The History Boys

This is Alan Bennett at his funniest and most melancholy: a comedy about schoolboys that turns out to be about how we hand down what we know, and what gets lost in the handing. If you have ever loved a teacher, sat an exam you resented, or carried a poem around for decades, this will find you. Read it for the arguments about why learning matters at all.

1. 1

   Act 1

   Fifty Pence a Quotation

   A boys' grammar school in Sheffield, the 1980s. Eight sixth-formers—Dakin, Posner, Scripps, Lockwood, Akthar, Crowther, Rudge, and Timms—are being prepped for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams. Into the classroom, late, comes Hector, the eccentric general studies teacher, who opens a betting game: 'Who can tell me where that comes from? Fifty pence!' The boys, including Posner and Scripps, eagerly participate. This is Hector's whole creed: knowledge for its own sake, poetry recited, songs sung, a French lesson staged in a brothel that the Headmaster walks in on—Hector shrugs it off as a language exercise. Meanwhile the Headmaster, Felix Armstrong, has one obsession: league tables. He complains to Mrs. Lintott about Hector's unorthodox methods and says outright, 'I want them to get into Oxford and Cambridge. That's what I want. And I don't care how it's done.' So he hires Irwin, a young supply teacher, to make the boys' answers polished and attention-grabbing. Irwin's method is pure performance: 'History nowadays is not a matter of conviction. It's a performance. It's entertainment.' Take the wrong end of the stick; use the side door. He teaches the boys to be 'clever' in exams by using contrarian arguments, such as arguing that the Holocaust was not unique or that the British Empire was beneficial, to stand out to examiners. Posner, small, Jewish, and gay, is hopelessly in love with the handsome Dakin and sings 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered' while the boys listen. Dakin, the handsome, confident, and academically bright boy, begins a flirtatious relationship with the school secretary, Fiona, using it to gain access to the headmaster's files.

2. 2

   Act 2

   The Motorbike and the Back Door

   Hector gives some boys lifts home on his motorcycle and gropes them as he rides; the boys treat it as a tolerated open secret, a joke and a badge of honour. It is Lockwood (or Timms) who first describes the ritual to the audience. In class, Hector teaches them Hardy's 'Drummer Hodge' and hands them his most quoted thought: the best moments in reading are when you find a feeling you thought was yours alone, set down by someone long dead, 'And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.' He quotes Auden's 'Night Mail' too. Hector is caught by the Headmaster fondling a boy on his motorbike. 'I have had complaints. I have had complaints about you, Hector. From boys. From parents.' Hector must agree to retire at the end of term. The boys are torn between loyalty to Hector and gratitude to Irwin, whose exam coaching is working: be counter-intuitive, he tells them; truth is no more at issue in an examination than thirst at a wine-tasting. Posner, rehearsing his Jewish identity, tells the boys about his family. He is the son of a Jewish father from the East End. Scripps, a devout Christian, acts as a narrator and chronicler of events, often addressing the audience directly and commenting on the moral and religious dimensions of the boys' actions. He often plays the piano during Hector's lessons.

3. 3

   Act 3

   Offers, Blackmail, and a Proposition

   The boys sit their Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams and interviews, applying Irwin's techniques of provocative argument. Irwin's methods prove successful, as several boys get offers, but the play shows that this success is hollow. Rudge, the least academic boy, reveals he talked about golf with his interviewer. He gets into Oxford after giving a simple, honest interview about sport and community. In the final interview scene, Rudge tells the Oxford don bluntly that he is 'not clever' but that he can 'do' the exam. His admission to Christ Church is the play's comic-ironic climax. Being himself beats every trick in Irwin's book. Dakin, who was not offended by the incident, uses it as leverage to try to get the headmaster to drop the charges against Hector. He discovers that the headmaster has a secret affair with the school secretary, and he uses this knowledge to blackmail the headmaster into letting Hector stay until the end of term. The headmaster's plan to sack Hector is softened by Mrs Lintott's intervention and by the exam results. Hector is allowed to stay on to teach general studies to the lower sixth, but not to the Oxbridge candidates. Irwin and Dakin have a private conversation where Dakin directly propositions Irwin. Dakin says, 'I want to suck you off. I've wanted to for weeks. I think you know that.' Irwin is flustered and does not immediately respond. Dakin's seduction of Irwin is proposed in the school corridor or classroom. Dakin, now bound for Oxford, tells Irwin he would like to 'do it' with him, and Irwin, flustered, agrees to a meeting—the play leaves the outcome uncertain but strongly implied. The Headmaster informs Irwin that he will not be kept on after the term, despite the boys' success. He says, 'I'm afraid we shan't be needing you after this term. Your face doesn't fit.' Irwin reveals to the boys that he himself did not go to Oxford, but to a less prestigious university, and fabricated his impressive educational background. Posner asks Hector if he ever wished he could have loved one of the boys. Hector replies, 'I never touched you, Posner. I never touched you. And you know why? Because you're not attractive. You're not.' This devastates Posner.

4. 4

   Act 4

   Pass the Parcel

   Hector teaches the boys a scene from the film 'Brief Encounter,' with Posner and Dakin playing the lead roles. The boys perform a scene from 'Now, Voyager' with Hector, who plays the Bette Davis role. Hector says, 'Don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars.' Hector gives his final lesson, teaching the boys a passage from A.E. Housman's 'A Shropshire Lad.' He recites, 'Into my heart an air that kills / From yon far country blows.' On his last day with the upper sixth, Hector teaches a lesson about Thomas Hardy's poem 'The Convergence of the Twain' about the sinking of the Titanic. He also quotes from A.E. Housman's poem 'To an Athlete Dying Young' during his last lesson, saying 'And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose.' The boys learn of Hector's sudden death in a motorcycle accident, which occurs offstage. Scripps narrates, 'He died on the way back from school. He'd been to see his solicitor. He'd made his will.' Irwin is now a wheelchair-bound TV historian. He was also on the motorcycle with Hector and is injured but survives, though he is not the same person. At Hector's memorial service, the Headmaster gives a hypocritical eulogy, calling Hector 'a truly original teacher.' The boys are visibly disgusted by his insincerity. The boys recite poetry he taught them. Posner recites Hardy's 'Drummer Hodge' and quotes from W.H. Auden's 'Funeral Blues', saying 'He was my North, my South, my East and West.' The boys sing 'Beware' (a song from the musical 'The Boy Friend'), which was a favorite of Hector's, and Scripps delivers a eulogy. The song 'Beware' from 'The Boy Friend' is sung twice, once in class and once at the funeral. Mrs. Lintott tells the audience about the fates of the boys after the play's events. She reveals, 'Hector died of a heart attack on his motorbike. Irwin became a television historian. Dakin became a tax lawyer.' Posner is on medication for depression and becomes a teacher. In the epilogue, Mrs. Lintott has written a popular history book. She reflects that Hector's teaching, which seemed pointless at the time, is what the boys remember most. She tells Irwin that the boys' lives have been 'a disappointment' in the ordinary sense—they became 'solicitors and accountants'—and that Hector's 'loving' education mattered more than Irwin's clever tricks. The play ends with the boys, now adults, standing in a tableau as Scripps speaks the final lines: '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.'

• HHectorThe eccentric general studies teacher who believes knowledge is for its own sake—poetry, songs, French brothel scenes, motorbike lifts. Caught fondling a boy, forced toward retirement, he dies on the bike he loved, having made his will.
• IIrwinThe young supply teacher hired to make Oxbridge answers grab attention; he teaches spin, not conviction, and never actually went to Oxford. He survives the crash that kills Hector and becomes a wheelchair-bound TV historian.
• DDakinThe handsome, confident, clever boy every teacher half-wants and Posner fully loves. He seduces the secretary Fiona, blackmails the Headmaster over it, propositions Irwin, and grows up into a successful tax lawyer.
• PPosnerSmall, Jewish, gay, and in unrequited love with Dakin; he sings 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered' and keeps Hector's flame. He becomes a teacher himself, on medication for depression.
• SScrippsThe devout Christian who narrates the play from the piano, a believer among sceptics. He becomes a journalist and speaks the final lines about passing the parcel.
• MMrs. LintottThe history teacher and the play's grounded truth-teller: 'History is women following behind with the bucket.' She later writes a popular history book and delivers the verdict on the boys' fates.
• TThe Headmaster (Felix Armstrong)Obsessed with league tables, he hires Irwin, catches Hector on the motorbike, and delivers a eulogy so hypocritical the boys can barely stand it.
• RRudgeThe least academic boy, a sportsman who confounds everyone by getting into Oxford—Christ Church—by being honest about golf and community instead of clever.
• FFionaThe headmaster's secretary, seduced by Dakin in the headmaster's own office; the affair becomes Dakin's leverage against her boss.

Hector's motorcycle

The motorbike lift ritual

Pass the parcel

The songs and quotations

The ending refuses triumph. The boys mostly get their places, then the epilogue deflates the victory: a TV historian in a wheelchair, a tax lawyer, a magistrate, a chain of dry cleaners, a teacher on medication, one boy dead in the Gulf. Mrs. Lintott calls the lives 'a disappointment' in the ordinary sense and insists Hector's loving education mattered more than Irwin's tricks. One reading is elegiac: the parcel gets passed—Posner becomes a teacher, keeps making connections, and the poetry outlives the man. Another is darker: Hector's legacy is entangled with abuse, and the sentimental glow around him is exactly the kind of story Irwin would warn you against. The tableau of the boys as adults, with Scripps handing on Hector's borrowed Larkin line, lands because it makes the audience complicit—we are the someone, somewhere, one day.

1. 1.Is Hector a great teacher or a predator, and can the play hold both at once? What does it mean that the boys remember him most fondly?
2. 2.Irwin says history is a performance and truth is no more at issue in an exam than thirst at a wine-tasting. Does the play refute him, or does Rudge's success prove his point differently than he intended?
3. 3.Mrs. Lintott says history is women following behind with the bucket. How does the play's all-male classroom shape what counts as knowledge, and who gets to have a point of view?

Anyone who loved Dead Poets Society but suspects the teacher was the dangerous one. Also for anyone who sat an exam and wondered whether cleverness and truth had ever met.

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