Proof by David Auburn

First published: 2001

First produced: 2000, at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of work: September, 1999, with flashbacks to September, 1995

Locale: Chicago, Illinois, at the home of Catherine’s deceased father, Robert

Principal Characters:

• Robert, a recently deceased, former professional mathematician
• Catherine, a former primary caregiver and daughter of Robert
• Claire, a resident of New York, Catherine’s sister and Robert’s daughter
• Dr. Harold “Hal” Dobbs, a mathematician and Robert’s former student

The Play

Proof revolves around a young woman, Catherine, and her reaction to her father’s recent death, her sense of self, her connection with her sister, and a new relationship with one of her father’s former students. On the night before her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine prepares for her father’s funeral and her newly arrived sister, who has her own plans for Catherine. Catherine also deals with Hal, a scholar who is searching through her father’s numerous notebooks for new ideas and possible sparks of inspiration for new mathematical discoveries.

As the play opens, Catherine sits on the back porch and talks to Robert about her unknown plans for the future. Shortly, the audience realizes that Robert is a figment of Catherine’s imagination, a phantom or ghost. Hal enters and Robert disappears. Hal’s motives seem somewhat suspect to Catherine, who believes him to be completely self-serving. However, he convinces Catherine of his admiration for her late father, and she permits his continued search for her father’s brilliance through his 103 notebooks upstairs. As their relationship develops throughout the play, Catherine simultaneously deals with her estranged sister, Claire. Learning that Claire finds Catherine to be mentally fragile and plans to move her to New York, Catherine resentfully struggles to ascertain whether she has inherited any aspects of her father’s known insanity.

The work ends with the discovery of a proof that would be considered brilliant in the math world. The problem with its discovery is the murky identity of the author of the work. Catherine, claiming it hers, incites Hal’s doubt and Claire’s cynicism. Yet, once researched, Hal discovers not only that Catherine has inherited Robert’s genius, but also that she has indeed made a serious revolutionary discovery. At the same time, Catherine confirms her suspicions that she not only has inherited her father’s brilliance but also part of his mental illness. The play ends with Catherine agreeing to move with her sister to New York so that she will be close to family who will care for her. Yet, simultaneously, she is emotionally and psychologically satisfied in knowing that her work is indeed worthy and significant in a male-dominated field.

Dramatic Devices

Auburn uses a variety of techniques to achieve his explorations of his themes. He begins the work in medias res, that is, after a crisis, the death of Catherine’s father, but before the funeral and Catherine’s subsequent proof of brilliance and move to New York. This technique invites the audience to search for the meaning in Catherine’s behavior.

Auburn applies the device of stream-of-consciousness in order to convey the story of Catherine and her emotional, physical, and psychological development. By using stream-of-consciousness, Auburn forces the reader to flash back to moments in Catherine’s past. The first act begins on the night before Catherine’s twenty-fifth birthday and her father’s funeral and ends on the day after the funeral and reception. However, at the beginning of act 2, Auburn reverts to a moment four years earlier, just before Catherine began pursuing a college career at Northwestern University and a few short months before her father’s final descent into insanity. As the audience witnesses this scene, when Catherine leaves home and parts from Robert, they also recall Hal’s presentation, four years later, of a heartfelt note of pride her father once wrote in a journal about Catherine. Auburn allows the reader to see the interaction between father and daughter that led up to the writing of that entry.

In act 2, scene 2, Auburn brings the play to the present, the day after the funeral, when Hal and Claire question Catherine’s ability to have written a revolutionary new proof that Hal has just discovered. After three scenes of defense, Auburn flashes back to Catherine’s realization of her father’s insanity more than three years earlier, after she had left school to take care of him. Auburn makes sure the reader realizes that Robert could never have written the proof in the demented state to which he had fallen in those last years. The final proof of Catherine’s abilities in the field of mathematics is realized in the last scene, a flash forward to the present, when she and Hal sit down to discuss her arrival at her work. While this narrative technique is troublesome to inattentive viewers, it is highly effective in keeping the audience searching for proof of both Catherine’s brilliance and her sanity.

Further, Auburn employs the element of irony in the title and in the controversy of the work. A proof in mathematics is supposed to resolve a problem and provide absolute certainty of a conclusion to a problem. However, Auburn illustrates irony of human behavior upon the discovery of Catherine’s proof; it casts an uncertain shadow on her identity as perceived by others and reflects uncertainty in those who find it. The mathematical proof of the play highlights the lack of trust and the surmounting doubt of each character in the play.

Critical Content

The winner of the 2001 Tony Award for best play and the Pulitzer Prize in drama, Proof is a significant text that explores character development, individual identity, and the importance of achieving one’s potential. Catherine fights many barriers in achieving her own potential: She silently combats her family, who has wordlessly assigned her to the role of caretaker of her mentally ill father and to a subsequently reduced mental state. Assuming the traditional female role of caretaker, Catherine secretly explores her astounding gift for numbers by working on a revolutionary new discovery of her own in mathematics. However, instead of sharing her discovery with the world, she acquiesces to the male-dominated profession that doubts her abilities, allegedly because of her limited education, but in reality because she has never shown outward proof that she has inherited her father’s gift for numbers. Not only does she face the barriers of family, but she also faces the stereotypes that society places on women and her own willingness to bow down to those limitations. Catherine finally shows her abilities and proves her talents as the play concludes, and the audience leaves the theater with an optimistic expectation that Catherine will be able to forge ahead and succeed in the field of mathematics.

Proof is significant for a number of reasons. First, it stresses the importance of being true to one’s identity and of pursuing one’s greatest potential, even in the face of almost hopeless odds in a biased society. Second, the play emphasizes the absurdity of discrimination: Even a person considered slightly “off” can contribute to society through a variety of avenues. Finally, the play illustrates the importance of trust and faith in helping all humans to achieve their identities and potentials through mutual and constant support.

Sources for Further Study

Brustein, Robert. “On Theater—Or, in the Heart or in the Head.” The New Republic 224 (November 13, 2000): 28.

Congdon, Constance. “God Is in the Numbers.” American Theater 17 (September, 2000): 72.

Flynn, Michael. “Science on Center Stage.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 57 (July/August, 2001): 9-10.

Gussow, Mel. “With Math, a Playwright Explores a Family in Stress.” New York Times, May 29, 2000, p. E9.

Rockmore, Daniel. “Uncertainly Certain in Mathematics and Life.” Chronicle of Higher Education 46 (June 23, 2000): B9.