Mrs.Lintott to be a sound projector for women’s whose voices are muted because of the patriarchal society. Mrs.
Lintott is the only female history teacher in the play, whom powerfully stands up to the boys who immaturely do not take the mock interview seriously in page 84 and 85. Bennett injects Mrs. Lintott with courage to express her unfavourable views of history and gender. She reveals that, ” history’s not such a frolic for women as it is for men.” Here she suggests that history is more painful towards women, as it does not consider women as important but deems them to be irrelevant hence why they are ignored.
She states that women are left ignored continuously, possibly the same way she is left ignored by the boys whom favour Irwin and can further reveal how she is restricted in expressing herself as she is never taken seriously and thus can never make way around the ”conference table.” Bennett further re-establishes the idea that women are left ignored as Mrs. Lintott receives no response but silence and ”yawning” and is left with the ”masters” (men) finding it ”distasteful.” Therefore, she powerfully establishes her views in this ”performance” to highlight the problems the patriarchal society have, which is not giving enough recognition to women in society throughout history. Mrs. Lintott further reinstates the idea that women are left ignored particularly in history as she herself must ”teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude,” in which she finds ”dispiriting.” The fact that she feels that a history lesson is nothing but a timeline of wars, battles and men who start these wars, is understandable as to why she feels as women are left ignored.
It could be argued, that Mrs. Lintott is in battle with herself as a teacher as she must teach something that she is not passionate about. To further expand, it could be argued that Bennett is exposing the flaw within the education system which has caused this gender imbalance and could explain as to why Mrs. Lintott is feeling ”dispirited” as she must teach about the continuities of men’s mistakes and ”in-capabilities,” which is infuriating and causing her to be frustrated as she cannot glorify or even discuss women’s roles within society because the system itself has prevented her to do so. Notably, Bennett set the play in the 1980’s where everyone believed that the system had apparently changed, perhaps this can reveal that it had not Finally, she implements the anecdote, ”history is women following behind with the bucket, ” to provoke a sense of sympathy from the boys for her, as she has to follow Irwin around even though she has had more experience with teaching. She alludes to the fact that women are regarded to be mere and unimportant.
The metaphor of the, ”women following History (men) around with the bucket,” can reveal the idea of how women are the main reason as to why society progresses further on, as women either must clean up the mess that men have made or make sure that have been cleaned as men have left nothing but destruction and mess throughout history. It could therefore be argued that Mrs.Lintott represents the women who are left ignored. However, according to, David Greenberg: ”her character though important, is ”under developed,” a mere cameo role.” It could be noted, that Mrs.Lintott has not been given a huge role within the play as she is the narrative character and not the main focus of the play but it is therefore wrong to mention that she in ”under developed,” as she is used as a tool to express Bennetts views but also her little ”performance,” allows the audience to see the real her as she is emphasizing her views. Therefore, not underdeveloped as she becomes a figure head for women’s roles within society.
