In the extract from Act 1, the Headmaster’s relationship
with Mrs Lintott is presented in a way that suggests the Headmaster is in a
position of power. The phrase “Mrs Lintott, Dorothy” is a sentence fragment,
which is used to address Mrs Lintott. The comma in the sentence is used to
divide up the sentence, suggesting there is a small pause. The pause emphasises
“Dorothy” which comes after the more formal use of “Mrs Lintott”. The movement
from a formal vocative to the informal usage of Mrs Lintott’s first name
suggests that the Headmaster is lowering her status and exerting a position of
power over her, showing that in the extract there is an asymmetrical power
dynamic in their relationship. Furthermore, Mrs Lintott uses an irregular
interrogative “Headmaster?” to address the headmaster. The interrogative is
cloaked as an interrogative where in fact it is part of an adjacency pair,
which implies that what Mrs Lintott is saying should be looked further into.
The noun “Headmaster” also acts as a vocative that denotes a position of power.
This usage suggests that there is no friendly intimacy in their relationship
and he is only her employer. There is also evidence from the usage of low
frequency lexis such as the adverb “indubitably” which suggests there is
nothing casual about their relationship. The length of much of what Mrs Lintott
says in the extract is short and does not go into detail about her own personal
experience. Instead, she uses monosyllabic utterances such as “More?” which
does not follow the regular structure of an interrogative which is a type of
questioning technique. It can be suggested that Bennett keeps the sentence
length short on purpose to present Mrs Lintott as using prompting techniques to
encourage the Headmaster to say more whilst not making much of a conscious
effort to engage. As well as that, it can be suggested that the power in the
relationship is centred on the Headmaster because he is allowed to do more of
the talking. The interrogative comes after the Headmaster has said “something
more” needs to be done about the boys’ education, which can be seen by some
audiences as an insult to her teaching style. This implies that their
relationship is not based on mutual understanding and growth, rather that it is
one where the Headmaster commands her to do things for his own benefit.
However, some audiences may see it as the Headmaster attempting to deliver a
message in a ‘sweetened’ way as he starts the extract by saying “thanks to you,
Dorothy” the boys have “very good [A levels]”. This suggests that their
relationship is not one where the two feel comfortable enough to confide
confidently in each other.
On the other hand, Mrs Lintott’s relationship with Hector is
presented by Alan Bennett to be more intimate. Whilst Bennett gives Mrs Lintott
is made to use short sentences with the Headmaster, she uses more developed
compound sentences with Hector. For example, she uses the declarative “other
things, too, of course, but it’s the pizza that stands out”. The usage of high
frequency lexis such as “pizza” signifies that she has a more personal
relationship with Hector, especially since he is also a teacher at her level
and they do not have power over each other. There is no asymmetrical power
dynamic presented in this relationship. The divulging of personal experiences
is something she does with Hector and not with the Headmaster. Bennett has Mrs
Lintott uses a more complex form of interrogative, “didn’t you try for
Cambridge?”, than she does with the Headmaster. The usage of the pronoun “you”
suggests a personal intrusion on Hector’s life, which has an appropriate tone
in this context as it infers a platonically intimate relationship with Hector.
The subject of “Cambridge” is also used in this quote, which suggests she is
looking for a more specific answer rather than allowing Hector to ramble, or
take control of the conversation, as some audience may think she does with the
Headmaster, saying “but that’s not enough apparently” about the implication
that the boys need even further teaching in order to be good “enough” for the
Headmaster. The use of the conjunction “but” creates the impression that she
does not have a positive relationship with the Headmaster despite not actively
giving much of an opinion in their interaction as is apparent in later parts of
the text. In her conversation with the Headmaster, she simply continues to use
interrogatives in response to anything he says.
