I have literally just seen the televised play of The History boys. I know ‘literally’ is considered to be a 21st Century youthful urban slang. But as a matter of fact I can apply it in this context without the hint of sarcasm. I must warn you that this is my first review/analysis that I have published, others have been for school projects.
The history boys is a play written and directed by Alan Bennett it focuses on the dreams of 8 star pupils and their dream of getting into Oxbridge. Their teachers Mr. Hector of General Studies is book-loving creature, although I think book-loving is a quite a generic term for Mr. Hector. Mr. Irwin is also a teacher he is new and is brought in to help get the boys into Oxbridge, and he introduces a new teaching style that differs immensely from Mr. Hector’s general knowledge, calm and relaxing way of teaching. The Headmaster also known as Felix is really determined to make sure that the boys get admissions to the top universities.
Without the fancy introduction I am just going to jump straight into it with Mr. Hector
In the play on page 22 when Mr. Hector says “Dakin’s a good-looking boy, though somehow sad” Mrs. Lintott replies“You always think they’re sad, Hector, every time. Actually I wouldn’t have said he was sad…” I think the fact that Mrs Lintott says “you always think they’re sad” represents Mr. Hector’s character in someway, from the play we can extract the fact that Mr. Hector is ‘sad’ in general. But what makes this even more meaningful is the fact that he ‘always’ think they’re sad. It is sad on its own or heart-breaking (I know the word sad now has officially been made redundant) that Mr. Hector thinks that everyone is sad like him. He doesn’t seem to realise that there is another side to life, and that is it possible for people to be happier.
Also we can note the fact that Posner is a ‘special character’ he is not like the other boys and seems to have his own view on things. He is the outlier out of all the 8 boys. But personally I find it a bit odd, but yet still note-worthy the fact that Irwin asks Posner about Hector and so does Mrs Lintott, the teachers do know that Posner is a lot like Mr.Hector, this character behaviour similarities is not a secret. Not that there should be any reason for it to be a secret. I know that this is a minuscule point to make, it is just something that I never realised.
There is a lot to say about this Mr. Hector’s character. Since Mr. Hector can’t live his own life he lives it through his students in some way, he inspires them to love what he loves.
Mr Hector and the groping of the boys’ genitals- (sorry for the graphic picture). I honestly believe that this is a two-way street. The audience is meant to think one of two things. Now, is it the fact that Mr. Hector is this literature-loving, book-reading guy that makes the disturbing act of groping young boys seem more innocent? Or is it completely the other way round, is it because Mr. Hector is this literature-loving, book-reading guy that makes the groping more disturbing? Because he should have known better. When you first read or watch the play the first scene shows the boys having fun, and they are undressing Mr.Hector (appropriately just the gloves, scarf and jacket) and when you are looking at it, it seems fine just some people having fun. The clever thing that Bennett does he doesn’t start with the molesting he allows you to get to know Hector in the classroom and then tells you about the molesting on the motorbike, so once you think you know Hector and are ready to pass a judgement all of a sudden you are aware about this other side of him. But then when you later un-suspend your disbelief and think what if it was you in that situation allowing yourself to be groped like that. Mr. Hector would probably be in jail by now, no matter how kind he is. If it was me personally I would think it was really inappropriate, but that may just have to do with the fact that, that is how our teachers are. Honestly the way you look at the sexual abuse tied in with Mr.Hector really depends on how you view things generally, are you going to look at the technical side of things like Mrs Lintott ‘a grope is a grope’ and the Headmaster or show more compassion based on who is doing it? Is it also possible to say that Mr.Hector is so absorbed into this world of literature that he cannot tell the diference between right and wrong (?)
When the Headmaster accuses Mr. Hector of molesting the boys. Mr. Hector replies “The transmission of knowledge is in itself an erotic act. In the Renaissance…” here, I am not entirely sure if Mr.Hector is saying this to defend himself or if that is what he actually thinks. But in the play it is noted that Hector locks the doors when teaching in his lessons. This may be a new thing he does now because of when Mr.Irwin walked in on their lesson to find Dakin in his underwear and he wanted to prevent another awkward event from happening again. The Headmaster tries to snap Hector out of this fantasy by saying “F*ck the Renaissance. And f*ck literature and Plato and Michelangelo and Oscar Wilde and all the shrunken violets you people line up. This is a school and it isn’t normal”
Afterwards when Mr. Hector goes back to his classroom to find that Posner is there waiting for him to teach him. Posner reads a poem by Hardy called Drummer Hodge after Posner reads this Hector uses some compound adjectives to describe how Hardy uses compound adjectives in his works “un-kissed, un-rejoicing, un-confessed, un-embraced, un-spent, un-fingermarked” Here we can see that this is how Hector feels, but the fact he uses compound adjectives to describe his feelings does make the feeling deeper, it is like the kiss, the rejoicing, the embracement has been taken away from him. It’s more than it has not happened to him yet, it is more like the idea of him feeling that is so far away, or something even worse has happened to him that it canceles out that good feeling so it is like he has never been kissed (even though he may have).
To expand that point even further, in some way it is safe to say that Hector needs the fondling on the motorbike scenario. He is married, but we get a strong impression that he is not in love. So the only and closest form of easement that he can get is the sexual pleasure from the boys, but deep down he knows that there is no love attached.
Hector also says “Whether because of diffidence or shyness, but a holding back. Not being in the swim…” This also tells us that Hector feels alone and the reason that he can’t progress is because there is something holding him back. “not being in the swim”- not being part of the crowd and being able to socailise freely. He seems unsure because he doesn’t know what is holding him back. Hector asks Posner if he understand what he means “Can you understand that?” Posner agrees this is a sign to show the audience how similar Posner and Hector are. They can understand each other.
New point. I think Mr. Hector is a hypocrite when he says “Pass the parcel. That’s sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That’s the game I wanted you to learn. Pass it on.” I know that is a long quote but in some ways Mr. Hector did not pass the parcel. He lived in it and shared bits of it, he didn’t completely move on. If you are confused the parcel it is what I believe is the literature, culture artistic realms that Mr. Hector loved and fancied. Unless that was his ‘beyond the grave’ monologue then he is not entirely a hypocrite it could be what he has learned after looking back on his life and his mistakes: was that he lived in the parcel instead stepping out of that zone and passing on that knowledge fully.
Another theme of the play is the subjunctive and how it links to real-life. If you do French or another language. The subjunctive is the ‘if’ factor that changes the mood of a sentence to make it more doubtful. Hector is living in the subjunctive (we all are), but he is living in the negative side of it. He could do a lot more, but he doesn’t.
This is a little bit off topic here, but when I watched the play- the original version. The characters were nothing like I pictured. I pictured Mrs Lintott to be a lot younger. Mr Hector and Mr. Irwin were meant to look pretty much the same in my mind they represented Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde except none of them were evil. They looked the same in my mind to represent the fact that people that look so similar could be so different (in teaching styles) But I think it was a good thing that Mr.Hector was viewed to be an abnormally large man in the play. Just because it answered my question of how and why did Mr.Hector turn out to be like this. If indeed Alan Bennett had this image in his mind when writing the play, not just because it happened to be a coincidence that the best actor for that role was abnormally-large man. Hector is meant to be on the heavier side I would say it was because maybe, Mr. Hector as a child suffered from childhood-obesity or another traumatic thing happened to him as a child and he found comfort in both food and in the books and poems he read them and he was able to find comfort and relate to it and he just sunk deeper and deeper into it, to a point he almost or practically lost touch of reality. Leading on from that point Dakin does confess that he believes that literature is consolation. “All literature is consolation” arguably you can say this is true from the point of Mr. Hector, literature is consoling him, another world that he can escape to. Again leading on from that point this could be the reason why Mr.Hector gets really upset and defensive when Irwin calls Mr.Hector’s quotes- gobbets. Mr Hector responds by saying “What did you call them? Gobbets? Is that what you think they are, gobbets? Handy little quotes that can be trotted out to make a point? Gobbets? Codes, spells, runes-call them what you like, but do not call them gobbets” As it is obviously spelt out here Mr. Hector does not see his quotes from books and films as gobbets, he sees them as a code- maybe a disguised form of how he really feels, spells- something magical that can not be described but makes him feel better.
I think another problem that Mr.Hector has is that he looks to far forward (talks about the meaning of life) whereas Mr. Irwin is living in the present.-(wants the boys to get into Oxbridge). And the problem with this is that being too far forward causes someone to lose sight of the present. And that is the problem with Mr.Hector. Hector even says “Poetry is the trailer! Forthcoming attractions” Maybe that is why Hector is not ‘living his life’ and allowing himself to be trapped into this world, it is or is it because he is just waiting for the poetry experiences to happen to him. But luckily for the boys they have a balance both from Mr. Irwin and Mr.Hector. Timms even says “Mr. Hector’s stuff’s not meant for the exam, sir. It’s to make us more rounded human beings.”
One last thing about Mr. Hector even though *spoiler alert* he died in the motor cycle accident. I don’t think his character actually died. You see, Mr Hector was meant to retire anyway and with the sexual abuse allegations that came up , the retirement was to be brought forward. The only thing we know is that Mr.Hector said or joked about what he will do when he retires. That is what he has to live for, from his point of view there is nothing else he can do. But he died we cannot know for certain what he was going to do when after he retires and how he is going to feel. But what we do know is that Posner is practically a mini carbon-copy of Mr. Hector so by his ending we can predict what Mr.Hector would have ended up as. Again *spoiler alert* Posner does end up in therapy so from this we can give an educated guess and say that Mr. Hector would have ended up in therapy or be in a state where therapy was needed.
For now that is all. Bye!
