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Javiera Carrera
Professor Carola Oyarzn
LET1346 Drama
October 1, 2015
Monologues and their importance in The Caretaker
Into The Caretaker can be found many elements that form part of the play and work
together as a whole, as for example the space, silences, and determined objects and their
importance to the characters. Besides them it can be easily found some themes that keep
appearing during the play, as family, loneliness and race, which is why in this report will be
explained the importance of some of them in the final monologue of the second act, in which
Aston tells his story, using for it direct quotations from the play.
The play takes place in London close to 1950s, into a room full of things and to which
Davies goes to live for a while with Aston. One day, Aston recommends a caf to Davies, which
he used to frequent, and after that, his mind goes back in time to explain us and to Davies what
happened to him.
He used to talk with people in that caf and in the factory, because there people used to
listen, whenever I had anything to say. But the same time he started to have hallucinations, or
what looked like it to him which caused him to be taken to a hospital, where after his mother has
permitted the hospital, they started doing an electroshock treatment to him as therapy, making
him have since then problems walking and thinking, as he expresses: my thoughts had
become very slow I couldnt think at all I couldnt get my thoughts together
uuuhh I could never quite get it together.

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At the beginning of his monologue is known the loneliness that he felt, this need that did
him go to places with unknown people, to whom he could express whatever he wanted to,
because they listened, and for him they understood, this isolation with the world, or this lack of
engagement with society is shown throughout the play with the miscommunication between the
characters and their impossibility of being out without feeling safe. At the end of the monologue
he recognizes that he should be dead, but that now he is feeling better, even though he does not
talk to people now, giving us again this feeling of isolation and division from the world.
The family also plays an important part here, showing the absurdity in which his mother
just accepts the electroshock treatment in him, something that he explicitly ask her not to; but
also family is seem as a burden (the way in which Mick feels this necessity to protect Aston) and
as something positive, with the thought of Mick living together with Aston without having to
think about it, and the smile that they share almost at the end of the play.
As was stated before, this play has many important elements and themes which can be
read and interpreted through its pages and dialogues; some of them were presented here, in a very
brief way, into a monologue given for one of the characters, showing that these themes that keep
appearing during the play can be seen in each part for separate and in the whole. Isolation and
family were the themes presented, but during the play there are many glimpses of the importance
of race for Davies for example, which can be seen in detail and give us more information about
the character and his behavior.