Alan Bennett Essays

  • Alan Bennett Talking Heads

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alan Bennett Talking Heads In Bennett's monologues the main character faces an important decision which will affect the course of their lives. I will go on and explain in this essay, the play writer's use of literary techniques - including setting, theme and characterisation- which may make the decision seem correct or not. Talking Heads was originally produced for BBC television but has recently been used as a collection of short stories. Each of the characters portrayed, is played by an

  • Studying Two Alan Bennett Monologues

    3094 Words  | 7 Pages

    Studying Two Alan Bennett Monologues Introduction A monologue is a play with a single performer. The word monologue is of Greek origin and comes from mono-logos. Mono means 'word of one person' and logos means 'voice' hence monologue, 'one voice'. Alan Bennett's work is impressive and his understanding of characterization is second to none. He has an ability to capture the life- styles and backgrounds of the characters he creates. The language of each character brings forward clichés

  • How Alan Bennett Explores His Themes Through The Presentation Of Characters In Talking Heads

    1615 Words  | 4 Pages

    Alan Bennett presents his characters in Talking Heads by writing the plays in the form of monologue. By employing this technique he has managed to create a rich and detailed World in which his stories unfold but, he only allows us to see it through the eyes of a single narrator. When reading a play that is presented in this manner it is possible to lose sight of the fact that you are only getting one person’s version of events and you may start to believe that you are having conversations reported

  • Alan Bennett's The History Boys and Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    To What Extent Do You Believe that The History Boys and Love's Labour's Lost are Satires on Attitudes to Scholarship? In The History Boys and Love's Labour's Lost, Shakespeare and Alan Bennett both satirise scholarship to various degrees. Love’s Labour’s Lost overall is more satirical; however, there is also an obvious element of satire in The History Boys. In Love's Labour's Lost, Shakespeare heavily satirises education and the pompous nature of some of those who consider themselves scholarly

  • How Is Miss Ruddock’s Terrible Loneliness Conveyed In Alan Bennett’s

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    Terrible Loneliness Conveyed In Alan Bennett’s A Lady Of Letters? Miss Irene Ruddock is an ordinary middle-aged woman who lives on her own. She was close to her mother who had recently passed away. Miss Ruddock has no real friends and finds it difficult to fill her time so she is often sitting in her chair, looking out of her window and noting what is going on in other people’s lives. She has no social life and she only leaves the house when she has to. Alan Bennett shows Miss Ruddock’s loneliness

  • The History Boys by Alan Bennett

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    ‘The History Boys’ can only be ‘merely’ a farce to a certain extent; the use of shocking events juxtaposed with the facetious tone used to create the farcical elements Bennett utilises throughout the play, indicates a underlying polemic message that holds several different implications to the reader. Bennett uses farcical elements, although not exclusively, in the play. The comedic device of stock characters is exploited to the farcical subgenre, with them being created to provide the material

  • Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alan Bennett's A Cream Cracker Under the Settee How does Alan Bennett reveal Doris’ character, life and attitude in the dramatic monologue “a cream cracker under the settee”? 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

  • An Analysis Of The Play 'The History Boys' By Alan Bennett

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his drama ‘The History Boys’, Alan Bennett utilises comedic factors to play incongruent to the serious matters of the play. The playwright (Alan Bennett) specifically creates comedic scenes and improbable moments in the classroom to challenge and, ultimately influence the student’s perception and viewpoint of serious matters. Michael Billington regarded the play as a ‘deep-wrought and immensely funny play about the value and meaning of education’1 and the character of Hector orchestrates this

  • Isolated and Marginalized Characters of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    Isolated and Marginalized Characters of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads All the pieces in Alan Bennett’s collection deal in some way with people who are isolated or marginalized, either because of circumstances or because of their own idiosyncrasies. Every character is, in some way inadequate. Graham is a mother's boy, whose dubious sexuality seems to have caused him severe mental stress. Susan, the vicar's wife, is an alcoholic woman, trapped in a loveless marriage, whose caustic intolerance of

  • Alan Bennett-writer of these monologues was born in 1934 in Yorkshire

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alan Bennett-writer of these monologues was born in 1934 in Yorkshire but spent most of his adult life in London. Alan Bennett-writer of these monologues-was born in 1934 in Yorkshire but spent most of his adult life in London. Although he was aware of two cultures much of his writing reflects the northern characters and views of his youth and the British way of life. Bennett called these monologues accounts of "ordinary, uneventful, desperate lives." Sometimes called "gossip as Drama"

  • Pride and Prejudice Versus Marriage and Tolerance

    1328 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen reveals a sparkling comedy of love and marriage, wit, form, and feeling that achieve some type of balance between pride and prejudice.  Mr. and Mrs. Bennett illustrate how comic characterization can be used to reveal different marital situations.  Pride and Prejudice shows many aspects of marriage and demonstrates how one can make the most of their life regardless of the circumstances.  Elizabeth and Darcy have discovered themselves through

  • The Scope of Woolf’s Feminism in A Room of One’s Own

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    reviewed, critiqued, and analyzed since its publication in 1929. Arnold Bennett, an early twentieth-century novelist, and David Daiches, a literary critic who wrote an analysis entitled Virginia Woolf in 1942 (Murphy 247), were among those to attempt to extricate the themes and implications of Woolf’s complex essay. The two critics deal with the often-discussed feminist aspect of Woolf’s essay in interestingly different ways. Bennett states that Woolf’s essay is not a feminist work, rejects the idea

  • Comparing Bennett's Hamlet with Branagh's Hamlet

    2348 Words  | 5 Pages

    in both interpretation and method, however they also have marked differences in their respective approaches to the text. Perhaps the most obvious difference between these two versions is that Branagh uses the full unabridged text whereas Bennett cuts the play down by an hour or so; Kenneth Branagh justifies his use of the full text on the BBC's website stating: "When you cut the play ... what often happens is that you compress a lot of very intense set pieces and it becomes unbearable

  • Spinoza's Philosophical Psychotherapy

    3128 Words  | 7 Pages

    techniques for guarding against the passions by turning to Jonathan Bennett's criticisms of Spinozistic psychotherapy. Bennett finds three central techniques for freeing oneself from the passions: (i) reflecting on determinism; (ii) separating and joining; and (iii) turning passions into actions. Bennett believes that all of these techniques are in some sense flawed. I contend that Bennett offers good criticism against technique (i), but his criticisms against (ii) and (iii) are unfounded. I. Introduction

  • Sullivan vs. Bennett

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sullivan vs. Bennett The two texts examined within, present the opposing extremes of views regarding gay and lesbian marriage. The first text entitled Let Gays Marry by Andrew Sullivan examines the intricacies of same sex relationships and why homosexual couples should be allowed to publicly show affection for one another. The second text that will be examined is titled Leave Marriage Alone written by William Bennett. Bennett gives his views on why couples of same sex nature should not be allowed

  • The Character of Doris in 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee' by Alan Bennett

    3369 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Character of Doris in 'A Cream Cracker Under the Settee' by 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

  • Aesthetic Music Educatin and the Influence of Bennett Reimer

    2159 Words  | 5 Pages

    An explicit concept since the late 1950s, aesthetic education first developed to provide a strong philosophical foundation for music education and continues to evolve as a solid theoretical orientation for current effective practices. Bennett Reimer has contributed much to the discussion and development of the value of aesthetic education for the teaching and learning of music. Others in music education also support and promote these ideals and focus on developing an improved understanding for music

  • Pride And Prejudice - Point Of View

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Marry For Love The point of view of a novel usually decides which characters we sympathize with. In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennett is the focal character, which causes the reader to feel closest to her. The reader can relate more easily to her feelings and actions, and given that all of Elizabeth’s opinions on large issues are known and understood, the reader tends to side with her. By making the story from the point of view of Elizabeth, Austen is able to take advantage

  • He wont let us freak-dance

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lemoore principal Jim Bennett looked around the dance floor, he saw most of the guys dancing behind their dates, grinding their hips against the girls as the girls gyrated back against them. They were freak-dancing, which is how most people dance to hip-hop, but Mr. Bennett had always felt it was too sexual for a school event. "It's [the same as] foreplay," he says. During the last song of the night, a girl got on all fours and rubbed her butt against her date's groin. Mr. Bennett was horrified: That's

  • Behavioral Techniques in the Classroom

    2228 Words  | 5 Pages

    child’s behavior has worsened and the child is using vulgar language. Teachers, however, complain that students arrive at school lacking common courtesy and respect for authority. Because of this, instruction time is wasted trying to obtain order (Bennett, et. al., 1999). Student discipline is affected by classroom management. The way in which a teacher manages his/her classroom delineates the type of instruction that will take place in the classroom. A classroom in which the teacher takes total