliche so she can bring the ideas across to our heads easier.

Instead, Mrs. Ruddock writes letters to occupy her uneventful life and loneliness is expressed through her quote 'it's been a real friend', where she personifies her pen as being a friend. This can also be interpreted as a form of self-revealing irony as she doesn't have any friends and is lonely, forcing her to write letters in order to keep in touch with the outside world. Furthermore, it can be said that Mrs. Ruddock's sense of loneliness has led her to become prejudiced, which in turn led to insanity. The character Mrs.

Ruddock has imagined events in her head and wrote

malicious letters to fill her pointless life, she gave the lollipop man a 'nervous breakdown' and accused the couple opposite her of abusing the baby when instead the baby died of leukemia. In the end, Mrs. Ruddock finds happiness and content in the prison when she is removed from society, she has found a better use of her letter writing skill to help her inmate. Throughout Talking Heads, there is a constant repetition of 'go to black' which illustrates the point that there is no 'life' in the lives of these characters and darkness can also symbolize despair.

Often, when we have no hope there is no future and everything becomes black and things start to become desperate, only when we have hope will everything become bright, people often associate the sun as the symbol of hope. Moreover, black also symbolizes the dullness of life, and shows the dullness of the lives of the characters, the character Leslie, without knowing is trying to exaggerate things so that it is not dull. Bennett explores the theme desperate by making Susan a pathetic character, we often feel pathetic for characters who are desperate.

In Talking Heads, Susan is not a tragic hero because she suffers in silence and never realizes her goals as she challenges society only in her 'talking heads'. Her change in appearance represents her attempt to conform to the expectations of her society. Mr. Ramesh represents both her 'zenith' and 'nadier' in that he rescues her from her trap of alcoholism but then abandons her to the habit of Alcoholic Anonymous and the tedious routine of her life. Indeed her clothes symbolizes the pathetic nature of

her supposed transformation, she is just as trapped at the end as she was at the start.

Because she showed us her dream but never pursues it, this makes her pathetic and not a hero. There are many ways in which Bennett explores the different aspects of life, but the most important one is dramatic monologue as other devices such as self-revealing irony would not have been used if the story is not a monologue, subjective and biased. Bennett is also able to explore the different aspects of life by the title, Talking Heads, the only reason things only take place in your head is because you're lonely.