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.
