Analyzing The Proof

The Proof, written by David Auburn is a brilliantly written play that delves into relationships and mental health through the medium of math. The importance of The Proof cannot be underestimated. The Proof demonstrates the relatable fear inside people through relationship examination. It also provides a great path for the reader to understand the connections that plague the main character Catherine’s mind through non-linear storytelling. This play is rich in literary elements, mostly illustrated through conflict. This is portrayed most effectively through Catherine in two relationships: between Robert (her father) and herself and the stifling conflict within her own mind. Complementing the conflict is the foreshadowing that Catherine speaks in the beginning of the play. In this scene the reader is set up for Catherine’s genius breakthrough of authoring a proof. Finally, there is a continuous theme which consists of the line between genius and madness. This theme shows up most between Robert and Catherine.

The first interpretive point is the conflict seen between Robert and Catherine. The very first scene of the play displays their relationship, a conversation that Catherine is having with him just a few weeks after his death. Robert is telling Catherine to return to work and do something with her talent but Catherine feels dejected and has no motivation to break through her depression, or treat it with exercise. The following conversation, brings Catherine’s depression to the forefront and she also realizes her father’s own depression.

In continuing to the second, and biggest conflict between Robert and Catherine, Catherine has been at Northwestern for a while and she rushes home to her father when she cannot get a hold of him on the phone. Much to her surprise, she finds him working again on the porch. Robert is very excited and wants to share his discovery of a proof with her. To Catherine’s extreme sadness, her father’s proof is utter gibberish. When Catherine tries to change the subject and get her father to go inside, Robert makes Catherine read it out loud. She tries to insist they both go in the house but Robert is very furious at this point and wants to discuss the proof. After Catherine reads a paragraph she stops and Robert falls apart because he realizes he still can’t work on his mathematical proofs. In desperation, he says to Catherine, “don’t leave. Please” (Auburn). These flashbacks set up the conflict Catherine also has within herself. Catherine’s conflict within herself is best displayed through her conversations with both her father and her sister, Claire. The conflict within Catherine is her resistance to the similarities that both she and her father share. Claire, in the middle of an argument with Catherine, confirms this fear, “I think you have some of his (Robert’s) talent and some of his tendency toward…instability” (Auburn 1994). After this, Catherine becomes irate, and figures out her sister’s actual motivation to sell the house she’s living in. Claire wants to take Catherine to New York for mental treatment. This is too much for Catherine to handle and she lashes out at Claire telling her she’s not as smart as she is and that she hates her. As much as Catherine hates the similarities however it is necessary for her transformation into genius.

During a conversation Catherine has with Hal, her romantic interest, she references Sophie Germain, a mathematician who corresponded with Antonie-August Le Blanc during the French Revolution. This is significant because there is a telling example of foreshadowing, “she tried to get a real education but the schools didn’t allow women…so she wrote letters…she used a man’s name” (Auburn 1989). Catherine goes on to say that when Le Blanc realized Germain was a woman he praised her for her ability to conquer a field that was exclusively dominated by men. In usingthis reference, the reader is expecting, and gets to see Catherine realize her own courage, talents and genius.

A constant theme in The Proof is the comparison and seemingly blurry line between genius and madness. This is represented in the relationship between Catherine and Robert but Hal’s role in this theme is also important. When looking at Catherine and Robert the reader can see how similar these two characters are. They are both hot tempered, struggle with depression and they both have a significant talent for mathematics. It is debated throughout the play whether this talent and these fits of mental instability are signs of genius, madness or both. In taking Hal’s role into account, there is an initial belief that Catherine is mad because Hal believes Catherine was not the author of the proof she claimed to be. In the end, however, Hal realizes through investigation that Catherine did write the proof and although he realizes she is eccentric, he views her as more of a genius than a mad person.

The Proof carries most of its strength through conflict because there is a lot of layers between Catherine and her father and Catherine and herself. The play also explains to the reader early on that Catherine is going to pull through and show her courage and use her talents, even though it is speculated by the audience whether her courage and talents are madness or genius. The Proof is important because it elegantly exposes the topic of mental illness through relationship examination by using mathematics. This play helps its readers to realize their own mental instability and, in continuation, their own genius.

Work Cited

Auburn, David. An Album of Contemporary Plays. n.d., http://my.fit.edu/~lperdiga/proof.pdf.