The History Boys- Act 1

-In The History Boys, the comedy is created through the boys because they're all completely different characters but all have the common ground of being really good friends and being really clever. The play raises the question of what way should things be taught. Hector teaches the boys more life skills with things such as French and Literature whereas Irwin tries to teach them examination skills to get them all into Oxford. 

-The most interesting thing about the first act is Hector is first introduced to be slightly dodgy when he tries teaching them in a different way and they re-enact being in a brothel and Dakin takes off his trousers and this is seen to be inappropriate and a bit of a taboo. It also becomes clear that Dakin is also seeing the headmasters secretary, Fiona,  but in the play this isn't really a main storyline. This shows the stereotype of woman because Hector has been having sexual relations with the boys and yet because Fiona is a woman, it's seen to be less shocking even though it is still highly inappropriate and she is in a position of power. This in itself is shocking in the play because they are thought of to be completely different situations but in actual fact, they are both abusing their power.

-I think that although Hector has been labelled, he is still a better teacher than Irwin because he is actual teaching them life skills that they can go out and use and making them generally more educated people that Irwin who is teaching them something that after the exam, they are most likely to forget. It raises the question  of what teaching method is best and I think that learning for life is better than learning just to almost test your memory rather than your education.

-When Mrs Lintott comes out with language that is shocking, I can imagine that it would make the audience laugh and this is through sheer awkwardness because the audience might not know how to react to it. This is what most of the play does because even though it's a comedy it deals with some very hard topics that usually aren't spoken about so it tries to deal with in instead of seriously, they try not to make light of the subject but make it easier for people to talk about. This is very clever of Bennett.