A Lady of letters, is a monologue written by Allan Bennett. He wrote about a lady by the name of Irene and in this monologue Irene is a lady of letters meaning she loves to write letters. In this assignment, the differences between the way in which she perceives her life and the way in which we, the audience, interpret her narrative will be discussed. Also, the devices that Allan Bennett uses to emphasis the gap between what she wants to believe about her life and what we tend to conclude about her situation will be identified. .
Irene sees herself as a very respectable middle- aged woman with standards and morals which she needs to keep. She thinks that she is a useful member of the community and people really give her their respect.
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"Any way I had a charming letter back from the director of operations, a Mr Widdop. He said he was most grateful I"d drawn this matter to his attention and, while he was aware the practice sometimes went on, if he personally caught anybody smoking he would jump on the culprits with both feet. He knew I would appreciate that discipline within the chapel precincts presented special problems as it wasn't always convenient to tear a strip off somebody when there was grief-stricken people knocking about." (p44).
We the audience think that Irene is very annoying. Instead of making people happy she makes them very annoyed, with her biased and stereotypical views. She keeps writing letters about things that do not really matter to no one and about people's business which does not concern her.
"Only this time it's a policeman, with a woman Policeman in tow. Ask if they can come in and have a word. I said, "what for?" "You know what for." I said, "I don't," but I let them in. Takes his helmet off, only young and says he"ll come straight to the point: was it me who"d been writing these letters? I said, "what letters?" I don't write letters." (p49).
"It turns out it's to do with the couple opposite.
