Read the synopsis of the original play of which this chapter is an extract:
The play is about the last few days in the career of Andrew Crocker-Harris, an ageing Greek and Latin teacher at a British Public School. He is forced to retire due to health concerns and feels that he has become obsolete.
Taplow, a pupil who needs Crocker-Harris to pass him
so he can go up to the next year, comes to him for help with his Greek,
but Crocker-Harris is not in his rooms. Instead, Taplow meets Frank Hunter,
another Master at the school. We find out (after Taplow leaves) that
Hunter, and Crocker-Harris' wife, Millie, are carrying on an affair.
When Crocker-Harris returns, he first has the lesson with Taplow,
where he begins to show his true feelings through his love for
literature. Afterwards, the headmaster arrives to inform him that the
school will not give him his pension because of his early retirement,
though he was depending on it, and wishes him to relinquish his place in
the end-of-term speech-giving to a popular sports master.
Mr. Gilbert, Crocker-Harris's successor at his teaching post, arrives
to view the Crocker-Harrises' home. He seeks advice on the lower fifth,
the year Crocker-Harris teaches, and how to control them.
Crocker-Harris begins to relate to Gilbert his own sad experiences after
Gilbert tells Crocker-Harris that the headmaster had referred to
Crocker-Harris as the 'Himmler of the lower fifth'. Heinrich Himmler was a commander in Hitler's Nazi army. Crocker-Harris, who did not realise he was feared by the boys, is very disturbed by this title.
Taplow returns, and moves Crocker-Harris by giving him an inscribed version of Robert Browning's translation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon,
at which point he breaks down crying. Millie, his wife, shows her
callousness at Crocker-Harris's emotional state by ruining this fond
moment by implying Taplow only gave the gift to get the grades. Hunter
breaks off the affair with her, instead turning his sympathies to
Crocker-Harris. Crocker-Harris informs him that he knew of Millie's
affair with Hunter, as well as her previous ones, but despite this he
does not wish to divorce her.
As the play ends, Hunter makes plans with a reluctant Crocker-Harris
to meet him at his new place of work, and an uplifted Crocker-Harris
telephones the headmaster saying that he will make his speech after the
sports master, as is his right.
The 'Browning Version' of the title references the translation of the Greek tragedy given by Taplow, Agamemnon, in which Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, aided by her lover.
Read:
E. R. Braithwaite's To Sir, With Love
Robert Browning's Agamemnon
Watch:
To Sir, With Love
Troy
Thank you ma'am! The chapter makes so much more sense now. I really like your posts, they're a great help and a pleasure to read. :)
ReplyDeleteI guess dis explanation is wrong
ReplyDeleteIt is frank and Taplow who are talking and not a thing is given about any affair
@Anonymous: Please check the title of this post. This is the original plot of the complete play. The Frank-Taplow conversation is just an extract from the same. The affair is revealed immediately after the Frank-Taplow scene in the 'original play'.
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