Previous
Right vs. Wrong
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in DNA, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bullying, peer pressure, and the destabilizing effects of groupthink are at the core of Dennis Kelly’s DNA. Over the course of the play, Kelly examines a group of particularly cruel, emotionally detached teens—save for a few kind, empathetic members—and puts on full display the ways in which they cajole, coerce, and threaten one another. Ultimately, Kelly shows that bullying is an epidemic—and argues that the effects of peer pressure and conformist groupthink lead to terrible instances of emotional and physical abuse amongst young people.
Dennis Kelly’s play is a topical one: DNA wrestles with big issues and takes very seriously the effects that bullying has not just on individuals but on communities more broadly. As Kelly shows how groupthink and peer pressure fuel and perpetuate bullying—and how the more bullying happens, the more socially acceptable it becomes—he paints a portrait of a vicious cycle of abuse. Early on in the play, before the group’s cruelty is even revealed in full, Kelly shows how peer pressure and groupthink in the form of coercion affect this ostensibly tight-knit group of friends. As the nervous Lou and Danny and the overconfident John Tate discuss their schoolmate Adam’s supposed death in vague terms, Lou begins to get scared and declares that they’re all doomed. John Tate—desperate to stop his friend from spiraling into anxiety, worried she’ll turn against him—reminds her that he is one of the most frightening, influential people at school. He urges her and Danny—by vaguely threatening violence—to hush up and follow his plan. Before the audience even knows the truth of what’s going on, Kelly is already at work demonstrating that the environment these teens live in is one that revolves around fear, coercion, and conformity. The individual members of the group are silenced by other members who use cruel tactics to stay in power. Kelly implies that this climate of constant fear, combined with the repeated suggestion that as long as the group sticks together they’ll be all right, is what perpetuates the teens’ constant bullying of and cruelty toward one another. As the play continues to unfold, he uses a tragedy that occurs at the heart of the group to show the devastating effects of this vicious cycle.
As Kelly reveals the horrific truth of the bullying Adam endured at the hands of his so-called “friends,” he delves even deeper into the ways in which groupthink and conformity proliferate and even escalate bullying. As the nervous gossipmongers Mark and Jan unspool the story of Adam’s supposed death, they describe the escalation of their group’s collective cruelty towards Adam over the course of an undetermined amount of time. The abuse they describe could have unfolded over weeks or months—or it could have ramped up from lighthearted dares to physical abuse over the course of one night. Mark and Jan describe fairly benign (but still humiliating) dares such as encouraging Adam to eat leaves and convincing Adam to steal liquor for the group—but their recollection of events soon intensifies as they describe putting out cigarettes on various parts of Adam’s body and eventually stoning him with small rocks as he balanced precariously on a grille over a mine shaft, a torturous ordeal which ultimately led to him falling into the deep shaft. This harrowing passage represents the ways in which groupthink leads to senseless violence. Jan and Mark try to excuse their behavior by stating that Adam was laughing and joking along even as such terrible things were being done to him—and Kelly bleakly suggests that even Adam’s complicity in furthering his own abuse is the product of bullying and groupthink’s endless, repetitious cycle of violence.
Perhaps the most potent example of groupthink in the play is the way in which the members of the group respond to Phil’s plan to distance themselves from being associated with Adam’s “murder” and instead frame someone else. The teens at the heart of the play are so desperate to avoid being held accountable for Adam’s death that they unthinkingly go along with Phil’s elaborate—and eerily thorough—plan for framing someone else for Adam’s death. Some of the kids even take Phil’s suggestions further than he intended them to go, such as when Cathy actually goes to a post office and collects DNA from a man resembling the description of Adam’s “murderer,” which Phil came up with on a whim. The teens’ willingness to submit so wholly and unthinkingly to groupthink reveals their fear of facing the kind of bullying and violence that Adam faced—but it also shows how going along with that very bullying and violence has made them more susceptible to other kinds of conformity that are just as harmful.
Kelly’s play is dramatic, over-the-top, and often quite funny—but the message at its heart is deadly serious. In DNA, Kelly warns of the vicious cycle of cruelty and abuse that can occur when peer pressure and groupthink engender violent bullying and deception.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink appears in each scene of DNA. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
scene length:
Get the entire DNA LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink Quotes in DNA
Below you will find the important quotes in DNA related to the theme of Bullying, Peer Pressure, and Groupthink.
Scene 1 Quotes
Do I disgust you? I do. No, I do. No don’t because, it’s alright, it’s fine, I’m not gonna, you know, or whatever, you know it’s not the collapse of my, because I do have, I could walk out of here, there are friends, I’ve got, I’ve got friends, I mean alright, I haven’t got friends, not exactly, I haven’t, but I could, if I wanted, if I wanted, given the right, given the perfect, you know, circumstances.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Leah and Phil—two teenage members of a group of friends who attend a London high school—sit alone together in a field, a place they frequently visit together. During these visits, Phil and Leah sit together while Phil eats and Leah talks incessantly about whatever’s on her mind. Here, Leah, desperate to provoke a reaction—any reaction—from her boyfriend Phil, talks about her insecurity as regards her social standing and the number of friends she has in her life. This speech sets up Leah’s desire to fit in at school—a need which will inform her decisions to go with Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessi
You’re not scared. Nothing scares, there, I’ve said it; scared. Scared, Phil. I’m scared, they scare me, this place, everyone, the fear, the fear that everyone here, and I’m not the only one, I’m not the only one, Phil, I’m just the only one saying it, the fear that everyone here lives in, the brutal terror, it scares me, okay, I’ve said it and I am not ashamed.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Leah admits that while “nothing scares” Phil, she herself is scared all the time. As she rambles in half-sentences, tripping over her own words out of a combination of fear and uncertainty, Leah reveals the dark heart of the play. The place she and Phil live and go to school—and the social environment there—is “brutal,” and Leah knows it. Even as she lives in fear of everyone around her, Leah struggles with her desire to please everyone, keep conflict at bay, and make friends. This desire not just to avoid trouble for the time being but to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. U
JOHN TATE: Alright. New rule; that word is banned.
[…]
LOU: You can’t ban a word.
JOHN TATE: and if anyone says it I’m going to have to, you know, bite their face. Or something.
DANNY: How can you ban a word?
JOHN TATE: Well just say it then.
Pause.
Say it and see what happens.
They say nothing.
Look, we have to keep together. We have to trust each other and believe in each other. I’m trying to help. I’m trying to keep things together.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this scene, John Tate, Lou, and Danny have just received the news that their schoolmate Adam is dead. While Kelly has not yet revealed the cause of Adam’s death or what that cause means for the group of teenagers at the center of the play, it’s clear from the reaction of John Tate—the group’s de facto leader—that it can’t mean anything good. John Tate obviously wants his friends not to mention the word death or say Adam is dead—he hopes to control his peers by policing their language, pressuring them at alternating moments with both violent threats and the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis
JOHN TATE: Are you on my side? With Richard and Danny? Are you on our side, Cathy?
CATHY: Yes.
JOHN TATE: Good. Lou?
LOU: Yes.
JOHN TATE: You’re on our side, Lou?
LOU: Yes, John.
JOHN TATE: You sure?
LOU: Yeah, I’m –
JOHN TATE: That just leaves you, Brian. You crying little piece of filth.
Beat. BRIAN stops crying. Looks up.
BRIAN: I think we should tell someone.
JOHN TATE begins to walk towards BRIAN.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As John Tate attempts to get everyone in the group on his side, demanding vows of loyalty and obedience from them, one member of the group resists. Brian, a kind and sensitive teenager whose emotional reaction to Adam’s death stands in stark contrast to the unfeeling or downright gleeful reactions of his peers, resists declaring loyalty to the cruel and intimidating John Tate. The moment Brian declares that he thinks they should do the right thing and “tell someone” about what’s happening, John Tate begins walking toward Brian, physically threatening him. Though the boys’ fight is diffused before it even Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis.
And you’re thinking ‘Will he do anything? What won’t he do?’
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As Mark recalls the events that led up to Adam’s supposed death, he describes a regular pattern of tormenting Adam and playing increasingly dangerous pranks on him. Adam, a misfit who the other teens knew would “do anything” to fit in with them and gain their approval, was often the subject of cruel pranks and risky dares—and as Mark recalls posing these challenges and playing these jokes, he still feels a sense of awe at the realization that Adam would do literally anything the other teens demanded of him. This passage speaks to the weaponization of peer pressure and the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum d
And someone’s pegged a stone at him. Not to hit him, just for the laugh.
And you shoulda seen his face, I mean the fear, the, it was so, you had to laugh, the expression, the fear...
So we’re all peggin them. Laughing. And his face, it’s just making you laugh harder and harder, and they’re getting nearer and nearer. And one hits his head. And the shock on his face is so...funny. And we’re all just...
just...
really chucking these stones into him, really hard and laughing and he slips.
And he drops.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In a continuation of his speech recalling the physical and emotional abuse leveraged against Adam in the final moments of his life, Mark remembers viscerally and vividly the moment at which the prank being played on Adam passed the point of no return. In this moment, the stones being pelted at Adam—pebbles at first meant only to surprise him, which soon became larger and larger stones that were “chuck[ed] […] really hard” at his head—serve as a metaphor for the ways in which bullying, peer pressure, and groupthink escalate and compound as they intensify. The stones knock Adam off his Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit
Scene 2 Quotes
He’s not joking, he’s not going, he’s said he’s not going, I said you’ve gotta go, he said he’s not going, ‘I’m not going’ he said.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this brief scene, Mark and Jan cryptically discuss one of their classmates’ refusal to go somewhere. Mark and Jan are clearly concerned about this refusal and what it will mean for them—and as the scene unfolds, it becomes clear that they want this individual to change his mind. Eventually, it will become clear that the person they’re discussing is Brian, and the place that Brian doesn’t want to go is the police station. The police have apprehended the man matching the false description Brian gave of Adam’s fictitious kidnapper—and Brian must confirm the man’s identity, possibly landing this innocent Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas d
No, I’m just wondering. I mean what is happy, what’s happy all about, who says you’re supposed to be happy, like we’re all supposed to be happy, happy is our natural, and any deviation from that state is seen as a failure, which in itself makes you more unhappy so you have to pretend to be even happier which doesn’t work because people can see that you’re pretending which makes them awkward and you can see that they can see that you’re pretending to be happy and their awkwardness is making you even more unhappy so you have to pretend to be even happier, it’s a nightmare.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This passage provides another glimpse into the mechanism of groupthink and peer pressure—but from another angle. While the play mostly shows teens being bullied or pressured into lying, deceiving others, or risking their necks in cruel and dangerous pranks, Leah’s speech here shows that there’s another kind of pressure exerting itself daily not just on teens but on all people. The pressure to be happy, to keep up outward appearances, and to participate in a perpetual façade of normalcy is real—and here, Leah suggests it is actively detrimental to the quality of human life, inspiring guilt and insecurity and creating Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollit
Everything’s much better, though. I mean really, it is. Everyone’s working together. They’re a lot happier. Remember last month, Dan threatened to kill Cathy? well yesterday I saw him showing her his phone, like they were old friends. Last week Richard invited Mark to his party, bring a friend, anyone you like, can you believe that? Richard and Mark? Yep. Everyone’s happier. It’s pouring into the school, grief, grief is making them happy.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
As Leah sits in a field with Phil, she describes the ways in which things have gotten “better” at school for everyone since Adam’s supposed death. Though the group is now embroiled in a complicated cover-up, Leah is happily surprised to find that the guilt, tension, and pressure they’re all facing has actually revolutionized their social dynamics and brought them all closer together. What Leah isn’t saying—but what is clear as day between the lines—is that the atmosphere of apprehension which rules the school has been compounded by these teens’ distrust in and fear of one another. Everyone may seem Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explic
PHIL: You’re going in.
BRIAN: No.
PHIL: Yes.
BRIAN: No, Phil –
PHIL: Yes, yes, shhhh, yes. Sorry. You have to go in. Or we’ll take you up the grille. […] We’ll throw you in.
RICHARD: Er, Phil.
DANNY: Is he serious?
LEAH: He’s always serious.
PHIL: We’ll take you up the grille now. Well get you by the arms. By the legs. And we’ll swing you onto the grille. We’ll throw rocks at you until you drop through. You’ll drop through. You’ll fall into the cold. Into the dark. You’ll land on Adam’s corpse and you’ll rot together.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Phil pressures—and then bullies—Brian into going to the police station to confirm the identity of the random man who has been apprehended as Adam’s kidnapper or murderer. Based on the false report Brian made to the police weeks ago, the authorities have brought in a man matching the description—a description that Phil made up seemingly on the spot. Now, Brian is forced to choose between doing what’s right and coming clean or doing what’s wrong and perpetuating Phil’s lies—but here, Phil warns Brian that if he doesn’t keep up the charade, there will be deadly consequences. Phil Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis co
Scene 3 Quotes
BRIAN: That was great!
PHIL: You just do what Cathy says.
BRIAN: I am brilliant at doing what people say.
LEAH: No! Stop, don’t, don’t, Phil, don’t, what are you doing, what are you...
PHIL: He’s dead, everyone thinks he’s dead. What difference will it make?
She stares at him.
LEAH: But he’s not dead. He’s alive.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Phil orders Brian to go with Cathy and make a “game” of killing Adam—for real this time—by strangling him with a plastic bag. Phil and the others have recently discovered that Adam isn’t dead—in fact, he’s been living in the woods near their school for weeks. Phil knows that if the amnesiac Adam regains his memory and returns to society, the group’s plot will be exposed and there will be legal consequences—Phil is determined to keep that from happening, and so he orders Adam’s death. Leah protests, insisting that Adam is alive and needs to be helped Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium e
Scene 4 Quotes
Everyone’s asking after you. You know that? Everyone’s saying ‘where’s Phil?’ ‘what’s Phil up to?’ ‘when’s Phil going to come down from that stupid field?’ ‘wasn’t it good when Phil was running the show?’ What do you think about that? What do you think about everyone asking after you?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Here, Richard joins Phil up on the hill where Phil has been spending most of his days since dropping out of school. Richard reports that everyone back at school misses Phil and is constantly asking after him, hoping daily for his return. This passage demonstrates the ways in which young people are easily brainwashed by those who subject them to bullying and peer pressure. Though Phil was a rather cruel leader, intimidating his peers with threats of physical violence, alienating them with his silences, and disturbing them with his intricate plots, the others now miss the control he exerted over Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde
John Tate’s found God. Yeah, Yeah I know. He’s joined the Jesus Army, he runs round the shopping centre singing and trying to give people leaflets. Danny’s doing work experience at a dentist’s. He hates it. […] Brian’s on stronger and stronger medication. They caught him staring at a wall and drooling last week. […] Cathy doesn’t care. She’s too busy running things. You wouldn’t believe how things have got, Phil. She’s insane. She cut a first year’s finger off, that’s what they say anyway.
Doesn’t that bother you? Aren’t you even bothered?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Richard visits the solitary Phil, who has recently dropped out of school, on top of the hill he likes to frequent. Richard catches Phil up on all he’s missed since leaving, and as he fills Phil in on the goings-on in the lives of their classmates, a portrait of an “insane,” desperate, and bleak environment emerges. John Tate, once the leader of the group, has turned to evangelism to distract himself from his guilt or, perhaps, to attempt to regain a new kind of control over others. Brian has become all but catatonic, unable to deal with Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis con
