How does Bennett create sympathy for Doris Essay Example

is cracked it can no longer be used.

As Doris tries to lift herself up she says "This must be what they give them they frame things for." When she says 'they' she means the people at Stafford's house the old people's home. "They" give the old people at Stafford house Zimmer frames and throughout the story, it slowly sounds like Doris needs one. "If I can catch him... If I can get there I can open it and wait while somebody comes past." This seems very unlikely because she is unable to move her legs. The repetition of the word 'if' suggests that there is no future for her. Doris is a very lonely person, her husband is dead and the only person she talks to is Zulema. At first, she knew Mr. and Mrs. Marsden then it became the smartish woman and then just folks.

She no longer knows any of her neighbors and she doesn't have any visitors. The only person who comes to her house is Zulema who is sent by the council; Doris does not have any friends or relations. She does not get any letters addressed to her and her first thought is it's a leaflet "What is it? Minicabs? 'Your roof repaired'?" The post turns out to be a leaflet advertising a carpet sale at the chapel. She only gets bills and advertisements, which shows that she is lonely.

Throughout the monologue, Doris is waiting for somebody to come and help her but nobody apart from a policeman at the end actually talked to her and she has no "Bona Fide" visitors coming to see her personally she doesn't have anybody

coming who actually comes to see her. Doris feels that she can no longer fit into society. Throughout the monologue, Doris keeps going back to her past and talking about her baby that didn't get born when she had a miscarriage. They bought a pram and then didn't have the baby "You were proud of your pram... At that price, Doris? This is the chance of a lifetime".

Wilfred is always thinking up plans and looking to the future. Wilfred had a lot of unfulfilled plans. He wanted to get a dog but "we never got one either." "We can be self-sufficient in the vegetable department... Never materialized." Doris' life is full of unfulfilled plans and looking to the future but there now isn't much future to look to. Even just after the child has died Wilfred says "it's better just the two of us... talking about getting a dog." He undermines himself when first he says that it's better just the two of us but then talks about getting a dog. If they get a dog it's no longer just the two of them.

It seems to me that Wilfred sees the baby as just another craze. The baby doesn't even get a funeral but Wilfred doesn't even seem to mind. Zulema is the person supposedly sent to look after Doris but she has no respect for Doris "You can't run anywhere. You're on trial here." "I am the only person who stands between you and Stafford House." Doris fears going to Stafford's house "they all smell of pee" and Zulema is hostile towards Doris.

"Dusting is forbidden." Zulema is saying this as if Doris has committed

some sort of crime. Doris says that she'll get Zulema reported for the cream cracker that Doris found under the settee "Don't Stafford House me, lady... I've only got to send this cream cracker to the Director of Social Services and you'll be on the carpet, but it's clear that Doris will not do this because she is too fearful of Zulema. Doris calls it the "Zulema Regime" it sounds as though it is like Hitler and it's a dictatorship. Zulema seems very domineering. "You don't understand Doris you're not up to date." Zulema seems to be saying this to Doris as if she is a child and doesn't deserve her respect.

"The Ewbank is out of bounds." This also implies that Doris is being treated like a child. Bennett uses several visual images to create sympathy towards Doris. Doris after her accident spends most of her time "sitting on the floor" very helpless.

It shows that she takes a long time to move from one place to another because of her accident by the change in time of day at one point it is the middle of the day when she is lying by the door and then there is a pause and she is on the armchair but it is dark outside which shows that she has taken along to get there. When she is lying by the door she is sitting under the letterbox and a leaflet falls on her head. She closes her eyes which shows that she is tired and in pain. Doris uses colloquial language throughout the monologue like "nought" and "buffet" rather than formal the monologue is very conversational. The

good acting skills in this monologue help it work.

Although I prefer other ways of telling a story I still think that it works quite well. In a Monologue the relationship between the actor and the audience is very personal; you feel that the actor is talking directly to you. In the end, it seems that she has given up, she would rather die than go to Stafford's house.