Bennett shows a flexible use of time within the play; this
is shown in Irwins opening monologue when we are introduced to a man “in a
wheelchair, in his forties” however throughout most of the play he is “twenty-five”
and able to walk. This playful use of time has been to set up an enigma because
we do not find out the circumstances, as to why he’s in a wheelchair, until the
closing of the play. Bennett uses the flash-forward technique during Hectors eccentric
lessons, where Timms steps outside of the time frame and says “The hitting
never hurt. It was a joke. None of us cared. We lapped it up” the sudden switch
may prompt the audience to wonder if Timms is addressing them directly from the
future, in which he is looking back at the events of his past. Later in the
play another flash-forward technique occurs however five years into the future.
Five years later Irwin is once again in his wheelchair, which tells us his accident
will occur soon, and Irwin meets one of the students but this time he is identified
as a ‘man’. The label ‘man’ from ‘boy’ expresses the passing of time. The man
Irwin meets is Posner, one of the most fragile of the boys, who is now in therapy
and clinging onto his past. The fast-forward technique increases the sense of
urgency and inevitability. The main goal of the play is that the boys
successfully enter Oxbridge, and this does happen however the fast-forward shows
the future disappointment for both Irwin and Posner and it changes the perception
of the play.
Irwin’s fate is foreshadowed throughout the play and the
fate of Hector comes as a tragic surprise, soon after the boys’ success Hector
is killed in a motorcycle accident that paralyses Irwin. Scripps’ narration of
the accident is followed by a presentation of Hector’s funeral, which Mrs
Lintott steps out of the time frame and states “they became solicitors,
chartered accountants, teachers even…”. Scripps and Mrs Lintott are perfect to
take the role of narration because they are both outsiders. Mrs Lintott is an outsider,
due to her separation from the male environment and Scripps is an outsider through
his psychological nature as an observer. They are characters, whose position of
outsiders has given them a deeper perception of time and its patterns.
Bennett’s most common use of intertextuality in the play
occurs in the recital of poetry, mostly by Hector or by the boys he has taught.
He chooses his intertextuality references carefully, using words from the past
to illuminate the present concerns of the characters. Thomas Hardy’s “Drummer
Hodge” is used to symbolise the connection between Hector and Posner. He used
the poem characters ‘Drummer Hodge and Hardy’ to link to the characters in the
play ‘Hector and Posner’ both characters are unified through words and themes.
The boys show their skills at recital and effectiveness as a
group by reading the poem, we are seeing a play from the early 21st
century, set in the 1980s, using a poem from the 60s to describe 1914. These
layers of time moving forward from the past demonstrates one the central
message: that we can learn from times beyond our own lives
through the literature left scattered through the decades and centuries, in
what Hector describes as a game of 'pass it on'. The intertextual references continue throughout the
play, reflecting and commenting on the characters and events. Historical
references move from world war 1 in act 1 through to world war 2 in act 2, this
reflects the darker tone of the play. Humour is used to counterpoint these
uncomfortable discussions, such as the boys’ comedic emulation of the film
Brief Encounter, a story of an extra-marital affair, this links to the physical
relationship between Hector and his boys and also Irwin and Dakin. This 1980s
setting comments on the role of sexuality and sin in education. Bennett has not
only portrayed the interchange of the boys’ transition from school to
university but also the past and the future of their lives.
