Outside Dog Poem

In ‘The Outside Dog’ Alan Bennett fastidiously explores some of the obscure predicaments that marriages face. In all of Bennett’s monologues he eloquently uncovers many of the glitches and hegemonic stereotypes that society has to deal with. In ‘The Outside Dog’ Bennett discloses many themes within marriage including how far will a partner go in order to protect their loved one ?, and the question of ‘Love or infatuation’, are they still together due to their long and happy years so far or is it more to do with the intimacy and the feeling of being looked after, fed and having your laundry done for you. Marjory is a previous school teacher who has submitted to becoming a normal housewife where she is looking after her Husband and their pet
‘It was me that trained Stuart. Me that trained the dog.’ Marjorys position is very similar to Janet from the ‘Playing Sandwiches’ monologue. This is a theme that is exploited throughout Bennetts monologues, the idea of women having to play a mother figure as well as a wife role to their partners due to their lack of maturity. ‘I said I’ve got him trained.’ In traditional marriages women were confined as the housewives who cook, clean and do the laundry. ‘In those days keeping a clean house was the be-all and end-all.’ Bennett expresses his own views on marriage when he was a child growing
Grahams dependency on his mother and Bernard’s dependency on Miss Fozzard. Within these monologues it can be argued that there were signs of derogatory towards women which was very common in the 1980’s as women had very little women power and were disregarded by men. ‘I said to him why don’t you do your washing at a cultivated time’ He said ‘you’re lucky I do it at all!’ not much respect there as a ‘married couple’. As one of the police officers referred to Stuart as Marjory’s ‘hubby’ this is a term mainly used by younger adults or students, meaning an unofficial relationship or just a