The History Boys: Overview

“The History Boys” is about eight boys of high academic abilities who are preparing to sit the Oxbridge entry exam. They are taught by two homosexual teachers, Hector and Irwin, who have total different teaching strategies.

Hector is an older man with strong feelings towards poetry and has no particular teaching program and gropes his students and it seems that the boys don’t really enjoy it though at the end it shows that they are quite ok with that.

Irwin, a much younger man, is more sensible about teaching. He is the new teacher that has been taken in to teach the students about how to stand out between their competitors with getting into Oxford.

There is quite some competition between both the teachers with Hector being older and Irwin being more attractive and being very close in age with the boys.

“He does, depressingly so”

Hector seems very jealous and depressed at the fact that the new teacher Irwin is clever. This means that there is even more competition for Hector and that if he wants to impress the boys, he needs to work harder. Irwin is obviously younger and even more attractive than Hector which could make things even more complicated for Hector. Hector is clearly gay and gropes his students, but what the students do not know is that Irwin too is gay. Hector obviously has realised that the students don’t really mind him groping them as they are not objecting in any way. He could be scared that Irwin would do the same as he does and therefore because of his attractiveness the boys would like Irwin more than they like Hector. The fact that their teaching strategies are so different makes it even more interesting to compare the two together. At one point in the story, both teachers teach the boys at the same time.

“We don’t know who we are, sir. Your class or Mr. Irwin’s.”

At Irwin’s lessons, the boys are more serious, as Irwin has a programme. At Hector’s lessons they are more thoughtful and they decide how to start the lessons. So when both teachers are teaching at the same time it gets a little difficult and they boys don’t really know how to behave.

Mrs. Lintott is not very surprised at the fact that Irwin is intelligent.

Read also

“The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, the novel has become a common part of high school and college curricula throughout the English-speaking world”7

It’s quite strange that the book was originally published for adults and now is used widely in schools and colleges.

“Let each child that’s in your care have as much neurosis as the child can bear.”

This is a section from Auden’s poem Letter to Lord Byron. He could be meaning that it’s no harm if you bring up your children in a hard way as it will be good as long as it does not go too far. So really, the books that are not liked by the children and yet are forced upon them won’t harm them and it will be useful to them one day.

In the next section of the play, Irwin and the boys are talking about the Second World War and the reasons for why it really happened. Irwin starts off and lets the boys come to a conclusion.

“Which, sir, since Wilfred Owen says men were dying like cattle, is the appropriate word.”

Hector finds it important that they know poems by heart as it will be understood by them one day, and that is what really happens here. They use their knowledge that’s given over by Hector not just in English but in their other lessons meaning that learning these poems by heart really is useful. The poem describes how so many men were dying during the war that they looked like masses of animal.

“First Class…I am asleep.”

The fact that he is asleep is because he has read exactly the same story for 8 times and he had rather read something what would be outside people’s comfort zone. Especially when that essay can guarantee you a place in on of the top universities you need to think for yourself and try to stand out within the crowd, your competitors.

“What has that got to do with anything?”

Writing an essay on history should not per se be about the truth. History is truth as far as the writers are concerned and is usually written by those that were victorious (in a war for example). History is history for those who want to believe it is history from the victorious perspectives. If you read it from the perspective of the conquered you will hear another story and the other would be blamed.

“We still don’t like to admit the war was even partly our fault because so many of our people died.

According to Irwin, the Second world lead to many people dying which is why people are sensitive about it but what they do not know is that there were people that actually enjoyed the war. According to him, and he is referring the poets, “most of them seem to have enjoyed the war.”13 Because of the war the poets had something to write about, that’s where they got their inspiration from. If there was no war, they would not have been able to write such powerful poems without a lot of difficulty. When you have experienced something yourself it is much easier to write about it.

Poems are the words of the poet and you can interpret it in any way you like yet you cannot exactly know what the poet meant with his words.

“In other words…”

Again, this is something they have learned in Hector’s lessons. Irwin thinks the lessons of Hector are more fun than educational but this clearly says that they do learn things in his lesson.

At schools teachers spoon-feed their students all the way through. When Rudge asks Irwin; “What do I write down?”15 Irwin responds with; “I must not write down every word that teacher says.”16 Irwin clearly wants them to think for themselves. He’s happy to help them along and tell them what direction they need to go to, but at the end of the day, it has to be them that think it through and they should come to an own conclusion on their own.