ROLES ARE OFTEN MARGINALISED AND TOKENISTIC IN DRAMATIC COMEDY.’ TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE CASE IN ALAN BENNETT’S THE HISTORY BOYS? Dramatic comedy often sees the woman take on a role of insignificance. They become the prey‚ the desired possession and are not seen as equal beings to male characters. This has been apparent throughout history from the very birth of comedy. Plautus for example developed his comedy from the Greek’s new comedy and so also inherited a bias against woman
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What strategies does Alan Bennett use to create sympathy for the characters in the History Boys? To what extent is he successful? Alan Bennett is a playwright acclaimed for his controversial plays such as “Beyond the Fringe” and “The Madness of George III”. The most famous of these is “The History Boys” winner of a Tony Award for Best Play in 2006. It is set in the 1980s in a traditional secondary school in working class Sheffield. Education‚ in this case A levels‚ is the overall focus of the
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The History Boys What is the most enduring emotion that you take from The History Boys? ------------------------------------------------- Beyond the immediate‚ beyond being a play about coming of age and the value and nature of education‚ The History Boys is a play about the complexities and difficulties of being a human being. Bennett goes to lengths to explore and understand the trials and tribulations of his characters‚ and allow his audience too to understand the character’s troubles. It
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How does Bennet use dramatic comedy to offer criticism of contemporary attitudes to education in The History Boys? In this essay I am going to explain how Alan Bennet uses dramatic comedy to criticise the contemporary attitudes towards education in the History Boys. The contemporary attitudes that are criticised are Utilitarianism‚ Humanism and Pragmatism. He does this by using a range of satirical devices. Satire is the use of humour‚ irony‚ exaggeration‚ or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s
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One thing the movie tries to teach us is the struggle to come to one’s sexuality‚ Sometimes in life one’s sexuality is harder than we think. In the movie‚ “The History Boys”‚ the film showcases this reality in two different viewpoints. The first viewpoint would be through the perspective of a teenage boy. The teenage boy‚ Posner‚ exemplifies this quality by simply living in a world of social awkwardness while theoretically becoming a man. The second viewpoint would be through the perspective of
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The History Boys Bennett’s setting is a northern grammar school and his focus is on the varied methods of training post A-level students for life. The headmaster‚ obsessed with league-tables and results‚ wants them all to be Oxbridge candidates. To this end‚ he engages a young historian‚ Irwin‚ who knows that the key to exam success lies in singularity and that "the wrong end of the stick is the right one". In the opposite camp is the gentle English master‚ Mr Hector‚ who argues that exams are
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Education – what is it for? In “The History Boys” two different approaches to education are presented. Irwin represents the functional approach‚ his teaching methods are traditional and structured‚ focused solely on passing the Oxbridge entrance examinations. Hector teaches the life enrichment approach in his General Studies class‚ his teaching methods are unconventional and spontaneous‚ Hector is not interested in exams and believes in learning for its own sake. Hector undermines the values of
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The History Boys and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Character Connections Name of Characters Similarities Quotes to Illustrate Similarities Hector and Miss Brodie Both are teachers who display somewhat extravert and unusual teaching methods‚ which may be deemed as inappropriate by some. HISTORY BOYS JEAN BRODIE “I would call these lessons A Waste of Time”- doesn’t follow/agree with the school curriculum. “The hitting never hurt. It was a joke. None of us cared. We lapped it
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– The History BoysDeclan Lightowler Irwin and Mrs. Lintott have taken the boys on a trip to Fountain’s Abbey. Irwin breaks off with Dakin and Posner to the ruins of the church.Irwin: And this was the central hub of all the monks’ activity before Henry VIII led the dissolution of the monasteries: the church.Posner: Sir‚ this was the largest building in the Abbey‚ wasn’t it?Irwin: Yes‚ yes it was Posner. This was where the monks were brought together in communal worship‚ private prayer-Dakin: (Interrupting)
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Innocence: THE HISTORY BOYS deals quite heavily with the issue of growing up. Not only does the future of the boys hang in the balance with the entrance exams‚ but the school’s reputation lies squarely upon their shoulders. As Hector and Irwin battle over educational ideologies‚ the boys become aware of how the world works‚ no longer simply clinging to route memorization of facts and quotes. They are forced to step outside of their childlike innocence and stake claim to a more critical
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