The Interview Scene

In the interview scene the teachers are preparing the boys for their interview to get into University. On page 84 Mrs Lintott is discussing women’s role in society and her feelings about how women are put in second place after men. Timms says ‘It’s not our fault, miss. It’s just the way it is’ Timms suggest that it has always been a patriarchal society and he is in no hurry to change that as it has become the norm to people. Bennet tries to explore gender roles in society by using Timms to voice his opinion as he represents all the boys which shows the male opinion of society.

Lockwood quotes Wittgenstein who was a well know philosopher and Mrs Lintott replies ‘I know its Wittgenstein… did he travel on the other bus?’ Mrs Lintott uses the image of a bus to get across the message of Wittgenstein being gay without asking the question directly to the teachers and the boys. Hector replies with ‘Bus? Bus? What bus?’ this shows how Hector doesn’t understand the reference of the Bus, however, Irwin replies with ‘On the few occasions he went anywhere, yes, I believe he did.’ This shows the relationship between Irwin and Mrs Lintott as they understand each other more.

Mrs Lintott discusses how there are no women historians on Tv and Timms replies with ‘no tits?’ this shows how the boys don’t take the situation seriously as Mrs Lintott and shows how Timms is a very sexual character and makes sexual references in serious situations, Hector replies with ‘hit that boy. Hit him’ Timms: ‘Sir! You can’t sir’ this shows the relationship between the two characters as Timms messes around with Hector and starts joking around with him.  Mrs Lintott then takes back hold of the floor and directs the conversation back to the gender roles in society 'I'll tell you why there are no women historians on TV' the use of 'i'll' shows she has a strong opinion of what she is talking about.

Mrs Lintott

Mrs Lintott

Quotation 1 Mrs Lintott: They know their stuff. Plainly stated and properly organised facts need no presentation, surely.


Mrs Lintott and the Headmaster both use very sophisticated language when talking to each other. Mrs Lintott teaching is very fact learning based and she feels as that is the best way for the boys to pass their exams and other ways of teaching such as Mr Irwin's way is a waste of time.

 Headmaster: Oh, Dorothy. I think they do. 'The facts: serving suggestion.'


The headmaster uses imagery of food to express their way of teaching, the Headmaster suggests that in learning you need more than just facts to pass their exams and to succeed in life.

 Mrs Lintott: A spring of parsley you mean? Or an umbrella in the cocktail? Are dons so naive?

'A spring of parsley' represents the teaching of Hector and Irwin as they go even further with their teaching as their lessons are more to prepare the boys for life rather than just to learn the facts.


Quotation 2 Durham was very good for history, it's where I had my first pizza. Other things, too, of course, but it's the pizza that stands out.


Whilst at University Mrs lintott suggests that she enjoyed the learning side of things but her social life wasn't as good as she expected. This quote gives a sense of humour into the scene as she says 'its the pizza that stands out.' Mrs Lintott is speaking about sex but refuses to speak about it first hand. This suggests that she has always been disappointed by men in her life and she has always had a negative view of them.


Quotation 3 Mrs Lintott: The new man seems clever.
Mrs Lintott is talking about Irwin. 

 Hector: Depressingly so.Hector is jealous by the new teacher, Irwin as he is a younger and more exciting teacher for the boys.

Mrs Lintott: Men are, at history, of course.

Hector: Why history particularly?

Mrs Lintott: Story-telling so much of it, which is what men do naturally.

 My ex, for instance. He told stories.
Mrs Lintott is refering to her ex as he cheated on her. The words 'he told stories' refers to the lies he told when he was having an affair.

 Hector: Was he an historian?

Mrs Lintott: Lintott? No. A chartered accountant. Legged it to Dumfries.
By comapring her ex to an historian she is suggesting that all men are the same and they all lie and tell stories. This shows how Mrs Lintott has a negative view towards all men which is ironic and she works in a school where she is the only female teacher.
 

Quotation 4

Mrs Lintott On Dakin: Actually I wouldn't have said he was sad. I would have said he was cunt-struck.
Mrs Lintott is talking to Hector about Dakin and his character. She says Dakin is 'cunt-struck' this suggests that Dakin is sexually obsessed with women interested in getting girls to have sex.


 Quotation 5

Rudge: You've force fed us the facts; now we're in the process of running around acquiring flavour.
Rudge uses imagery of food to describe Mrs Lintotts teaching 'You've forced fed us facts' this shows how Mrs Lintott teaching is mainly the boys learning facts and the words 'acquiring flavour' suggests that Rudge now needs to know more than just plain facts to be able to pass the exam.


Quotation 6
 One thing you will learn if you plan to stay in this benighted profession is that the chief enemy of culture in any school is the Headmaster.
Mrs Lintott describes the Headmaster like a chief which creates an image of battle which referes back to the battle of University and exams that the boys got ahead of them. Mrs Lintott uses the word 'Headmaster' which refers to a man running the school and she does not refer to a 'Headmistress' which shows how men are dominant and how she feels like a woman would not be able to become a Headmistress.
 

Quotation 7

A nickname is an achievement...both in the sense of something won and also in its armorial sense of a badge, a blazon. Unsurprisingly, I am Tot or Totty. Some irony there one feels.
Mrs Lintott suggests that for a teacher to be accepted with the boys that a nickname is important. By Mrs Lintott having a nickname it makes her feel accepted by the boys.


Quotation 8
I have not hitherto been allotted an inner voice, my role as a patient and not unamused sufferance of the predilections and preoccupations of men. They kick their particular stone along the street and I watch.
Mrs Lintott says 'I watch' which suggests that she doesn't like to get involved in a relationship was a man anymore as she feels that they are secretive and lie.


I am, it is true, confided in by all parties, my gender some sort of safeguard against the onward transmission...though that I should be assumed to be so discreet is in itself condescending. I'm what men would call a safe pair of hands.


Our headmaster is a twat. An impermissible word nowadays but the only one suited to my purpose. A twat. And to go further down the same proscribed path, a condescending cunt.

Playing With Time - The History Boys

Playing With Time

 

At first glance 'The History Boys' seems like a typical Alan Bennett's  style of work: where many of his plays are a one location at a specific period of time. However, when looking deeper into 'The History Boys' Alan explores many aspects into their lives such as relationships, and a variety of sexual expressions among the teachers and students. This is show through a number of flashbacks and flash-forwards.

Flash-forwards

The first flash-forward we see in the play is in Irwin's opening monologue, where he is 'in a wheelchair, in his forties'. We then discover that this is a flash-forward when throughout the rest of the play he is around twenty-five and is able to walk, the circumstances of his paralysis is not clear until the end of the play. The flash-forward technique is used throughout the play and are usually quick dialogue changes between the boys, Timms says:

 

'The hitting never hurt. It was a joke. None of us cared. We lapped it up.'

There is a sudden change in tense which may surprise some of the audience. From this quote we realize that the hitting must come from the teacher, Hector. 

Scripps' 'narrative' voice

This technique is used mainly by one of the boys, Scripps as he observes the arrival of the new teacher, Irwin. 

'I'd been on playground duty, so I saw him on what must have been his first morning..' 

Scripps takes on narrative role. Scripps is not one of the main characters which makes him great for this role as we can see his point of view from him narrating throughout.

Casting a shadow

There is a shadow throughout the play which becomes darker as the story progresses. At the start of Act 2 there is another flash-forward of 'about five years' where Irwin is back in his wheelchair, which makes us think we havent got long left until his accident. in the flash-forward Irwin meets one of the students, identified as 'Man'. this represents the passing of time as throughout the play the term mostly used is 'boy'. The man is Posner, who is now in therapy and desperately clinging to his past.

'All the effort went into getting there and then i had nothing left.'

Posner finally see's how after school there is still other challenges that lie beyond and he is now not ready to face them and misses the security of school.

 

The end of the play

Eventhough the fate of Irwin is foreshadowed throughout and we expect something to happen, we dont expect the fate of Hector who is killed in the same motorcycle accident that paralysed Irwin. Scripps' narration of the accident is followed throughout Hector's funeral, and speak about the many theories of why the accident did happen and whether or not it was Irwin's fault they crashed as he had never been on a motorcycle before. Mrs Lintott can be seen to step outside linear time to present some of the future of the boys:

 

'They became solicitors, chartered accountants, teachers even ...'

 

Mrs Lintott may take the role of retrospective narrator because like Scripps, she has been an outsider, describing her separation from the male environment of the play as she is the only female character throughout.

 

 

History and Literature

The timescale of events withing The History Boys are thought to be about twenty years but may be wider period of time as Bennet includes historical and literary incluences in the characters. Bennet uses intertextuality to achieve this. The use of intertextuality is used through poety which is mostly by Hector. Bennet uses this to show the concerns of the characters. For example, Thomas Hardy's 'Drummer Hodge' is used to show the connection between Hector and Posner.

 

 

Posner: How old was he?
Hector: 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.

 

Although there is a different between age, Hector and Posner both become linked to Dummer Hodge and Hardy. This then leads to a discussion about loneliness and isolation.

 

 

 

Layers of time

The use of Philip Larkin's 'MCMXIV' expands the idea of connections through time even further. In the play the boys show their skill at recital throught reading the poem one after another. The play is from the early 21st century but is set in the 1980s and using a poem from the 1960s which describes 1914. The play suggests that we can learn things about the future of our own lives from the literature left from decades and centuries ago. Hector describes this as 'pass it on'.

 

The intertextual refrences continue throughtout the play. Historical and literary refrences move from WW1 in Act 1 to WW2 in Act 2 and includes topics such as the Holocaust which reflects the darker side of the play. Humor is also used throughout to get through the more uncomfortable moments such as the physical relationship between Hector and the boys and Irwin and Dakin.

 

 

The boys, their education and their teachers are moving into their future yet history is a main part of their characters, personalities and their lives now. As the accident is set in motion, Scripps notes:

 

' And here, history rattled over the points...'

Alan Bennet shows the boys' transformation from school to university and shows the long lines of railway which stretches backward and forwards from their past and their future.

 

 

 

 

 

English Lit and Lang homework

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-jump-by-doug-johnstone--book-review-a-bridge-over-murky-waters-10477090.html

The Jump by Doug Johnstone

The writers attitude towards the review of this book is that he feels like there is lots of tension and plot twist during the book. We know this when he says  'All the time that the tension builds, so too does the detail in Johnstone’s picture of a once-happy family ground down by sorrow.' the words 'a once-happy family' suggests that in this book there is sadness and pain for the mother of the deceased son.

The writer suggests that the mother is a very strong woman but since the death of her son she struggles to find strength in herself  'While we first meet a frail, inkily scarred woman, she’s also an incredibly physical person, jumping into waves, running sweatily to try to take her mind off Logan, remembering what her body could do before her son’s death' this shows that the woman can only be strong when she's active or busy but finds it hard to do things as she is emotionally and physically drained. This makes us sympathise for the mother as she finds it hard to try and find happiness again.  
I think that the writer enjoyed this books as in his last paragraph he wrote 'I would have been happy to read chapters and chapters more of this book, not least because I longed to spend more time with the complicated, thoughtful Ellie' this shows that he enjoyed this book and feels like Ellie is a brilliant character.



What I like to read:

I mostly enjoy to read romance books as I like to be able to relate to books that I read and feel like there is a possibility of it happening.
The last book I read was 'second chance summer' it is about a girl who leaves her bestfriend, boyfriend and friends when she moves away from her holiday home but she returns 5 years later and tries to rekindle the friendships she once had. I enjoyed this book as it was a teenage romance but it had a plot twist where the father becomes ill at the end of her summer holiday.