Caleb TracyDr. ChipmanPlay Reading

The History Boys - Response

This week in play reading we read The History Boys by Alan Bennett. It was about a class of boys, at an all-boys public school, in England, in the 1980’s; an interesting setting for a play. A lot can happen in this setting. This is one of the most pivotal points in a boy’s life, so it makes sense to write about it.

The Play opens with the boys’ class getting the news that they will be preparing for the Oxbridge entrance exams. This seems to be the main plotline. This is the machine that sets many of the drama in this play into motion. It is what fuels the worry of the headmaster into hiring the new teacher. He coaches them in their least favorite subject, but the most important one in the play. History is another interesting and effective tool used by the author to incite drama.

One of my favorite parts is when Irwin gets the boys to realize the importance of history. In the scene he tells them of when Chamberlain resigned as prime minister, and how Lord Halifax, rather than Churchill, was his preferred replacement. He continues to tell him that on afternoon when the decision was made, Halifax chose to go to the dentist. From that little, big story he gets the boys to realize the importance of History. This is confirmed by Daikin’s realization “If Halifax had had better teeth, we might have lost the war." The fact that they make these realizations themselves is quite ironic, due to their protest of the learning of history.

“A grope is a grope. It's not the annunciation.” It’s the truth. Bennett’s trap is much like that of Paula Vogel’s in her How I Learned to Drive. It’s even harder to fall into that trap in this case, since many of the fondled students are of legal age. It raises many a red flag for the reader, but that is to do an atmosphere check for them. It causes them to think about it. The boys didn’t care. It wasn’t of a great concern and he only did it a few times. I cause you to really think about such people’s actions, and the justification of their actions. It distracts you from the plays real message, which is the questioning of what the ultimate goal of educating a student is?

Through looking at this play we learn from the content and it’s revealing that it is to allow an individual to reason, develop his own ideas and identity, and to express himself? The boys know their stuff. The problem is they don’t know how to apply it and show that they know it. It is Irwin’s role in the play to get them to realize it. He is very effective in that way. He gets them going in the right direction despite their protestations. If you think about that, and the chain of the “causes and effects,” It’s weird. Without Hector fondling boys the headmaster wouldn’t have given the boys more time with Irwin, and without that time they would have not gotten the future’s that they wanted.