Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in DNA, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Right vs. Wrong
Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink
Guilt
Reality and Truth
Summary
Analysis
Mark and Jan stand on a London street. Mark has just told Jan that someone they know is dead. Jan is in disbelief. Jan asks if Mark is sure that their mutual acquaintance is dead, or if he’s joking. Mark insists he’s being serious. Jan asks Mark if their acquaintance could be hiding, but Mark says he’s certain—the person is dead. Jan asks Mark what they are going to do. Mark does not answer her.
The play opens with a vague, intriguing scene which depicts two teenagers feeding into one another’s anxiety, uncertainty, and desire for gossip and information. Kelly is creating an atmosphere in which anything could happen—and in which his young, impressionable characters will follow one another’s leads in their search for answers and absolution.
Themes
Elsewhere, Leah and Phil sit in a field. Phil eats an ice cream. Leah asks Phil what he’s thinking, but he does not answer her. Leah assures Phil that he can tell her anything, but he remains silent. Leah continues to ask Phil questions, desperate to get him to talk to her. When he refuses to answer her, she tells him that she knows she talks too much but can’t help it. Leah talks in circles as she tries to brag to Phil about her other friends—but it is clear from Leah’s self-consciousness and nervous speech patterns that she doesn’t really have anyone else to talk to.
This passage establishes the dynamic between Leah and Phil. Though the two appear to be in a relationship, Kelly gives little background as to their origins as a couple. Leah’s desperation for Phil’s approval will drive her actions throughout the play—but Phil, it seems, isn’t driven by or toward anything at all.
Themes
At last, Leah admits that she is scared. “Everyone here” scares her, she says, and she knows she’s not the only one living in fear. Everyone else, she knows, is scared too. Again, she asks Phil what he’s thinking, but he doesn’t answer her. Mark and Jan enter together and tell Phil and Leah that they all need to have a talk.
In a small wood, Lou, John Tate, and Danny stand around talking. Lou worries that the three of them are “fucked,” but John Tate assures her that everything is going to be fine—even though they are, for the moment, in a “tricky […] situation.” John Tate asks Lou if she’s scared of anyone at their school—Lou replies that she’s scared of John Tate. John Tate asks if there’s anyone other than him Lou is scared of, and Lou says she’s scared of Richard. John Tate tells Lou that as long as she sticks with him and Richard, she’ll be fine.
This passage furthers the idea that there is an environment of fear, pressure, and control in these teens’ social group. John Tate fancies himself in control and tries to play the role of leader—even when confronted with the idea that another boy, Richard, may have more social power than he does.
Themes
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Danny says he’s afraid of getting “mixed up” in whatever is going on. He’s got a plan for his life which ends in a career as a dentist, and he doesn’t want to risk messing it up. Lou tells John Tate that someone is dead—and that that fact can’t be underplayed. John Tate says the word “dead” is banned from their conversations from now on. Danny asks how John Tate can ban a word, so John Tate dares him to say the word and see what happens to him. Lou and Danny are silent. John Tate says that he’s going to do everything he can to “keep things together,” but he needs everyone to stay calm and stick together.
As Danny and Lou’s anxiety escalates, they seek comfort in one another by expressing their fears. John Tate attempts to control not just their emotions but also their speech, relying on their fear of him as a method of manipulation. John Tate hopes that he can bully his classmates into silence and preserve a version of reality which benefits him—namely, one in which he’s in charge of everyone.
Themes
Richard enters. Cathy and Brian are with him. Cathy is grinning, but Brian is crying. “He’s dead,” Richard says, and John Tate informs Richard about the ban on the word. Cathy says that everything that’s going on is “exciting” and “better than ordinary life,” at least. Richard and John Tate argue about the use of the word “dead” while Danny urges Cathy to be quiet. John Tate speaks up, warning the others that they’ll lose the social clout and stability they have if they don’t stick together. Richard warns John Tate not to threaten him, and John Tate asks what Richard will do to stop him. As the two provoke one another, Cathy and Danny try to calm them down, but John Tate warns Richard not to let them gang up on him. If anyone takes sides against him, John Tate warns, there will be consequences.
As the group expands and more perspectives enter the mix, Kelly continues to show how bullying, pressure, and groupthink inform the way these characters talk to and relate to one another. While some members of the group are in denial, others, like Cathy, are downright gleeful—and others still are attempting to sublimate their anxiety into violent threats and struggles for power and control.
Themes
After securing promises of loyalty and solidarity from Danny, Cathy, Lou, and Richard, John Tate notices that Brian is crying. He demands that Brian, whom he calls a “little piece of filth,” declare that he’s on their side as well. Brian meekly says he believes they should “tell someone.” John Tate advances on Brian as if to hurt him, but when Mark, Jan, Leah, and Phil enter, John Tate stops moving. He declares to the group that he’s feeling “under a lot of stress.” Leah steps forward and says, over and over again, that she and Phil haven’t done anything—and if they have done something, it’s her fault as much as Phil’s. John Tate puts his finger on her lips to silence her. He asks Mark if Mark has told them what’s going on; Mark says he hasn’t. Jan speaks up and tells Leah and Phil that something has happened to their classmate Adam.
This passage shows John Tate using verbal intimidation tactics and physical bullying to try to get everyone on his side. Though a couple characters don’t even understand the full extent of what’s going on, everyone is already desperate to do whatever’s needed to preserve their own interests and innocence.
Themes
As Jan continues telling the two of them what transpired, it becomes clear that Adam is a boy who is always “trying to be part of” the group—a boy who will do anything the more popular kids demand of him. Mark, Jan, and some of the other kids messed around with Adam: they convinced him to eat leaves, light his own socks on fire, steal alcohol, and accept being punched repeatedly. Jan and Mark insist that Adam was laughing and joking as the others put out cigarettes on his body, forced him to get drunk, and ordered him to walk on a wobbly grille over a nearby abandoned mine shaft. While Adam was up on the grille, the others began throwing pebbles at him and laughing. One stone, however, hit Adam in the head, causing Adam to lose his balance and fall into the shaft.
As Jan describes the abuse that she, Mark, and the others perpetrated against their classmate, it becomes clear that this group relishes the opportunity to bully other people in pursuit of elevating their own social clout and confirming their solidarity and superiority. It’s never clear who, exactly, did what to Adam and when, so Jan’s vague descriptions highlight just how common this behavior is amongst the group; any of them could have caused Adam’s apparent death.
Themes
John Tate asks the group what they should do. Phil sets down the Coke he’s been drinking and speaks up. He orders Cathy, Danny, and Mark to go to Adam’s house, wait until it’s empty, then go through a window and take a sweater and a pair of shoes from his room without touching them. He suggests they use a plastic bag to grab the items—but warns them to make sure it comes fresh from the store. A bag from someone’s home will be “a DNA nightmare.” Phil continues unspooling his plan, which is very specific even though he claims to be making it up on the spot. He orders Richard to take Brian to the head of the school and tell the man that he found Brian crying in the bathroom. He orders Brian to tell the head of school that a “fat Caucasian male […] with thinning hair,” bad teeth, and a postman’s uniform exposed himself to Brian in the woods last week.
As Phil unspools his plan, which is specific, multifaceted, and seems bizarrely premeditated, the social order of the group begins to blur. Phil is taking on a leadership role while John Tate confesses that he has no idea what to do. Phil is bossing everyone—even Richard, who many agree is even more intimidating than John Tate—around, ordering them to lie and steal rather than do the right thing and admit what’s happened.
Themes
The others are shocked by the specificity of Phil’s plan. Phil continues. He tells Lou, Danny, and Jan to take Adam’s shoes and go to the woods. Lou should put the shoes on and go in through the south entrance while Danny, with Jan on his back, should enter from the east so that their combined weight equals the weight of the “fat postman with bad teeth.” He orders them to all meet in the middle near the bridge, move around, and exit from the south.
This passage continues to suggest that Phil has had a lot of time to think about what might need to be done in the instance of a tragedy or a fatal mistake. Though Phil is quiet, he’s clearly deeply observant—and yet very disconnected from any sense of guilt, remorse, or conflict.
Themes
Phil then tells Cathy and Mark to meet the others at the entrance—but on the way, tells them they should find a quiet street, wait until they see a man walk by, step out onto the road ahead of him, and drop the sweater so that he picks it up and gives it back. He tells them to let the man drop it in the plastic bag, urging them to make up an excuse about donating clothes to charity. Afterwards, he says, Cathy and Mark should throw the bag in a hedge and leave it.
Phil’s plan continues to stun the others in its incredible specificity. Even though the steps that must be taken are complicated and difficult, the teens still see them as easier than simply doing the right thing and telling someone the truth of what’s happened.
Themes
Phil continues. In a day or two, once Adam is declared missing, John Tate will come forward and say he may have seen Adam with a fat, uniformed man near the park. The police will assume Adam has been abducted and begin an investigation which has nothing to do with any of them. Phil picks up his Coke and resumes drinking it. The others stare at Phil in shock.
Phil has been ordering all the others around—now, as he gives even once-powerful John Tate a directive, the group’s breathless, rapt attention suggests that Phil has become their new leader, simply because he’s given them the sense of purpose and direction they’re all desperate for in this chaotic situation.
Themes
Later, Leah and Phil are once again alone in a field. Leah is talking about bonobos—humans’ nearest primate relatives. While “chimps are evil,” Leah says, bonobos are intelligent, kind, and empathetic. As Phil begins snacking on some chips, Leah accuses Phil of always ignoring her. She asks Phil what he’d do if she killed herself. Phil doesn’t answer her. Leah begins choking herself, but gives up once she realizes Phil is paying her no attention. She continues talking about bonobos, who are, according to what she’s heard, mad for sex. After describing at length the mating habits of bonobos, Leah is silent for a moment before declaring that she, Phil, and the others are “in trouble now.”
This passage shows Leah trying to manically distract herself—and Phil—from the reality of what’s going on by talking incessantly about trivial matters completely disconnected from the problems at hand. In the end, all of Leah’s wheel-spinning fails, and she is forced to admit just how bad things really are. Her changing perspective in this short scene foreshadows her eventual realization that her entire life has to change as well.
Themes
