Proof David Auburn\'s \"Proof\" --

Proof

David Auburn's "Proof" -- Catherine vs. Claire

How can two sisters from the same family be so different?

Both fulfill different functions and roles in the family dynamic. Catherine is the caretaker, and the mathematical problem-solver. Claire is the problem-solver, in a practical sense.

Temperamentally, Claire takes risks in finance, Catherine hides from the world, locked in her father's reality, and does not embrace risk, only intellectual risks on the Both represent two different aspects of mathematics. Catherine represents mathematics' theoretical side, while Claire's career in finance and concern with money demonstrate the worldly value of numbers

Catherine's characteristics

Compassionate, as manifested by her role in the caretaker of her mathematician father until recently freed by his death

Confined socially, limited professionally, and kept in a childlike state personally by her father's mental illness

Depressive, reluctant to move forward even after a change, pessimistic

Allied with her father, even after he dies -- experiences his presence in a ghostly fashion

Still young in terms of her sexual experience, even though she is in her 20s

Over the course of the play, says she has discovered revolutionary mathematical theory amongst her dead father's papers -- Claire expresses surprise

Protective of father's memory as a great man

Protective also of father emotionally, did not, when he was living, allow him to be fully cognizant of the extend of his illness, while Claire believes she sees her father's illness (and her sister's) clearly However, in doing so, may also have been protecting herself from moving out into the world, which her older sister Claire was able to do much more successfully

Loves father without reservation -- finds her identity in caring for her father, unlike Claire who finds her identity by breaking away from the family and becoming engaged in professional, normal life

Moody, withdrawn, emotionally unstable

Might be author of the supposedly new proof -- hard to trust what she says, unlike Claire who speaks her mind without obfuscation

Says father is "sick" not mad as a euphemism

Catherine lives in the past and in her head -- haunted by ghost of father in the play. Even if not as mad as Claire fears she is, is disconnected with reality.

Angry at those who would lay claim to father's memory -- "hoping to find something of my dad's you could publish?" Catherine says, angry, sees those who have interest in father's memory as vultures

Introvert by nature

Has lost stability, nexus of her 'being' in the world with father's death

Has been raised in mathematical world, has little sense of how other, more normal people like Claire may see her

Risk adverse

Paranoid about father's memory and home being taken away by Claire -- "they've been after it for years," she says when Claire comes to take house (symbolic of father's memory) away Claire

Practical

New York currency analyst -- money, numbers, worldly side of math

Skeptic

Does not idolize father

Condescending to father's memory and to Catherine. Doesn't value mathematics.

Loves Catherine, but does not appreciate her intelligence -- values intelligence and ability only in practical sense