The world that Alan Bennett forms in his series 'Talking Heads' - page 1
Keywords: The world that Alan Bennett forms in his series 'Talking Heads'
By crazy legs on 18/11/2006 18:15:48
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
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The world that Alan Bennett forms in his series 'Talking Heads'
In Alan Bennett's 'Talking Heads', he concentrates his monologues on showing us the negative aspects of life. These might be disabilities that many people might have to deal with later on in life and he also make us take pity on those that do have to struggle every day with their disability whilst coping with the 'hardships' that we have to supposedly 'endure' during everyday life as 'normal' people.
The first monologue in the series 'A chip in the sugar', deals with a very simple, middle-aged man called Graham. We get to see that Graham lives alone with his mother and we can guess that Graham has a large number of mental illnesses. This could be an explanation for his unusual relationship with his mother that becomes evident when he says 'Give me your teeth. I'll swill them'. We see that Graham is ill in some form when he comments on the Doctor Chaudhury congratulating him on, 'Full marks, Graham. The best way to avoid a broken hip is to have a flexible mind. Keep up the good work.' This shows he could be having psychiatric help from a doctor.
It is almost as if the two people change places and Graham looks upon himself as the 'parent figure' in the family who worries about his mother. He especially worries about the happy and 'fulfilling relationship' that his mother has with Mr Turnbull, who says that he does not believe in mental illness, so this implies that he believes that Graham is a 'waster'. This is a very common view during the 1980s and I believe that Alan Bennett is speaking through the eyes of somebody that has personal experience of this. People during the 1980s did not understand mental illness as fully as we do today and the people at this time may have felt slightly threatened and scared of not understanding it.
The next monologue which shows the negative aspects of life is 'A lady of letters', with Irene Ruddock as the main character. Miss Ruddock has a letter writing obsession and in them uses old-fashioned language to disguise her own prejudices, fears and the fact of her loneliness. Like many of the characters in 'Talking Heads', she has a strange viewpoint that seems due to her loneliness and her basic attitude toward people which
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