The drummer hodge scene

In the Drummer Hodge scene, Hector doesn't really display much authority over Posner. There are no real uses of constraints and Posner never really tries to challenge Hectors asymmetrical power, the reason may be that Hector doesn't actually have any asymmetrical power. This is effective because it shows the teachers laid back approach to teaching, he tries on lots of occasions to get on the boys level and attempts to form a bond,sometimes in quite inappropriate situations, which also gives the impression that he doesn't know the boundary that is supposed to be set between teacher and student.

However, he does set the agenda with this interrogative at the start of the scene- "what have we learned this week?" but after Posner tells him that they've learned about drummer Hodge, Hector doesn't ask any other questions and just says "oh. nice."- this doesn't open up the conversation but suggests that because Hector has just found out that he's in other words 'fired', he allows his emotions to cloud his teaching. This portrays some selfishness in him, as he's not focusing on the future of the boys, but the future of himself. One technique highlights the natural way he teaches and how he doesn't plan what hes going to talk about in the lesson, this technique is called repetition- "It is. It is." This also shows his passion, because people tend to repeat things like that when they are trying to reach in to their mind and think of a good point.

Identifying Literary and Linguistic techniques

Discuss how Irwin and Posner’s relationship is presented in this exchange:

By not introducing Posner at the start of the scene as the ‘man’, Bennett allows the audience to make assumptions about who the mysterious speaker could be; this also causes a dramatic effect at the end of the scene when Posner’s identity is finally revealed. However, somehow the audience is able to depict (or at least speculate) that Posner is in fact, the man; this could be because he sets the agenda towards Irwin’s liking of Dakin- ‘I didn’t write anything about you and Dakin’. Throughout the play, we have been told of Posner’s love for him, and because the ‘man’ brought up the topic of Dakin this could also suggest his jealousy of Irwin’s infatuation for his crush.

By Irwin using the elevated/ Latinate lexis ‘meretricious’, he is trying to belittle or at least prove that he still has authority over Posner. It shows his advanced knowledge and power, and the scene shows that even five years in to the future Irwin still treats Posner as one of his students, as someone beneath him. Posner adds to this explanation, by asking Irwin what the word means and this suggests Posner may still see Irwin as having authority over him too. When explaining the word to Posner, Irwin is very flippant and doesn’t elaborate like a teacher would - ‘eye-catching, showy; false.’ Because of his use of asyndetic listing this shows that he could expand but he doesn’t have time or he just doesn’t care about helping Posner, he just wants to show off his well-developed vocabulary and hint that he is somehow better than Posner. This displays Irwin’s selfish and rude side to his personality, as well as his over sized ego and need to be the best. Later on in the scene, Posner asks Irwin to call him ‘David’ instead of his previous name, but Irwin shows no respect for what Posner wants and instead tries again to prove his authority by saying ‘I never called you David. I called you Posner. I’ll put Posner.’ This again shows Irwin's disregard for who Posner has grown up to be and that he doesn’t care if Posner has changed, he will always treat him like a child rather than the adult he has become.

Posner opens up the topic of Dakin and Irwin's ‘relationship’ between each other, and he uses an ellipsis in the sentence ‘he liked you… didn’t he?’ to show his anticipation or just realisation of what the answer most likely is. We can gather from the subtext that he uses this pause in a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable truth, because he knows that he’s going to get hurt by the answer. Posner wants confirmation, as he has used an interrogative, but in a sense he doesn’t really want to know in fear of getting hurt. Previously in the scene he had used the declarative ‘you liked him.’ Which means that he had used his intuition to analyse the situation and come up with that statement, and he is basically in other words saying that it was obvious to the bystanders that Irwin liked Dakin. He must have been paying attention to all of the looks and exchanges in class between Dakin and Irwin, so there must be some truth in his words because his jealousy had made him look at both of them more closely. This part of the scene shows that the two characters aren’t really close, Posner is just curious and inquisitive about Irwin.

about me

About me

Ive got to say, one of my top hobbies has to be drawing, I feel really in my element when I have a piece of paper and a pencil in my hand; I tend to lose myself and go in to my own world for a few hours. I also really enjoy listening to my music and it would pretty odd to find me without headphones either in my pocket or in my ear. The music genres I listen to range from country to metal, but my favourite has to be rock, I especially enjoy bands like ‘Panic! At the disco’, ‘you me at six’, ‘fallout boy’ and ‘all time low’. A few other hobbies include- baking, singing, TV programmes and reading. 

I read the first book of ‘the vampire diaries’ series over the holidays, because I had watched the TV programme and loved it so much that I thought I would read the book and see if the written version was any better. Sadly I don’t really think the book can compare to the TV programme, because some of the moments in it are very cliché and cheesy which the programme didn’t have. I really like the fantasy genre, i think maybe it's because I can immerse myself in another world.

I learn best by taking notes from the board, so that I have something I can refer back to. I’m a visual learner, and I think I process information better when I see it written down.

Choose one of the teachers in the History boys.

Choose one of the teachers in the History boys. What are their views about education? Explain using quotations and reference to linguistic techniques.

The first time Hector is introduced to the audience, he arrives to school ‘in motor cycle leathers and helmet’. This shows that hector does not follow or conform to the stereotypical role of what a teacher should act and dress like, which also gives the audience an insight to what an abstract take Hector may have on teaching. His appearance reflects his way of teaching in fact, which also does not follow the rules.

Hector is described by the writer as a quite guarded character, because nobody (except a close colleague Mrs Lintott) really knows who he is. The first interaction Hector has is with his students, and their conversations are all in French, he also often speaks in quotations or references when asked a question and this could all suggest that he hides behind language in order to not show his true self. He is very evasive and doesn’t actually answer the question most times, and his lessons are centered on teaching the boys about life. He believes that ‘all knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use’, which basically is his well worded excuse for not wanting to teach the boys things for the exam. He believes that if he was ever ‘entrusted with the time table’ it would be ‘a waste of time.’

Alan Bennett repeats the idea of nakedness throughout the first scene, with references to ‘stripping down’, this could have been done to relate to Hectors insecurities about his real self, and why he might not want to reveal it to anyone. We later find out that he is a paedophile, and this first scene could be foreshadowing the shame that is going to be brought on to his character later on in the play. In the first part of the scene, he tries to use guilt as a way to stop the boys from wanting to go to oxford. He says to them “forget oxford and Cambridge. Why do you want to go there?” In a way, he seems hurt. This shows that he allows his emotions to cloud and make his judgements which is very unprofessional and portrays some immaturity in him, as he wants it to be about him and what he wants, not about the prospect of the boys’ future.    

By translating the second half of Hectors first lesson, we can start to understand his peculiar ways of teaching. Hector does not have lesson plans, he tends to just ‘see how it goes’ in a sense and this scene shows his clear disregard for boundaries, as he lets his lesson unfold in to a crude spontaneous play of a ‘masion de passe’. Although he does not have the intentions to let them create a play on this, he doesn’t reprimand Dakin; instead he opens the topic up in to even more detail. This shows Hectors selfish side, as he is only really doing it for his own personal enjoyment. When the acting gets a little out of hand, instead of telling the boys off, he simply lets it carry on. We can infer from this scene that Hector doesn’t really care about the boys doing well in their future exams, and that he kind of just lives in the moment and prefers ‘fun’ over actual learning.