The History Boys- interview scene.

At the beginning of page 84, the conversation on society’s negative attitudes towards women is continued. Timms states “it’s not our fault, miss. It’s just the way it is”, the use of the inclusive pronoun “our” places Timms as a voice for all men, stating a reason that men don’t take responsibility for how women are negatively portrayed. The use of the declarative sentence “it’s just the way it is” shows Timms is accepting of how women are treated and is not willing to change this view.  Lockwood adds a quote from a famous philosopher “the world is everything that is the case” then he states “Wittgenstein, miss” this shows arrogance when he talks of the status quo and is very patronising towards Mrs Lintott, as if she isn’t smart enough to know who Wittgenstein is. Mrs Lintott becomes very dismissive and replies with “I know its Wittgenstein, thank you”. Lockwood has tried to challenge her power and now her being dismissive shows her trying to maintain that power. Mrs Lintott uses a euphemism to reply to Lockwood “did he travel on the other bus?” She creates inappropriate humour here, a coded way of stating Wittgenstein is gay, then humour is added when Hector is lost within the conversation, the repetition of “bus?” shows he doesn’t understand Mrs Lintott’s euphemism. Mrs Lintott begins to speak her mind and states “’the world is everything that is the case’ seem actually rather a feminine approach to things… a real man would be trickier ‘the world is everything that can be made to seem the case’” Mrs Lintott changes the quote and adds “made” and “seem” implying men manipulate the situation, life and society to be on top. This links to Irwin as a man, he manipulates the situation to be on top. She is the opposition to Irwin when it comes to History and gender issues. Mrs Lintott uses polysyllabic lexis such as “dispiriting” and “masculine ineptitude” to describe men in history and in general as useless. 

Within this paragraph she uses a lot of interrogatives like “can you?” and “why do you think?” to question the boys on how women are treated negatively. Timms starts to add humour by rudely replying to Mrs Lintott’s question “no tits?” and Hector adds to this by saying “hit that boy”. The men add humour because they love to play games; they see all of it as a game. This takes the focus off of Mrs Lintott however she regains control of the conversation by being very assertive within her speech “I’ll tell you why.” In her speech you can see Mrs Lintott has strong views about how women have been written out, these may be Bennett's views but are shown through Mrs Lintott, as she is the only female character. The use of the adjective “bow-wow” and the verb “frolic” creates imagery of a puppy dog and shows she believes the reason why women are not historians is because women don’t act like little puppy dogs. She is derogative about men, as she feels they get carried away with things and she uses more negative lexis about men “continuous incapability’s of men” within her speech; she is very dismissive to the whole subject. Mrs Lintott continues to focus on women using feminine lexis such as “flowers”, “frolic”, “gracefully”, she also states how “they never get round the conference table” this quote has connotations of discussion, male power, decision making and meetings, something women are never involved in. Most people in power are men, and back in the 80’s to now women are still being written out. Mrs Lintott uses imagery when saying “history is women following behind with the bucket” it states a clear picture of how women pick up the pieces of men’s mistakes.

The History Boys - Mrs Lintott

Mrs Lintott: They know their stuff. Plainly stated and properly organised facts need no presentation, surely.
Headmaster: Oh, Dorothy. I think they do. 'The facts: serving suggestion.'
Mrs Lintott: A sprig of parsley you mean? Or an umbrella in the cocktail? Are dons so naive?

Mrs Lintott shows confidence in her teaching “they know their stuff” she knows her teaching is good because she teaches them “organised facts” and that is what Mrs Lintott is, she is very factual, she is associated with facts. When she says “plainly stated and properly organised” it is like she is describing herself here, how she is organised within herself and her teaching. When the headmaster states “the facts: serving suggestion” he means that the facts are the recipe for success but the “serving suggestion” means she needs that je ne sais quoi that Hector and Irwin have while teaching. This shows the headmaster agrees that she is “plainly stated”. Mrs Lintott mocks this and extends his imagery metaphor by saying “a sprig of parsley you mean? Or an umbrella in cocktail?” it is like she is being told to spice up her teaching.

Durham was very good for history; it's where I had my first pizza. Other things, too, of course, but it's the pizza that stands out.

This shows Mrs Lintott went to university but her parties, relationships and education wasn’t very exciting or was quite rubbish. It’s the “pizza that stands out” showing that nothing was very exciting for her.

Mrs Lintott: The new man seems clever.
Hector: Depressingly so.
Mrs Lintott: Men are, at history, of course.
Hector: Why history particularly?
Mrs Lintott: Story-telling so much of it, which is what men do naturally. My ex, for instance. He told stories.
Hector: Was he an historian?
Mrs Lintott: Lintott? No. A chartered accountant. Legged it to Dumfries.

This section shows Mrs Lintott’s view on men and reveals a little bit about her husband. She states the new man “seems” clever, this shows her certainty towards Irwin’s intelligence. She then reveals her thoughts on men and how they are clever at history but at the “story-telling” part, she states it is “what men do naturally” she then relates it to her ex-husband. Mrs Lintott states he was good at story—telling, this may imply he lied to her and made up stories due to his unfaithfulness. This explains Mrs Lintott’s views and feelings towards men.

On Dakin: Actually I wouldn't have said he was sad. I would have said he was cunt-struck.

Mrs Lintott is the only women in the play; she represents all women. For Mrs Lintott to use the word “cunt-struck” is very surprising because it is seen as offensive towards women. The fact that she uses, really challenges the norm of society, where men use that word to offend women, instead she uses it too.

Rudge: You've force fed us the facts; now we're in the process of running around acquiring flavour.

Rudge describes Mrs Lintott as forceful in the way she teaches. “You’ve force fed us” this shows she is aggressive in teaching and education. Rudge also states they are “running around acquiring flavour” this links to earlier in the play, where Mrs Lintott describes herself as “plainly stated and organised” as she is associated with “organised facts”. However Rudge states how Irwin and Hector are so original and unique that Lintott lacks originality and spontaneous teaching. Her teaching includes plain, organised facts.