Mock Rewrite

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.