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alteratiom than anything I had ever written before, or have ever written since," James Hilton noted. Based in
part on the life of Hilton's own father, the novel ‘8 just over 100 page long and telh the simple, elegant tale of
Mr. Chipping, or "Chips," and his own "coming of age" alongside the thousands of boys he teaches over the
years.
The story begim on the day in 1880 when Chips arrives at Brookfield Academy and has his first, disastrous
encounter with a class of rowdy students. With gentle wit and kindness, however, Chips quickly earns enough
respect from his boys to teach well, if not brilliantly. As he approachm middle age he ‘8 content enough at
Brookfield, although he knows something '3 missing. As the novel puts it, Chips "had been there long enough to
have established himself as a decent fellow and a hard worker, but just too long for anyone to believe him
capable of ever being much more." But when Chips meets and marriw Kathie on a holiday from school,
everything chanys: he becomes "to all appearances a new man." Although Kathie dies in childbirth just a year
later, Chips carries his new confidence into life at Brookfield and becomes not just respected but beloved.
When World War I breaks out, Chips is finally asked to take over as headmaster of the school. "For the first
time in his life," Hilton writes, "he felt necessary — and necemary to something that was nearmt his heart." Mr.
Chips's calm w‘ndom sees the school through the war. When he dies peacefully in his bed years later his last
words are the namw of the boys he taught over the years.
BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR I
The world changed completely during the years in which Mr. Chips was at Brookfield. He would have entered
the school in the late Victorian era, taught through the Edwardian era, and died between the two great wars of
the 20th century, thm witnessing the dawn of the modern world.
This was a time of dizzying technological advance: the early years of the 20th century saw the first electric
lights, telephone, telegraph, transathntic cable, elevator, car, and airplane flight. It was also a time when
Britain went from being at the height of its imperial power — with countries under its flag around the globe —
to seeing its might begin to wane as other nations competed for technological, political, and economic
advantage.
As Mr. Chips began his tenure at Brookfield, English class structure was still rigidly defined — everyone had a
place in society, and everyone knew he or her place. But the changes wrought by World War I opened up new
opportunities for women, as well as for the working classm. In their first meeting, Kathie asks Chips his
opinion on women's suffrage. By 1906 women were taking to the streets to demonstrate for the right to vote.
Public sympathy for the cause grew, and when women had to take on the jobs that men left behind during
World War 1, they proved their capability. In 1918 women won the right to vote in Britain.
For an evocative look at English life in Edwardian time, you may want to view portiom of the PBS television
serim The Manor House, which portrays modem-day volunteers going "back in time" to become an upper-class
family and their servants. Other films that portray this era are Gosford Park and The Shooting Party.
WORLD WARI AND PUBLIC SCHOOIS
When World War I broke out in 1914, it became the largmt conflict history had ever seen. In the end, the
British Empire sent nine million men to war and lost nearly one million of them. Of these men, many were
public school boys like those in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The film shows the first ominous stirrings of war as the
new headmaster brings in an Officer Training Corps, and the boys develop a growing distrust of the German
teacher, Herr Staefel.
When the war first began, many in England thought it would end soon and be "the war to end all wars." With
this attitude, and with propaganda everywhere urging young men to join the troops, it became embarraming
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