A Cream Cracker Under the Settee. Alan Bennett

The melancholy of life, death and old age, are one of the many issues dealt with, in Alan Bennett’s heart-rending tale. It tells the story of an isolated, fragile, elderly woman, who feels ensnared in a modernised society in which she strives for her sovereignty and prominence. In a culture where the old are forgotten, neglected and depicted as useless. ‘A Cream Cracker Under The Settee’ seems to be the perfect title of the play as the double entendre epitomizes this remarkably. In addition, another reason for the dramatic piece being called ‘A Cream Cracker Under The Settee’. Is because a cream cracker was indeed found under a settee in the play, this makes the title rather ironic. As the title in many ways also symbolises the character of Doris as she is depicted as a lost soul, abandoned, waiting to be found and cared for. Throughout ‘Cream Cracker’, the protagonist: Doris, speaks to an unseen audience, this could be seen to be another allegory used to signify the title of the play. As although the audience is unseen to Doris as ‘the cream cracker under the settee’ is unnoticed, this may be used to indicate that although the object is concealed, this does not make it any less important than the objects that are perceived.

Doris as a tragic woman confides her anguish and despondency in the spectators, placing, yet involving the audience into the position of a voyeur, or an eavesdropper, in which they are given an insiders’ view of the protagonist life. The stream of consciousness of the narrator in which, her revealing herself unwittingly to the viewer suggest, an invasion of privacy, as the audience are shown the events within Doris’s life which have caused her great suffering, self-destruction, and distress through references to past experiences, hence becoming drawn into the tale of the protagonist, as the audience becomes more responsive to Doris, as dramatic tension accumulates within the play. The tragedy of the poignant downfall of Doris is further