In the play Proof by David Auburn, Catherine, the daughter of a genius mathematician, tries to restart her life after the death of her father, but doesn’t know exactly how. After years of taking care of her mentally unstable father, Robert, Catherine fears that she may end up mentally unstable like him. The fear of becoming mentally unstable causes her to push people away, and not trust quickly. Hal is a former student of Robert’s and goes through Robert’s notebooks after his death, in hopes of finding some genius math. Catherine’s fear of being mentally unstable and mistrust of Hal may seem like the only reasons behind Catherine and Hal’s conflict, however Hal’s own fear of not being a mathematical genius like Robert causes Hal to make questionable
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Catherine interprets what Hal said as Hal wanting to go through her dad’s books just to take something and publish it as his own, and we can see this when Catherine says after this, “Give me your backpack. … I want to look inside it. … Open it and give it to me. … You’re not taking anything out of this house. … You’re hoping to find something upstairs that you can publish. … Then you can write your own ticket.” (17). Catherine’s skepticism of Hal’s true intentions causes her to not trust him. Catherine and Hal talk some more before Catherine takes Hal’s backpack and searches it, where she finds nothing. However, right when Hal is about to leave, Catherine notices that he is about to leave without his jacket. When she picks it up to hand it to him, one of her dad’s notebooks falls out. This pisses Catherine off, because Hal had told Catherine that she was being paranoid, and had attempted to make friends with her and gain her trust by suggesting they go jogging together (21). While Hal took the notebook not for math purposes, but because he wanted to give it to Catherine on her birthday because what her dad had written in it was about her twenty first birthday (23), this would be a questionable decision on Hal’s part. Hal even …show more content…
In the drawer Hal finds what appears to be a proof (46). When Catherine finally admits to writing it, her sister, Claire, doesn’t believe her (47/61). Catherine, trusting Hal, asks him to tell Claire who’s book it is (62). Hal responds with, “I don’t Know.” (62). Hal then tries to back track by saying that he’ll go have it checked out by some people he knows, but Catherine doesn’t want him to take the book (62/63). Hal lost Catherine’s trust with the book the moment he didn’t trust her when she said it was her book. After more arguing about who’s handwriting it looks like, defeatedly, Catherine says, “It does look like his. I didn’t show this to anyone else. I could have. I wanted you to be the first to see it. I didn’t know I wanted that until last night. It’s me. I trusted you.”
Catherine interprets what Hal said as Hal wanting to go through her dad’s books just to take something and publish it as his own, and we can see this when Catherine says after this, “Give me your backpack. … I want to look inside it. … Open it and give it to me. … You’re not taking anything out of this house. … You’re hoping to find something upstairs that you can publish. … Then you can write your own ticket.” (17). Catherine’s skepticism of Hal’s true intentions causes her to not trust him. Catherine and Hal talk some more before Catherine takes Hal’s backpack and searches it, where she finds nothing. However, right when Hal is about to leave, Catherine notices that he is about to leave without his jacket. When she picks it up to hand it to him, one of her dad’s notebooks falls out. This pisses Catherine off, because Hal had told Catherine that she was being paranoid, and had attempted to make friends with her and gain her trust by suggesting they go jogging together (21). While Hal took the notebook not for math purposes, but because he wanted to give it to Catherine on her birthday because what her dad had written in it was about her twenty first birthday (23), this would be a questionable decision on Hal’s part. Hal even …show more content…
In the drawer Hal finds what appears to be a proof (46). When Catherine finally admits to writing it, her sister, Claire, doesn’t believe her (47/61). Catherine, trusting Hal, asks him to tell Claire who’s book it is (62). Hal responds with, “I don’t Know.” (62). Hal then tries to back track by saying that he’ll go have it checked out by some people he knows, but Catherine doesn’t want him to take the book (62/63). Hal lost Catherine’s trust with the book the moment he didn’t trust her when she said it was her book. After more arguing about who’s handwriting it looks like, defeatedly, Catherine says, “It does look like his. I didn’t show this to anyone else. I could have. I wanted you to be the first to see it. I didn’t know I wanted that until last night. It’s me. I trusted you.”