The History Boys: Character Notes

Posner

• Underdeveloped; his voice isn’t broken at 16 years old
• Quiet except from when he sings and when he takes a very personal stance on the Holocaust
• Jewish boy who lost relatives in the holocaust
• Very passionate at singing hymns and show tunes
• Avid reader
• Struggling with his sexuality; low self esteem
• In love with Dakin; loves to impress him

Dakin

• Attractive and is aware of it
• Very overconfident and is almost in love with himself
• Has several admirers including Irwin, Fiona, and Posner
• In a relationship with the school secretary Fiona but becomes more distant
• Thinks sex and relationships are a power struggle; compares sex to war and relationship with Irwin to Auden kissing his pupils (Ancient Greek teacher student dynamic is relevant)
• More experienced than the other boys
• Manipulative and careless most of the time
• Heavily influenced by Irwin; becomes more cynical
• Enjoys having a mutual attraction with Irwin; tried hard to impress him

Scripps

• Acts as the narrator of the play
• Budding writer; records events in his notebook
• Plays the piano most of the time
• Exploring Christianity deeply; refraining from sin
• Posner and Dakin confide in him; priest like figure

Rudge

• Excels in sports; surprises other characters with his ability
• Straightforward nature and is the most authentic character in the play; almost heroic
• Not confident in his own abilities; neither is anyone else
• Prefers Mrs Lintott’s style of teaching; dislikes Irwin’s
• Most hardworking character; writes down everything that is said

Akthar

• Muslim, which is mentioned regularly
• Happy to test Irwin
• Knuckles down to hard work

Crowther

• Keen actor; likes theatre
• Friends with Lockwood

Timms

• Joker of the pack; often overdramatic and using derogatory slang
• Enjoys prying into Irwin’s life by teasing and mocking him
• Gets hit by Hector a lot

Lockwood

• Really likes films
• Interested in politics

Headmaster

• Stereotypical egotistical headmaster character
• Understanding of the arts is limited
• Utilitarian character; thinking everything must have a use
• Cares only about results: wants the school to be better than others and only Oxford and Cambridge is prestigious enough
• Doesn’t care about the students: no regard for their safety and very negative about Rudge; no confidence in him
• Cares strongly about the reputation of the school; doesn’t fire Hector when he finds out about the abuse as he doesn’t want people to talk
• Creepy and corrupt as he sexually harasses Fiona
• Other characters don’t have good opinions of him

Mrs Lintott

• Strong female character; believes in women’s rights and is sassy
• Creates humour in the play
• Traditional teaching methods; teaches facts and not opinions
• Doesn’t allow her emotions to control her teaching; suggests Irwin should do the same
• Seen as neutral territory so is often confided in
• Overlooked member of staff in a male dominated environment; very frustrated about this
• Has the first emotional reaction to Hector’s molestation of the children even though she is removed when sympathising with him
• Boys respect her; especially Rudge

Irwin

• Young History teacher who is only a few years older than the boys
• Studied at Bristol and did a teaching diploma at Oxford despite saying he studied at Corpus/Jesus, Oxford
• Employed for modern teaching methods and to get the boys into Oxford and Cambridge
• Teaches in a controversial, opinionated way
• Looks for original arguments
• Believes in presentation and performance; thinks studying is a game
• Wants the students to apply Hector’s knowledge
• Dismissive and detached when interacting with students
• Associated with ruins and ruination throughout
• Can be false and dishonest
• Mutually attracted to Dakin; struggling to hide his homosexuality

Hector

• Portrayed as a charismatic character at first
• Close to retirement
• English teacher that makes the boys memorise quotes
• Eccentric and unusual teaching methods such as singing and speaking French
• Doesn’t like formal examinations; thinks learning is about culminating knowledge rather than using it to get by
• Interested in popular culture and literature, wanting to make an impact on the students
• Really likes subjunctives and compound adjectives
• Doesn’t care about the Oxbridge system; tried to get in to Oxford but was rejected
• Very insecure; hides behind an act or disguise
• Emotions control his teaching; students become emotional crutches
• Boys favour him in the beginning; soon finding his teaching useless
• Hits the students; particularly Timms
• Ambiguous morality; defends the holocaust but does despicable things
• Teaches and discusses some seedy subjects in lessons: brothels, smoking, and gambling themed games
• Molests the students on his motorbike and tries to play it off as nothing

My Language Fingerprint

English wasn't my first language originally. It was my third or my fourth. I guess it's my first language now despite not being the best at it. It was ironic that even though English didn't belong to me, or anyone in fact, that I thought I could police it.

We've all had phases where we thought we were studious academics and anyone we had to associate with had to be one too - with the exception of the one friend who we argued was different. During that phase, I disdained at teenagers using slang and popular culture in general. Only certain types of pop culture was acceptable, we deemed it to be and we were right of course, and so was the slang we used. The word 'selfie' was acceptable because it was widely recognized and was difficult to substitute with an Oxford dictionary word whereas the degrading term 'ratchet' was not, simply because it was 'too cool'. I wrote in proper English, even when messaging friends online, and would be passive aggressively disappointed at anyone who did not.

There were also times where I made up my own phrases like 'fun in a bun' simply because they rhymed. I thought I was the next Shakespeare and that my words and phrases would have the equivalent importance of 'elbow', a rather handy slang term that he fashioned. My friends adopted them when they began to be able to predict the idiosyncrasies in my speech. For some reason, this was acceptable but using other slang was not.

When I began to see that you could be both an 'academic' and talk like an American man who drove a pickup truck, I began to use a lot of slang. For instance, I decided that the word 'bae' was something that I liked a lot so I used it for everything, and I mean everything. Suddenly food was 'bae' and my friends were 'bae' and a TV show was 'bae'. 'Y'all' become acceptable too. All of these slang words came into use as 'ironic' at first as you cannot turn from one extreme to another without some kind of change gradient. I told myself that typing 'u' isn't of 'you' when I was joking with my friends was ironic. When does something no longer become ironic? When you use it all the time?

I don't think it's ironic anymore. I think I take myself less seriously now. And thank god for that because language is meant to be adapted and changed and moulded. Although I know I'm no Shakespeare now, I think my language fingerprint over the years has changed as much as the English language has changed. When I wasn't communicating with my friends in made up words, code-words or words from other languages, I was picking up words that I discovered on the internet. Those words ('bae', 'selfie stick', 'binge-watch') have now been added to the online Oxford dictionary and have gone on to shape the English language as we know it in 2015.