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The History Boys is a play written Alan Bennett. It premiered on the 18th may 2004. The action of the play takes place in a all-boys grammar school in Sheffield, in the 1980's. It’s also important to keep in mind the fact that back then, England was under Thatcher’s conservative regime. The play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxbridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin and Mrs Lintott) with contrasting styles. The play doesn’t just follow the boys is education, it also talks about love and there sexual inclinations.
The writer's intention is to show the different opinions on education and the different ways of teaching.
The opposite ways of teaching are represented by Hector and Irwin. Missus Lintott is a middle ground between the two. Alan Bennett also shows us what the education was like in the north of England in the 1980's. The aim of this book is also to prove that you can succeed, even if you are from a working class background.
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“ Writer-marian did a very good job with my paper, she got straight to the point, she made it clear and organized ”
Bennett proves this with the fact that all the boys got in to either Cambridge or Oxford.
Alan Bennett was inspired by his life when he wrote this novel because in some way, he has lived a similar life as most of the students, especially Posner. Bennett went to Oxford University and also fell in love with a classmate. The character who epitomizes Bennett the most is Posner. The boys in this novel are all trying to find their way in life and getting into Oxbridge goes a long way towards achieving that.
The primary aim for all the boys of the class is to get into Oxbridge. It is more important to them than other students knowing the fact that they’re from a working-class background.
All of the boys live in Sheffield, where the school is. For them to be accepted at Oxford or Cambridge would change their whole lives. It would also change the dynamic of the school. On their route to Oxbridge, the boys are taught by two entirely different teachers. Irwin teaches them things they will need for the exam; his priority is to get them through the exams, while Hector, is much more interested about the general knowledge of the boys. Alan Bennett lets the reader make his own opinion as to which method is the best.
You may also read: Head Pupil Speech
It is the future of the boys, however, which is at stake, which is why, following their brilliant results, the Headmaster Felix decides chose Irwin. In this essay, analyze this quotation by Timms: “Most of the stuff poetry’s about hasn’t happened to us yet” while also considering the significance of finding our way in life. To do so, we’ll analyze two or three of the boys and two or three teachers. We will start Posner. Posner is a round homosexual character in this story. He is a shy sentimental boy who is pathetically into Dakin.
He always looks shy and sometimes is like a girl, the way he talks, the way he walks, and the way he looks at Dakin. He blurts out his atrocious life when he confesses to Irwin that he might be homosexual: “I'm a Jew... I'm small... I'm homosexual... and I live in Sheffield. I'm fucked. (p. 42)” Says he. Maybe this is because his love to Dakin is not responded. He is truly in love. Everybody tells him that it is only a phase and the pain will pass « Scripps: Oh, Pos, with your spaniel heart. It will pass. Nevertheless, he doesn’t want that phase to pass: Posner: “Yes, it's a phase.
Who says I want it to pass? But the pain, the pain. (p. 81)» Though the way he looks at his life is miserable, he is smart and thoughtful. He can grasp all the things that has been taught by his teachers even he can memorize those materials well. He is the next Mr. Hector who will pass the parcel, one day. Besides, his analysis is amazing, including his analysis of his life. He only has not found the answer for every question he has. As said previously, Posner is a very important character in this novel, he is a copy of Alan Bennett. Some might even say he becomes a copy of Hector.
In fact, that is not very surprising, especially when you look at what Missus Lintott says about him: “ (…) of all Hector’s boys, there is only one who truly took everything to heart, remembers everything he was ever taught… the songs, the poems, the sayings, the endings; the words of Hector never forgotten(p. 108)”. Unfortunately for Posner, his life didn’t quite go as well as he thought it would. In fact, he ended up living a similar life to Hector’s; it’s easy to draw a parallel between the two characters. Of all the boys, he ends up being the one living the most precarious life.
We know that “he lives alone in a cottage that he renovated himself, has an allotment and periodic breakdowns. He haunts the local library and keeps a scrapbook of the achievements of his one-time classmates and has a host of friends… though only on the internet, and none in his right name or even gender. He has long-since stopped asking himself what when wrong. (p. 108)” Here we could compare him to Hector when he says asks himself: “What made me piss my life away in this god-forsaken place? There’s nothing of me left. (p. 65). ” So, we could say that Posner is a sort of anti-hero.
He was an avid follower of Hector’s philosophy and his failure to succeed in life could be seen as an indication that Irwin’s philosophy is perhaps more useful to get a job and live a nice life knowing that it concentrates more on diplomas. To support this idea, we could take Dakin, he became a tax-lawyer. He followed Irwin’s philosophy, even though he also had good general knowledge thanks to Hector. Dakin, who Posner was madly in love with, is the seducer, he is the Don Juan in his class and in the school. He is handsome, wit, and charming. He is the most complicated and mysterious character, I think.
He only shows what is on the surface. He is very provocative with the boys, especially when he brags about his sex life. He even uses an extended metaphor when he compares his sex life with Fiona with war conditions : “She’s my western front. Last night, for instance meeting only token resistance, I reconnoitered the ground… Are you interested in this? (…) I mean, not into it. But up to it. At which point the Hun, if I may so characterise the fair Fiona, suddenly dug in, no further deployments were sanctioned, and around 23. 00 hours our forces withdrew. (p. 28). ” Everything he does, he does without showing his heart but his wit.
He plans it carefully, then executes perfectly. Even Mrs. Lintott says that he is cunt-struck or sly. Instead of being bad or naughty like normal teenagers, he plays something more challenging. We can see it through his “love” story. Even though he has a relationship with Fiona, a school staff, he flirts with Irwin for he thinks that Irwin might be homosexual and would like to go out having some drink with him. Drink here is meant to be connotative. He might be a bisexual. And yet, he does that just for fun, just for saying thank to Irwin, and just for answering his curiosity about Irwin’s way of life.
Talking about his curiosity, he often raises trapped question that nobody can answer. Yes, he is very charming and smart. But that’s all we know. He is flat since he doesn’t involve us to his psychological aspect. It is interesting to notice that he is much more relaxed and confident with Irwin once he's certain of going to Oxford. When he asks him to do sexual things for example: “(…) what I was really wondering was whether there were any circumstances in which there was any chance of your sucking me off. (p. 99)» He is so confident that he feels somewhat superior to Irwin.
Especially since he admitted he went to Bristol. As said previously, Dakin went on to be a tax lawyer. We can say that he succeeded in life and that he found his way in life too. Then, finally, there’s Timms. He is the smart clown in the class. Every word that flows from his mouth sounds intelligent, precious, and funny even though he is not the main character. He is fat but very good at acting. He is another flat character but surely he completes the history boys with his presence. It is interesting to see however, that he is finally living life experience. Timms actually “takes drugs at the week-end. He can now understand poetry better. He couldn’t before as “most of the stuff poetry’s about [hadn’t] happened to [him] yet. ” This is part of finding your way in life. In this play, there are three teachers: Irwin, Missus Lintott and Hector. Irwin, the supply teacher, was hired by Felix, the headmaster, to get the boys through the Oxbridge exams and also to give the boys “polish” and “edge”. He is smart, creative, and motivating. As a young pragmatic teacher, he is expected to teach the eight candidates of Oxford and Cambridge with a non-conservative way so that they will impress the examiner of Oxbridge.
His way of teaching is somewhat contradictive and against Mr. Hector’s way of teaching. He is smart and he knows how to make them pass the exam. He asks the students to say something different, to find the thing that is uncommon in the society, to say the opposite, to find the other side. For instance, everybody agrees that Stalin is a monster, so he asks them to find descent, or anything to defend him. “The question in essay is about what you know, it is not about what you don’t know,” he says. He tries to eradicate the line of truth here, and it is very controversial in 1983 when the story takes place.
Ironically, actually Irwin also is not that smart. He knows the technique, but he is never good enough for anything. Irwin is ashamed to say he went to Bristol, he lets the Headmaster think he to Oxford. This shows the importance of the University you go to. It defines your career and your social class in a way. Then there’s Missus Lintott, the history teacher. She is a whip-smart, caring and motherly senior history teacher who is loved by her students. Her students call her tot or “tottie” which is very ironic because she is a big-bone woman.
Together with Irwin and Hector, she makes sure that the boys will pass the exam. She teaches history to the students as what inscribed on the books and hesitatingly lets Irwin shapes the mindset of the boys for she knows that the boys will not get the Oxbridge scholarship if they are still as innocent as the previous semester. Her biggest attention is given to the boys and their progress. She wants them to pass, but unlike the headmaster she is not a narrow-minded person that does anything, no matter what, to lift the name of the school by sending the students to Oxford and Cambridge.
She still respects the knowledge as it is. Hence, she debates the headmaster how best to serve their young charges. In this drama, she also brings the idea of feminism: «Can you, for a moment, imagine how dispiriting it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude? Why do you think they are no women historians on TV? (p. 84)” She is an outstanding woman teacher who can survive among hundreds of male senior high school students and many expert male teachers. She knows how difficult it is to struggle among men at that time. And finally, there’s Hector.
He is a round character since his psychological aspect is the most obvious thing wherever he is. Mr. Hector is a sixtysomething eccentric and poetry-loving teacher who inspires his students with the glory of English poetry and the joy of learning. He is lovable and appreciated by his students for his cultural enthusiasm and pure love towards literature. In the history class which only consists of eight brilliant students, he teaches General Studies. But somehow he believes that there is no such thing as general knowledge. He believes that knowledge is specific and unique like what A. E. Housman said which he quotes, “All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use. " No one denies that he is a great and brilliant man. However, there is a shocking fact that he is a homosexual and couldn’t keep his hand from groping his teenage male students’ genital when he gives a ride to anyone of them. His students never complain about it, they just laugh behind him, it didn’t affect them in any way: “... as he dropped you at the corner, your honour still intact (p. 77). ” They just laugh and nothing more. No one expects that this thoughtful man has a complicated life.
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He has unhappy and unhealthy marriage, but he wraps it up with the poetic sentence and thousands of quotations. He never shows his feeling openly until Felix warns him that as a teacher, he betrays the holy of education system by doing improper thing on his motorbike. His sadness and being rejected feelings are revealed when he explained Drummer Hodge to Posner. Once, he regrets his miserable life. Yes, Hector’s life is a paradox which will always be a great war inside her heart. Indeed, he is a round character since psychological aspect is the most obvious thing wherever and wherever he is.
He stands between two different worlds and pathetically he becomes the bridge that connects the two worlds. Hector even suggests that things were better for him before he knew “what poetry [was] about” when he quotes William Shakespeare:” finish good lady the bright day is done and we are for the dark. ” This might suggest that the boys too, could be better off without knowing what poetry’s about. Those three teachers will all help the boys in their quest to pass the Oxbridge exams. But finding your way in life isn’t just passing exams and getting a good job as Hector rightly points out:” "And what happens after the exam?
Life goes on. " Finding your way in life is also finding the right woman or man and knowing more about yourself each day. In my personal opinion, finding your way in life is also going from thinking to living, from theory to practice. So as we have seen, there are a two opposite takes on education but there is a common aim: to protect students against the miseries of life. Each student followed the the vision of education he thought was best. Some students like Dakin preferred Irwin’s philosophy because he thought the professional aspect was more important than the cultural and the ideological aspect which Posner privileged.
I guess this play’s message is : “choose what you like and what you feel is more important. Nowadays, that question is still asked to students, implicitly, when they have to choose which university to go to. The popularity of this message in the play is evident from the fact all the intrigue of the play is based around the question of: Will the boys pass the Oxbridge exams? This shows the importance of finding your way in life but it also reminds students of today’s society how important it is to find the right path.
Finding Your Path in Life: Significance for in The History Boys. (2020, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/history-boys-consider-significance-finding-way-life-relation-characters-play-new-essay
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