Drummer Hodge Transcript

The teacher is the dominant participant. “What is the main point of the poem?”. The teacher is demonstrating his authority by choosing the topic. The teacher uses the interrogative “Is it literally about a man ‘playing with the snow’?”, this encourages the pupils to really think about the meaning of the play. The teacher again shows his authority by choosing who speaks in the classroom, “I haven't asked you Alex”. The teacher uses latched talk, “His desires. Right.” to point the students in the right direction. The fact that the teacher interrupts the student could be seen as an abuse of his power, however in opposition to this it could be viewed as a good thing, as the teacher is guiding the student to the right answer. “[er, [great” the teacher uses this co operative overlap to almost stop the student from doubting herself.

1)We can tell that Hector is the dominant participant because he initially sets the agenda, “what have we learned this week?”. Also Posner uses the vocative ‘sir’ which suggests that Hector is of high authority to Posner.

2)Posner responds by again using the vocative ‘sir’. Posner also uses interrogatives, “I wondered, sir”, to widen his knowledge on the poem.

3)One key quote is "The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that way, we this way.” This quotation demonstrates the idea of sexual desire and swearing off of something that once gave him pleasure.

Discuss how Irwin and Posner’s relationship is presented in this exchange

Discuss how Irwin and Posner’s relationship is presented in this exchange

Irwin begins with an interrogative, almost as if he is the teacher and Posner is still his student. “familiar?” refers to the past which suggests Irwin is still hung up on the past. However in opposition to this, the fact that Irwin didn’t know which university Posner went to, even after how hard he worked the boys, shows how detached Irwin is from his past with the boys. “What happened at oxford?” “Cambridge”.  It is significant that Posner got into his chosen university by dismally following Irwin’s system of thinking outside the box when it comes to examinations. Posner ends up writing about the holocaust, as a Jew, with a sense of detachment. Posner goes against his better judgement and denies his heritage all to impress some examiners. Irwin in no way acknowledges that this was down to him.  

In this scene we are made to feel sorry for Posner. He didn’t get through Cambridge and he is in such a bad place he begs Irwin for a story on what happened between him and Dakin. This is quite unusual as all throughout the play, Posner is one of the more comic characters. Posner always seems to be mocking himself in order to ease his pain, "I'm a Jew. I'm small. I'm homosexual. And I live in Sheffield. I'm fucked." However when we come to this scene in the play, the moment is no longer funny but tragic and going back to that scene after learning about Posner’s future it is an accurate foreshadowing of Posner’s life.

“All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left”. Posner explains to Irwin how once he got to Cambridge he felt he could not go on even after all the hard work he put in. Posner in this scene is almost a reflection of Bennet himself. Bennett attended a public school and got into Oxford with others who came from private schools and wealthy families and so Bennett felt a lot more pressure to excel just like Posner explains to Irwin.  

Even though the play was written in 2004, Bennett still kept the stigma surrounding homosexuality at the time throughout the play. Four of the characters had homosexual predilections and three of them suffered tragic fates. Hector dies in a motorcycle accident from which Irwin is crippled and Posner becomes the loneliest, most troubled of all the boys.