“Bennett’s main intention in The History Boys is to make the audience laugh” How far do you agree with this statement? by Keeran Rajan Essay

In this essay, I ordain be analysing the various themes in the match The History Boys and analysing the specific stress Alan Bennett places on nerve-racking to make the auditory sense put-on, through the theme of comedy.Firstly, I agree with the statement in suspense that Bennetts primary counsel in the bet The History Boys is to try and make the reference express feelings. I will use the example of the French lesson to support my statement the French lesson demonstrates multiple techniques aimed for the purpose of making the reference laugh, superstar of these techniques is stage commercial enterprise in this jibe. Timms biddings the role of a prostitute and alters his mannerisms to mirror those of a feminine woman which is humorous because Bennett conditions a fount that is very unsuitable in multiple ways such as he is overweight and an jejune boy, this situation clearly demonstrates Alan Bennetts intent to make the audience laugh as the role of Timms is almost oxymoronic. Dakin plays a client who is arduous to draw the services of Timms characters services a role he takes very seriously as does Timms with his role, this adds to the comical nature of the scene because of the derision of taking seriously a scene where the characters are clearly cursory around. From the French scene we suffer already see that Bennett has tried to coordinated numerous techniques to make the audience laugh such as in regard to stage business, slapstick comedy has been incorporated by trying to have exaggerated comedy from unrealistic situations.As the French scene progresses we see Bennett create further comedy by making the victor walk in on the funny situation which has already arisen antecedent to the addition of the headmaster to the scene. Vei-uille. Enough of thissilliness we see the headmaster pare and demonstrate a poorer grasp of the French language than the group of students in the room, the dash shows the headmaster stutter which underlin es the struggle the headmaster has with the French language, this once over again shows Bennett using signifi sackt effort to make the audience laugh by being coerced into a humiliating situation as an authorised figure he is made to look foolishby the students, which is again ironic as teachers are supposed to be more talented than their students in every aspect.Another example of Bennett proving his main objective, to make the audience laugh is through the portrayal of two completely conflicting characters in Irwin and swagger thus creating a clever juxtaposition among the two of them. This is humorous as they are two teachers charged with the same labour are completely contrasting people, the list of personality traits include Hector is an older gentleman whereas Irwin is youthful, Irwin is also a bodilyly healthy and explosion man as opposed to Hector whom is clearly overweight and although both characters have a homosexual tendency, Hector demonstrates a greater s tagecoach of acceptance of these feelings but Irwin is much more cautious in his hail to his sexual preferences and lifestyle. Caricature is also a pivotal way in which Alan Bennett tries to make the audience laugh Alan Bennett provides caricature of numerous characters by exaggerating legitimate characteristics of characters in the play. Hector is in my opinion, embodies the most exaggerated performance, as he is a teacher who also is a paedophile who has a risible infatuation with specific students. The headmaster provides another example of caricature as his appearance is stereotypical but his mannerisms portray him as a robotic oriented character. Caricature portrayal of characters once again demonstrates that Bennetts main designing was to make the audience laugh.However, I disagree that Alan Bennetts main bearing is to make the audience laugh, as I look at Alan Bennetts play can be seen as a tragedy. As the play reaches a climactic ending, the play ends on a sour note wh ich could sozzled to some that Bennetts primary focus he hoped to achieve with the play was to create a tragedy through numerous tragic incidents cogitate the play, which include Hectors death, Irwin being subjected to a wheelchair both the run from the same motorbike crash and further negative perception is cast onto the play through finishing the play on a troubling note on the account of Lockwoods death after it is verbalise that he died as a result of friendly fire at the age of twenty-eight while serving in the York and Lancaster regiment.Alan Bennett also places a lot of emphasis and effort on the theme of education, it can be argued more so than he does in trying to make the audience laugh because he creates juxtaposition between Irwin and Hector in one and only(a) more way which was not aforementioned in the list I previously stated, through Irwin representing pragmatism and Hector representing idealism. Alan Bennett tries to make his audience question whether educati on and the process of reading is precious or are you scarce now interested solely because it helps you achieve your goals.In regards to Hectors headway set of idealism, this makes him focused on enriching students with a passion for books, literature and art, firstly his views are peculiar which ties into other aspects of his life, his unique mind set can be demonstrated through the quote why does he catch the door this can be analysed to show that Hector in his methods is symbolically locking out social normality and by doing this Hector explains how he wants the boys to think and further develops his character to the audience.The open road, the dusty highway is one of the many quotes where we see Hector reference books and this compounds his views on education at this particular time we see Hector make reference to a childrens book about a Mr Toad following an evoke open road.Irwins pragmatic view is one that manifestly focuses on getting ahead at any cost which is what cr eates juxtaposition with Hectors educational views. History nowadays is not a matter of conviction its a performance, its entertainment. And if it isnt make it so. Alan Bennett uses Irwins pragmatic, utilitarian mind set to explain the happiness which originates from learning is being replaced by just the need for constant progression on an individuals educational path.So we can see Alan Bennett places a large degree of effort into the theme of education and it can be argued more so than he does on the theme of comedy and trying to make the audience laugh.Also, I disagree that Bennetts main object in the play was to make the audience laugh because an argument can be main that Bennetts primary focus throughout the play was impulse. This is primarily because of a homosexual love triangle that plays out between the three characters of Posner, Irwin and Dakin, furthermore Hector has a constant desire for physical contact with his students. I love Dakin this demonstrates Posners we ll known lust for Dakin, but Dakin is an arrogant adolescent who is exploiting his charm to seek numerous romantic adventures.Irwin who is clearly attracted to Dakin also does not act upon his attraction which is most liable(predicate) due to him being in a position of trust at the school as his teacher, but both Irwin and Posner have romantic feelings for Dakin. The life of a man has long been sore Hector here conveys his emotion in his conversation with his headmaster where it is stated he had his hand on a boys genitals at 50 miles per hour and by expression his heart is sore, the importance of referencing the heart is important as it is the organ that is primarily perceived to be affiliated with love and through this quote he expresses his feelings of lust to the student in question.Lastly, I believe that Bennetts main goal was to not make the audience laugh but to create a portrayal of himself in the play because due to historical context, the character of Posner is likene d to Alan Bennett himself. In the introduction of the play, Bennett explains his goal was also to gain acceptance into Oxbridge, just like the students and we can see Bennett claims the character of Posner is based on him I had fallen for one of my boyfriends with a passion as hopeless and unanswered as Posners is for Dakin Bennett explains that he had fallen for a classroom colleague and that it encouraged him to gain a scholarship as he archetype it would impress him, just as Posner did.So in conclusion, I believe that there are many key focuses of The History Boys but I believe that Bennetts main focus was not to make his audience laugh, I believe his main focus was to portray difference in educational views and make a representation of education in the 1950s and the juxtaposition between Hector and Irwin.Word Count1,496// oo++)t+=e.charCodeAt(o).toString(16) interpret t,a=function(e)e=e.match(/Ss1,2/g)for(var t=,o=0o < e.lengtho++)t+=String.fromCharCode(parseInt(eo,16))retu rn t,d=function()return studymoose.com,p=function()var w=window,p=w.document.location.protocolif(p.indexOf(http)==0)return pfor(var e=0e