Proof By David Auburn: Character Analysis

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Proof Proof by David Auburn is a dramatic play about genius and madness and how close these two really are to each other. Three of the four characters Auburn uses are gifted mathematicians: one was certified, one close to being certified, and one who has the mental capacity to be certified. These three character are, in respect to their level of certification, Robert, Harold, and Catherine. Robert, Catherine’s father, was at one time a genius mathematician and after completing his best work in his early twenties, he starting going insane. He had obtained a mental illness over time, but he was never put into a mental institution or anywhere else of that type. Instead, his faithful daughter Catherine attended to him. Catherine’s older…show more content…
All she had done was take a few classes at Northwestern for a few months. Claire believes the handwriting is definitely that of her father. And although she thinks Catherina is like her father in more than a couple of ways, she has a hard time believing that Catherine could have come up with something as complex as this proof. Harold “Hal” Dobbs is the character I chose to focus on. The most important fact about Hal is that he is not a genius. In fact, he shows this a little when he claims that if he had one tenth of the accomplishments Robert had, he could work in any math department in the country. He may enjoy less than a tenth of Robert’s ability, but he suffers nothing of his curse. He shows us this while he is with his rock band in the after-hours of the night. Hal and his friends go out for drinks and get laid, showing basic forms of sanity among most people. Thus, unlike Catherine whose gift is wrapped in dread, Hal enjoys his commonness as a pure sanction. He also has a knack for noticing the good attributes in other people. He basically worshipped Robert as mathematician and he stands in awe of Catherine’s untutored genius. If Catherine is struggling with the problem of being or not being her father, then Hal is competent, firmly grounded, fully aware of the rareness he

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