A Lady of Letters

How does Alan Bennet present modern society in the monologue ‘A Lady of Letters’ and what do we learn about its effects on people through the character of Irene Ruddock? Alan Bennet shows society as split in two. He shows the divide in age between society and the generational conflict that holds the generations apart. Irene Ruddock hides herself away from society because she doesn’t understand it. She reacts badly to things she finds …

…society comes under deep scrutiny when Miss Ruddock is imprisoned with, what she would call, lower class women. Ironically Miss Ruddock finds herself having the time of her life, with the kinds of people she would have complained about, and even hated before. The fact that the jailed women accept her without question shows us that the only people who think of society as divided into classes are those people who inhabit the higher class.