Explore the dramatic impact and importance of Irwin's third lesson (pp34 - 41)

Authors Avatar

Explore the dramatic impact and importance of Irwin’s third lesson (pp34 – 41)

  • Establish the significance of the passage to the play as a whole.

The location of Irwin’s third lesson is not stated in the play, which allows actors’ flexibility on where they could act it. The scene breaks immediately into Timms asking, “Where do you live, sir?” followed by several other fairly personal questions such as, “ Do you exist on an unhealthy diet of takeaway food, sir, or do you whisk up gourmet meals for one?”. Noticeably the boys are still calling Irwin “Sir” and therefore have not forgotten their place. This has an impact on the reader; the unsophisticated questions allow the reader to take the boys seriously and accept that they are normal and don’t always quote from novels and such. This is significant to the play as a whole because it establishes the boy’s relationship with Irwin. They are testing his limits and his humour. The audience builds their own views of Irwin during this scene.

Most of Rudge’s speech is simply ignored because the boys know that he isn’t quite as bright as them. After Irwin’s speech about “Henry VIII” he comments, “an angle. You want us to find an angle”. In a sense Rudge has understood exactly what Irwin is trying to tell the boys. The other boy’s ‘basic thinking’ ability has been halted by all the knowledge they have gathered from Hector’s, “waste of time” lessons, whereas Rudge still possesses this ability. This is significant to the play as a whole because it ironically conveys Rudge as the most intelligent boy because he has understood exactly what Irwin has been telling him. The reader is encouraged to empathize with Rudge because he is denied recognition from the other boys and Irwin.

Join now!

Irwin takes advantage of the boy’s continuous questions to him, and asks one himself. “Why does he lock the door?” “They turn to each other in mock surprise”, “Lock the door? Does he lock the door?” Akthar says. This mocking tone is exactly the same as the way that Hector talks to the Headmaster. This creates dramatic impact because it is showing how the boys are almost part of Hector. The fact that they use the same language as him and could be labelled, boys of “studied eccentricity” supports this fact. The boys clearly have a strong relationship with ...

This is a preview of the whole essay