Characters Contribute to the Dramatic Effect of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads

802 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Differences in gender essay

"Talking heads" by Alan Bennett is a collection of monologues in which the audience are showed into the life of a character and given an insight into the character's personality and situation. People's lives are portrayed in comic ways leaving the audience feeling sympathy and guilt for the character in laughing at their misfortune.

In the play a Chip in the Sugar Alan Bennett shows us a life of a very unconfident man who still lives with his mum. Graham is a middle-aged man with a history of mild mental health problems, living with his mother in Leeds. He is an absolutely stereotypical Guardian reader he wears flares, avoids deodorant, is environmentally conscious, likes date and walnut bread, and is very anti-Thatcher. It is also hinted that he is a closet homosexual. His life is dramatically disrupted when his mother, who he is effectively "married" to, meets her old flame Frank Turnbull after 52 years. Turnbull is bigoted, right-wing, and racist the opposite of Graham but he is also well-dressed and well off. Graham's father presumably died in hospital Graham refers to doctors "wheeling him into the theatre". Graham becomes increasingly jealous as Mr Turnbull takes an ever-growing hold on Mrs Whittaker's life, to the extent he proposes marriage simultaneously suggesting Graham moves out of the house to a hostel. But Mr Turnbull is hiding a secret, and when Graham finds out he gets the courage to confronts his mother with the information, restoring the status quo and his comfortable life but destroying her hopes of happiness in the process. It seems like Graham has been seriously traumatized as he will not leave his mothers sight which is very unhealthy for a 52 year old to be doing. This play is not only based on graham and his relationship with his mother but it is also based on the different emotions shown within the monologue such as fear which Graham shows a lot of as he is constantly scared for his mother so this causes him to treat her like a child. There is also much anger shown towards the man that his mother is in a relationship with not only because he doesn?t trust him ,but because he wants to be the only man in his mothers life as he has been sic kingly close with his mother since a being a young child and she is always saying to Graham ?

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Gary's House By Debra Oswald

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    With only four characters in the play, each of these individuals plays a vital role in each other’s lives. Gary and Dave are juxtaposing characters in the play, with Christine and Sue-Anne being the other two. Prior to their first meeting, Gary was hardworking and determined, a classic Aussie tradie striving to build a house on a block of land he inherited from his passing father in hopes of providing a future for his unborn baby. Dave however, is quite contrasting in comparison to Gary. Dave is known for being laidback and lazy, playing a passive role. Despite not revealing much about himself, Dave is socializes well with the rest of the characters with c...

    Read More

  • Characteristics And Imagery In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

    281 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout the passages, Laurie Halse Anderson establishes the Central Idea through the use of Characteristics and Imagery, revealing that the loudest words are the ones that aren’t spoken.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Rev. Barbee's Blindness'

    379 Words  | 1 Pages

    dialogue, he paints a beautiful picture as he speaks and tells a story that gets everyone

    Read More

  • Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many of Bennett's characters are unfortunate and downtrodden, as in the Talking Heads series of monologues that was first performed at the Comedy Theatre in London in 1992, and then transferred to television. This was a sextet of poignantly comic pieces, each of which portrayed several stages in the character's decline from their initial state of denial or ignorance of their predicament, through their slow realization of the hopelessness of their situation, to a typically bleak Bennett conclusion.

    Read More

  • Bennett's Characterisation of Graham in A Chip in the Sugar and Irene in A Lady of Letters

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bennett's Characterisation of Graham in A Chip in the Sugar and Irene in A Lady of Letters

    Read More

  • Belonging In The Play 'Rainbows End' By Jane Harrison

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    The play focusses on three generations of Women, Nan Dear, Gladys and Dolly and where they felt as though they belonged. Nan Dear knew where she belonged and that was the humpy in the flats with her daughter and granddaughter. Nan Dear knows that she won't be accepted into white society just because she is an Aboriginal and those of a different colour or foreign country weren't accepted. Gladys and Dolly both wanted to be accepted into white society, they wanted to feel as though they belonged there.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparison Essay

    1365 Words  | 3 Pages

    In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s, women are expressed as powerful people, but there are also women who are submissive to men. Women are held to the expectation of men as sex objects, but to society have the expectation of being virgin and wholesome. “...spinning his tale on how it would be, with all the men scared and all the beautiful young girls panting after me.” (Kesey 187) These whores have been placed into the role of appeasing men, and doing what men want. This outlines how women are treated as objects. “‘A woman like this. A cheap! Low! Painted-’ ‘Courtesan’” (Kesey 266) In this situation Billy took advantage of Candy, and the

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Graham Write From 'Clover'

    269 Words  | 1 Pages

    The author of the passage “Clover” describes Graham Write as a character that likes to interact by telling them about his life outside of school. His unique interaction with his students allow the students to better understand his personality. Every Monday Graham Write tells the students what new renovations he has done to his home. For example, he has been telling the students about an old mirror that he wants to take down; he then tells the students that he finally got to take it down. The students respond with clapping and cheering

    Read More

  • Alan Bennett's Monologues as Dramas

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alan Bennett's Monologues as Dramas These plays are written for TV rather than theatre and are experimental for different styles of acting with more emphasis being placed on the single actors face. This is in order to show subtle changes in expressions hopefully giving the viewer a more clear insight into the characters feelings. This is more appropriate for "A Cream Cracker…" as it is a moving story, which is portrayed, even more so in the subtle movement of Doris's face "Cracked the photo.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Six One Act Plays

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hard Candy is a one act comedy about hiring practices for Banff Enterprises. It is set in the offices of employment at Banff Enterprises. The interesting part of the play is that every character that applies and gets hired takes over the job of the previous interviewer. I found it to be a very humorous play that deals with interviewing tactics and inter-office dilemmas. The only real main character is Linda the secretary who is the only continuing character throughout the entire play. Every other character is only in one or two scenes. In the beginning of the play Linda, the secretary, is very jovial and excited, but as time and the play go one she becomes more and more depressed until she just doesn’t care any longer and kills the manager at the time. She is an interesting character that personifies so many of the people in the work force. Then the applicants/managers range from a variety of personalities. There is the original manager who was in a fraternity with the first applicant, Bob. Therefore Bob got the job with no experience and no skills. Bob, the next manager, interviews Cindy who is a insanely intelligent woman. She knows forty eight languages and has eleven degree’s. Bob tests her knowledge and in the end hire’s her. It goes on with interviews from a slacker, to a man who bribes his way into the job, a take-charge woman, a sexy man, an oddball, a military freak, and finally a shy young teenager, Jill. Jill is the one killed in the end by Linda. The secretary in the end, after the death of Jill, takes over the company and begins to change the "corruption" of Banff Enterprises. All in all, a very entertaining play.

    Read More

  • Communication In A Note On A Marriage

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    The audience sees through staging and conversation between the two main characters that the communication of modern relationships

    Read More

  • Laertes And Ophelia's Monologue

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare’s use of monologues between characters is particularly impactful, it allows for the discussion of complex emotions. In a monologue between Laertes and his sister Ophelia he says, “Virtue itself’ scapes not calumnious strokes.”(Shakespeare

    Read More

  • The Effect of Soliloquy in "Wit"

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    A soliloquy is a literary device most popular among playwrights. A character conveys his/her thoughts and feelings without speaking to any of the other characters. In the play Wit, the author, Margaret Edson, employs the soliloquy as a tool used to demonstrate the feelings of the main character, Vivian Bearing, who often breaks the fourth wall in order to speak directly to the audience. Margaret Edson uses the soliloquy to give Vivian Bearing a chance to express how she is feeling and what she is thinking throughout the play. By using the soliloquy Margaret Edson manages to invoke sympathy, rather than pity, in the audience towards the constant struggle that Vivian faces. Rather than merely watching Vivian suffer through her painful ordeals, they are subjected to vivid recollections of her suffering as she exposes her thoughts to the audience.

    Read More

  • The Style of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads

    477 Words  | 1 Pages

    Bennett states in his introduction that "forms....dictate themselves" and that material demands to be "written in a particular way and no other". Each of the characters, according to the author has a "single point of view" and none is "telling the whole story". He says that his characters are "artless" and "don't quite know what they are saying". It is true that this is so. We, the listeners, can make conjectures about all of them. Graham's ambiguous sexuality, Susan's alcoholism and Muriel's perverted husband are not revealed directly through any statements made to us. They are hinted at by what is left unsaid or by what is obliquely inferred. In a very real sense, though, this is true to life and Bennett cleverly constructs each monologue to be as realistic as possible. In speaking to an inanimate object - the camera - each character is, so to speak, alone. The audience is not "there", as far as the speaker is concerned. Better still, the camera is like a hidden priest in a confessional. Each person is able to speak quite frankly to the anonymous listener. If we make judgements we have no means of interaction. This is not a two - way process of confidential gossip, for none of the characters expect a reply. Bennett lets his characters reveal themselves openly and we are left to form our own opinions of them. He calls the style "austere" and so it is, for there is no authorial decoration of expression. What each character actually says is all we are given to work on and we must sift the inner meanings for ourselves.

    Read More

  • Comedic Relief within Macbeth

    1908 Words  | 4 Pages

    Muir, Kenneth. "Comedic Relief." Bloom's Guides. Ed. Jaynce Marson. Broomall: Chelsea House, 2004. 46-47. Print.

    Read More

More about Characters Contribute to the Dramatic Effect of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads

Open Document