The History Boys - The French Scene

Hi everyone, today we are going to be doing some work on the French scene in The History Boys.

Follow the tasks below and post to your blogs when you've finished:

The Brothel Scene

1. The appeal of this scene on Page 12 is essentially visual. Even with only a basic grasp of French you can work out roughly what is going on (the scene is translated in your study booklets)

2. Part of the humor of this scene is the subtext, implications of what the students, Hector, Headmaster might be really thinking as they talk aloud.  Bennett’s skill as a dramatist is that the conversation is loaded with hidden meaning, we can imagine what the characters are really thinking when they talk aloud.

3. Hector agrees to the risqué suggestion from the sexually provocative Dakin that the setting for the exercise that day should be a brothel.  The boys parody (mock in exaggerated form) life in a brothel. 

4. Scripps plays the music from La Vie En Rose (Life in the Pink) – This is an example of Bennett giving these sixth-formers from the 1980s knowledge of popular culture from a time more relevant to the playwright himself. They are perhaps not realistic sixth-formers but those created by Bennett to convey his interests and entertain a theatre audience.

Tasks

Task 1: Think back to our discussion last week of Hector as a teacher and a character. How is this scene typical of his character and his relationship with the boys?

This scene is known as farce.  The Headmaster is represented as the fall guy.

Task 2 Look up the terms farce and fall guy and find out their definitions then explore the points in this scene where these terms make sense.

The scene helps to create humour and establish some of the main characters’ motives in the play.

Task 3 As you re-watch the clip, first of all try to work out what is going on at a visual level and what clues are provided about the different personalities of the characters involved. 

Watch is without the translation, as this will make you focus on the non-verbal communication.

Write down some suggestions against this list below:

Headmaster

Hector                                    Irwin

Scripps                                   Dakin

Posner                                    Akthar

Crowther                               Timms

Task 4: Try to explore the subtext of this scene. Look at the plain English translation and discuss what the characters may really be thinking to explore characterisation more deeply.  A subtext represents the real mind of the characters – what they are thinking as they say something – reading between the lines.

It won’t apply throughout the scene, but think about what the characters’ real motives / thoughts might be. Think also about who volunteers for parts – that will tell you a lot about their personalities.

Extension:

If you finish all of these tasks, start thinking about the following interpretation and try to develop a PEE paragraph which explores this:

Irwin's interruption of Hector and the boys acting out the brothel scene is a way for Bennett to polarize the two characters. How far do you agree with this? Is there any other evidence to suggest this? Support your points with evidence from the text.