History Lessons

Most people enjoy reminiscing about the so-called best days of their lives. The History Boys is the latest in the long tradition of films celebrating the educational mavericks whose unorthodox teaching styles inspire or mislead their pupils depending on the viewer's perspective and experience. There are echoes of Goodbye Mr Chips, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Dead Poets' Society, Gregory's Girl and even School of Rock. However, to dismiss it as another amusing yet poignant celebration of the eccentric teacher and his quirky pupils is to miss the point. Alan Bennett's tightly written script draws the viewer into contemplating life's big questions. What purpose does education serve? What is history? Where can individuals find meaning and significance? And the biggest one of all: what is truth?

The stage version of the work enjoyed an unprecedented level of success when it was performed at the National Theatre in London in 2004. The production won numerous awards and subsequently toured the UK before crossing to Broadway in 2005. The film adaptation uses the original script with one or two additional scenes, and the characters are played by the original cast members. The film is directed by Nicholas Hytner, director of the National Theatre, who also directed the stage version.

Set in a Yorkshire comprehensive in 1983, The History Boys tells the story of a group of seven boys on the verge of leaving home for university. Returning to school for one last term to prepare for the Oxbridge entrance exams in History, the boys are a formidable and tight knit group – funny, sharp and full of potential. They thrive under the unorthodox teaching methods of Hector (Richard Griffiths) whose definition of 'General Studies' includes a French conversational class set in an imagined brothel, regular renditions of Gracie Fields' classics and an ongoing bet with the boys as to whether he can guess the names of the films they act out for him. Hector always wins the bet. His teaching methods, like the eclectic images on his classroom wall, are peppered with a vast array of quotations from history and literature. His view of education is summed up in his quotation from A.E. Housman that, 'Knowledge is not general, it is specific, and nothing to do with getting on'.

These views contrast sharply with those of the headteacher (Clive Merrison) who decides that to ensure the boys' success and the reputation of the school, 'we need a strategy . . . a game plan'. In furtherance of this he recruits Oxford graduate Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to provide the required polish. Soon the clash of teaching methods is apparent. Despite the constant testing of the boys ('Is this your gap year, Sir?'), Irwin dismisses their essay-writing efforts as, 'not even bad, just dull,' and sets about feeding them 'gobbets' of information which, he claims, will set them apart from the thousands of other Oxbridge hopefuls.

So far, so predictable, but what unfolds is something more complex than a simple battle of methodologies. As Irwin schools the students in the art of lying to improve their chances, we discover that his life is not as straightforward as it would appear. Meanwhile, it transpires that the immensely likeable Hector has a habit of misplacing his hands when giving the boys lifts home on his motorbike. When he is spotted by a sharp-eyed lollipop lady it appears that his teaching career may be cut short.

The film succeeds in being both funny and sharply poignant. There are wonderful performances from the lead characters and some fantastic supporting roles from Frances de la Tour as the worldly wise history teacher Mrs Lintott ('History is not such a picnic for women as it is for men'), Adrian Scarborough as the fervently evangelical Christian PE teacher and Penelope Wilton as the put-upon art teacher. The production values are lower than we have come to expect (there are a number of scenes where the boom is visible in shot) and there are some anachronistic references to media studies and league tables, but the quality of the writing and depth of characterisation mean that these can be excused.

Throughout the film there is much discussion of what history is. The overarching conclusion appears to agree with the assessment of the less academically gifted Rudge (Russell Tovey) that history is 'just one f***ing thing after another'. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that the film views moments of history as, in the words of Mrs Lintott, 'the smallest of incidents, the junction of a dizzying range of outcomes'. This is a senseless, perhaps even cruel, view of history. If indeed history is just one thing after another, then life holds no meaning and even apparently important decisions serve no ultimate purpose. This sense of meaninglessness echoes the words of Solomon, writer of the book of Ecclesiastes:

'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the teacher. 'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What does a man gain from all his labour at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.' (Ecclesiastes 1:1-4, NIV)

Indeed, Solomon's conclusion is as bleak as Rudge's. In verse 11 he writes, 'There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow' (Ecclesiastes 1:11, NIV).

In stating their views of history, Rudge and Mrs Lintott are asking the existential question of where meaning can be found in human experience. Hector has apparently found his answer in the communication of knowledge:

'Pass the parcel – that's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me. Not for you. For someone, someday. Pass it on. That's the game, boys. I want you to learn to pass it on.'

Without a belief in God or any transcendent external being, this is all one can ever hope to achieve. Ultimately knowledge, education and history serve no purpose other than to add to the parcel of common understanding which is passed on to future generations. Hector finds meaning in his role as a teacher yet, as we discover, this still leaves him unsatisfied. When he is spotted fondling a pupil on his motorbike and asked to leave the school, he questions what made him waste his life in 'this God-forsaken place. There's nothing of me left.' In passing on the parcel of knowledge, Hector has failed to discover real purpose.

One of the film's most powerful scenes takes place between Hector and Posner, the sensitive homosexual teenager. Hector returns to his classroom from an uncomfortable encounter with the headteacher to find Posner waiting for his weekly poetry tutorial. The ensuing discussion of Thomas Hardy's poem Drummer Hodge reveals a shared sense of isolation. Hector's description of Hardy as, 'a saddish man though not unappreciated' is eerily close to his own situation, while his explanation of Hardy's choice of the word 'uncoffined' ('unkissed, unrejoicing and unembraced') suggests a suppressed longing to live as he teaches. He explains to Posner that the term means, 'being out of it, whether out of diffidence or shyness. Not being in the swim of it.' Posner responds that he has 'felt that a bit'. Both characters have a deep desire to belong, to be 'in the swim of it'. Hector finds solace in literature ('The best moments in reading are when you come across a thought or feeling which you thought particular to you . . . as if a hand has come out and taken yours'), while Posner finds comfort in the unrequited passion he feels for his confident classmate, Daykin. The choice of Drummer Hodge, a poem about the death of an insignificant soldier in a remote land, is an interesting one. As Hector comments to Posner, the very fact that Hardy names Hodge lends him significance and heroism.

This resonates with the Bible's perspective on humanity. The Bible frequently links the ideas of naming and being known. In the creation account in Genesis[1] Adam, the man created by God, is given the task of naming the animals and birds, thereby demonstrating that God gives humans authority over, and responsibility for, the rest of creation. The animals are named and therefore known or categorised.

In Exodus[2] when Moses asks what name he should ascribe to God, he is told 'I AM'. God's name is a reflection of who he is and what he does. God's character can be known through his actions.

The significance of belonging through the use of names is again shown in Isaiah when God reminds his people of his promise to be with them with the statement, 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine.' (Isaiah 43:1, NIV). Naming here signifies belonging and being known, being part of a close relationship characterised by security and peace.

By stressing the importance of Hodge's name, Hector exposes the longing he has to be significant. His teaching career has made him influential in the lives of the pupils and he has notoriety within school as an affable eccentric, yet there remains a desire for something deeper.

The film returns frequently to the search for truth and its interpretation through historical recording. To broaden their perspective on the First World War, Irwin takes the students to the town war memorial where they discuss the reasons why no one admits fault in war. The memorial, he claims, stands as the community's way of forgetting the dead – 'it's not lest we forget, it's lest we remember'. Challenged by the boys that their conventional understanding of the causes and outcomes of the First World War is all true, Irwin reveals his worldview in the statement 'What's truth got to do with it? What's truth got to do with anything?' Irwin is a pragmatist. His carefully constructed façade of control and achievement disguises the turmoil and self-revulsion he feels. Irwin's question is not original. Pontius Pilate famously asked, 'What is truth?' in response to Jesus' statement that, 'Everyone on the side of truth listens to me' (John 18:37-38, NIV). If there is such as thing as truth – absolute, immoveable truth – then it has to do with everything. History must be more than the interpretation given to events by any given political, social or racial group. Lurking beneath every interpretation is the solid base of objective fact.

Irwin has bought into the view that there is no such thing as objective truth. This is confirmed later in the film when he is taken to task by the pupils during a discussion of the Second World War. One boy states that to 'explain' such unprecedented evil as the death camps is to 'explain it away' In other words, to try to find a cause lessens the impact of the event and appears to excuse it. 'Good point', Irwin replies, to which he is told, 'Not good point, sir, true.' Perhaps something as indisputably evil as the Holocaust is proof of truth itself, as no interpretation can ever make sense of it other than to state the fact of its occurrence. To declare something evil one must have some measure of good and evil, some standard that is objective and immoveable. Jesus' statement earlier in John's gospel is yet more radical: 'I am the way, the truth and the life' (John 14:6, NIV). In this extraordinary statement he is setting himself as the objective and immoveable standard. He is saying that good and evil can be discerned only in reference to him, that whoever is on the side of truth will therefore listen to him. To accept what Jesus says about himself is thus to accept that history is ultimately interpreted in reference to him. It is a statement that causes as much controversy now as when it was first spoken. Questions of truth and interpretation are as pertinent now as then.

In an interview with Nicholas Hytner in June 2004, Alan Bennett was asked whether he thought there was such a thing as absolute historical truth. His answer was characteristically honest, 'I don't know. That's one of the reasons why I wrote the play. In the words of Rudge in the play, "History is just one f***ing thing after another," which seems quite a brutish thing to say but was actually not said by him originally, but by Herbert Butterfield who was Professor of History at Cambridge in the '40s, only as he put it: "History is one bloody thing after another."'[3]

The Book of Ecclesiastes offers a more definite conclusion than this. The final verses of the book state that:

'Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.' (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, NIV)

Much of what happens in life appears meaningless, yet the writer affirms that history is observed by God and will be judged by him. Without God, history is indeed just one thing after another, but with him, it is part of a greater understanding of the universe. The purpose of human beings is therefore to create and interpret history in reference to him.

In some regards The History Boys is an easy film to watch. The setting is familiar, the characters are engaging and the script is very funny. However, it is also deceptively challenging. Through the straightforward retelling of a series of events, Bennett leads us to question and think. As a good teacher should.

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