The History Boys Essay 13. “Brilliantly funny….but by the end‚ tears are as near as laughter.” To what extent can we read The History boys as comedy? One of the key factors that makes the History Boys such an iconic play is its witty comedic effect throughout the entire book. Using various techniques‚ such as parody‚ contrasting characters and clever juxtapositions within the plot‚ intelligent metaphors‚ bathos and many more. But at first glance the history boys could seem a typical dramatic
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The History of Comedy. From Old Greek to the Present Day What does Comedy mean? In old Greek times comedy was a village festival where people came together and sang‚ there were jesters to entertain the audiences. The Greeks created theatre; comedy soon followed which to the present day is known as ‘old comedy’. Old comedy is seen as very political‚ meaning that the performance
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‘Women’s roles are often tokenistic in dramatic comedy’ discuss whether you believe this to be the case in relation to the play you are studying. Throughout the history boys‚ the male characters mainly take the more dominant role whereas the women are seen more as objects rather than women. Mrs Lintott is the only woman that is actually respected a tiny bit whereas Fiona the secretary is seen more as a typical slutty secretary. The role of Fiona really helps the statement in the question to be true
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How does Bennet us comedy to express his ideas about sexual relationships? The history Boys is a comedy play based on a group of intelligent and funny sixth-form boys in the 1980’s.The boys find themselves in different sitations‚whether it’s to do with love‚ heartbreak or heir further education and their future. These situations that they are faced with‚ contribute o he humur the play. In the beginning of the play‚we are introduced to one of he boys teachers‚Mr Hector.The relationship between Hector
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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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What elements of Bennetts own educational experiences has he used in “the History Boys”? Bennett says that he was made fun of at school for coming to school in a suit on the day of his exams. He says he did this because he thought the exam was an occasion and he must rise to it. This show us how he felt towards his exams and probably shows how some of the boys in his book would have felt like when taking their exams. This shows how important he thinks exams are and this theme will probably reflect
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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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Comedy Essay Introduction When comedy is successful it makes us laugh. Laughter makes us feel good on the inside. It helps break down barriers between people. If the movie were watching makes us laugh then its successful comedy. The texts baby’s day out by Patrick read Johnson‚ Cinderella by Roald Dahl and Snow white and the dreadful dwarfs by Roald Dahl are all successful comedies. They use the techniques of slapstick‚ absurdity and black humour. Slapstick humour is a rough‚ clumsy and
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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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History Boys Discuss the dramatic function of 3 separate comedy scenes in The History Boys. In Alan Bennetts play‚ The History Boys‚ dramatic functions need to used in order to be able to bring out the personalities of character and to bring the story forward‚ as in a play you can not describe as you can in a novel. One scene in The History Boys where Alan Bennett uses comedy is when during a general studies lesson with Hector he allows the boys to act‚ in French‚ as though they were in a
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