History Boys (random quotes and notes) Essay

QuotesHeadmaster Why atomic number 18 you dressed as a milk man? Shows lack of understanding for the boys who are in a working classHeadmaster There Clever besides they lack Crass. Ms. Lintot They chicane there stuff. But they Lack Flare.Hector All Knowledge is useful even if it doesnt serve the slightest needHector Its the hot Ticket HappynessHeadmaster I thought of going. But this was in the 50s. Change was in the air. I was a Geographer. I went toHeadmaster Odity- Rudge.Posner Ill Go sir Hector Nevermind.Irwin Has any one been to Rome, Venince.So why botherIrwin I dont know, I wold go to newcastle, save the money and be happy.Irwin Whats truth got to do with it.Ms. Lintot Cunt Strunct, Compound adjective.Hector At to the lowest degree im doing better than felix.Posner Although he laughs the laughs on me.Rudge What fun must you all haveDakin Lititure is about loosers.GobitsPass the parcel thats all sometimes you can do. Take it feel. non for me non for you.HeadmasterThis Is no time for poetryHeadmaster Are you going to tell your wife.Posner is the only one who attends his lesson after four.Posner is the only one who goes up to mr hector when he is crying.Dakin Is that the subjunctive or theIt will passWho says I want it to passWhy dont you all just tell the truth.Ms. Lintot History is a commetary on the various and continuing incapabilities of menRudge Its just one fucking thing after a nonher. If they the likes of me and they take me thusly theyll take me because im dull and ordinary like everybody else.Irwin Dont you ever want to go back? Im non clever enough, im not anything enough really.Hector What I didnt want was to turn out boys who would get hold of In later biography to have a deep love of literature.Has a boy ever made you unhappy? They used to do. See it as an Inoculation, Rather. Briefly painful, but providing immunity for however long it takes. Given the occasional Booster, Another Face, another reminder of the pain, It can last you half a life time. Love. Who could love me? Do they know? They know everthing? Dont touch him. Hell think your a full.Dakin How come theres such a difference between the way you con and the way you live?Dakin Hectors a Joke- Irwin No, He isnt, you see?Dakin, whats the difference between Mr. Hector touching us up on the bike, and your feeling up fiona.Posmer Im not happy, but im not unhappy about it.Skrips No. Love Apart, It is the only education worthy having.Id been on bring inground duty, so I saw him on what must have been his first morning Here, Scripps takes on the role of a narratorIRWIN He was a good man but I do not think there is time for his kind of teaching anymore. SCRIPPS No. Love apart it is the only kind of education worth having.Timms seems to suddenly step outside of time and sayThe hitting never hurt. It was a joke. None of us cared. We lapped it up. This sudden switch into the past tense comes as a surprise, and may prompt the audience to wonder whether Timms is addressing them directly, from some future time in which he is looking back at the events being contend out.The intrusion of future knowledge into the linear narrative of the play continues to cast a shadow over events, and becomes darker as the story progresses. At the start of scrap 2 for example, we see another flash-forward, this time by about five years. Irwin is in his wheelchair once more, which tells us that his accident will be soon, and not in the more distant future as we may have first thought, increasing the sense of urgency and inevitability. In this future time, Irwin meets one of the students, identify only, to begin with, as Man. This label also expresses the passing of time with its contrast to boy, the term used in the title of the play and throughout to describe the students. This Man is Posner,perhaps the most fragile of the boys, who is now in therapy and desperately clinging to his past. He says of university All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left.While Irwins fate is foreshadowed throughout, the fate of Hector comes as a tragic surprise. It is important to consider why it is Mrs Lintott who takes this role of ex post facto narrator. Like Scripps, she has been an outsider, describing her separation from the male environment of the play in her metaphor They kick their particular stone along the street and I watch. given them a deeper perception of time and its patterns.The total timescale of events described within The History Boys can therefore be seen to encompass about twenty years, but Bennett incorporates a practically wider period by showing the historical and literary influences acting upon the characters. The classroom setting allows Bennett to use intertextuality freely to achieve this. This technique involves the reference of other, previously pen texts within the play.Thomas Hardys Drummer Hodge, for example, is used to symbolise the connection between Hector and Posner Posner How old was he?H ector If he was a drummer, he would be a young soldier, younger than you probably.Posner No. Hardy.Hector Oh, how old was Hardy? When he wrote this, about sixty. My age, I suppose This prompts a moving sermon about desolation and isolation. Hector can relate to the loneliness of the poem, being around the same age as Hardy was when he wrote it, and feeling a sense of unfulfilled ambition, of a life not lived. For Posner, a teenager dealing with his homo familiarity in a school full of heterosexual boys, the loneliness of Drummer Hodge, a boy not much older than himself, is deeply affecting.Are seeing a play from the early 21st century, set in the 1980s, employ a poem from the 1960s describing 1914.messages of the play that we can take in from times beyond our own lives through the literature left scattered through the decades and centuries, in what Hector describes as a game of pass it on. Rudges ironical rendition ofIts a Sin by the Pet shop class Boys (1987) also comments on t he inevitable presence and role of sexuality and sin in education.http//yr13practise.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/the- archives-boys/The History Boys therefore moves far beyond the ab initio restrictive time and space in which it is set to bind together influences from across the 20th century and before. This goes some way to explain the title itself the boys, through their teachers and education, are moving into their future with history having become a fundamental part of their characters, personalities and lives. As the fateful accident is set in motion, Scripps notesAnd here, history go over the pointsTo continue this train metaphor, Alan Bennett has not only presented the interchange station of the boys transition from school to university, but the long lines of railway that stretch backwards and forwards beyond it.my education at school was confined to what I needed to pass exams.WomenThe representation of women is seen through the very few female characters in the play. -Benne tt presents espousal as a confinement of social experience vs being central to a happy ending. -Both Hectors unexpected wife and the Mrs. Headmaster are absent from stage. -Glimpses of this marrige are represented as unhappy.-Both wifes help out at the charity shop-Hector clames that his wife would not be intrested in his fiddling of boys on the pillion is Dorothys deduce that Mrs Hector had sort of known all along about her husband and that A husband in a low light, thats what they want, these supposedly trusting wives, the mans lukewarm attentions, just what they married them for. So, far from submissive, Hectors wife has, arguably, some control in her marriage.Fionas Relationship with Dakin Bennet explores the sexual stereyotype that women are used as objectsrather This is epitomized by Dakins statement that Im hoping one of the times might be on the hear floor its like the Headmaster says one should have targets Dakin accentuates the relationship between sex and education as he notes the importance of measurable targets in pursuing Fiona. comic upheaval of youth dominating age which again emphasises Fionas role in heightening male dominance.-Dakin compares sexual advances with Fiona and the advances of the British soldiers in the war. Fiona is depicted as his Western Front, a territory to be taken, and, more alarming, the enemy, the Hun her body is ground to be -depicts Fionas subservience and reaffirms her character as elevating male sexual accomplishment -degrades womens role in society to be solely focused around pleasing men.Mrs.Lintott She controversially comments on history as being a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men condemns the arrogant Dakin as cunt-struck. She harnesses the derogatory male language of female cloistered parts to derogate men, calling the Headmaster twat -to go further down the same proscribed path, a condescending cunt Bennett uses the character of Mrs Lintott to presentment the Headmasters idiocy in the first scene in which she appears on stage. He believes the boys need to Think charm. Think Polish. However, Dorothys ironic response compares his idea of education to a sprig of parsley ,and subversively the Headmasters appearance on stage becomes the centre of the audiences mockery. however, Dorothy is, like Scripps, given a role as omniscient and perspicacious onlooker and observer of events over time she satirically comments on society, stating they are Pillars of a fellowship that no longer has much use for pillars. further criticise masculine ineptitude as she demonstrates the unfulfilled outcome of the boys future as a issuing of the masculine approach to teaching. The comment that Dakin likes money,ironically denotes the value of an education focused solely on achieving targets. -self-absorbed behaviour of the male characters-However, Bennett excludes Mrs Lintott from the educational debate andpresents her without any vantage point on it -male dominant so ciety that men are always in positions of influence and for a man to be inferior to a woman is inconceivable. The maestro is concerned with superficial targets,Hector believesall knowledge is precious and Irwin is chiefly concerned with originality and practical uses of it.Who are the History Boys? Dakin The Stud Scripps The Conscience Posner The Lover/Poet Rudge The Working curse word Akhtar The Ethnic Minority Crowther The Lip Timms The Class Clown Lockwood The Soldier meanss of Class Headmasters (BA Hull) snobbery Theyre clever but theyre unrefinedCulture they can get from Hector, History they can get from you They need polish. EdgeI want to see us up thereRepresentations of precept Styles Mr Hector (General Studies) Life Lessons Mrs Dorothy Lintott (History) Subject teaching Mr Irwin (Oxbridge) Exam boosters The Head Master ResultsAll knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use AE Houseman We wont be examined on that, Sirhappiness Question What is education for?Teaching Style Irwin Modern classroom of glass and plastic, bare walls, functional Id go to Newcastle and be happy Fox, UK15. Intertextuality as Commentary Noel Cowards Brief Encounter Thank you for coming back to me Drummer Hodge Thomas Hardy A saddish life. though not unappreciatedUnkissed. Unrejoicing. Unconfessed. UnembracedRepresentation of Gender Historys a commentary on the continuing incapabilities of men (Lintott) Five centuries of masculine ineptitude cf The utter randomness of things (Lintott) Question How are the masculine and feminine represented in The History Boys18. Schools as sexual sites Fisher et al Sites of sexual opportunity, tautness and competition Reinforced by popular culture, peer support Dominance of heteronormativity manly environments homoeroticism of The History Boys19. Representation of Sexuality 1 Representation of Male Adult Sexuality The transmission of knowledge is itself an erotic act (Hector) This is a school and it isnt normal (The Headmaster) A grope is a grope (Lintott)20. Representation of Sexuality 2 Representation of Male Adolescent Awakening Dakins conquest Scripps faith Posners in-love21. Representation of Sexuality 3 Dakins mesmerism of Irwin Irwins response Question What do you think of the representation of male (homo)sexuality in The History Boys?22. Learning Styles Mr. Hectors stuffs not meant for the exams. Its to make us more rounded human beings (Timms) Weve got the most important exam in our livesWere just sat here interpret literature (Lockwood) Hector produces results but unpredictable and unquantiableTheres inspiration, certainly, but how do I quantify that? (The Headmaster) Lying works (Dakin to Irwin) He was a good man. But I dont think theres time for his kind of teaching anymore (Irwin on Hector) One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and te ll them (Lintott)Bennetts presentation of marriageEducationIntetextuallityAnalysis of women shovinism