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Don Caspar
A young, confident, brash American scientist working as a researcher at Cambridge University. Watson’s dreams of renown and fame—and his intense desire to prove himself to the world—spur him to build model after model and develop theory after theory as he runs the “race” towards the discovery of DNA’s structure. Watson approaches Maurice Wilkins after a conference in Italy and asks to come work with him, but when Wilkins rejects Watson, he joins a research team at Cambridge instead. The older but demurer Francis Crick becomes his research partner, and Watson sees the two of them together as a force of nature capable not just of winning the “race” Watson believes they’re in, but changing the world entirely. Watson is shameless in his desire to win, and even preys upon Maurice Wilkins’ good-faith gesture of sharing Photograph 51 with him. While Watson and Crick credit Wilkins with helping them to discover the structure of DNA and enabling them to at last build a correct model, they underplay and overlook Rosalind Franklin’s role in their discovery. Watson is vocally critical of and cruel toward Rosalind, making fun of her demeanor and physique in sexist, antisemitic terms throughout the action. A self-absorbed, chaotic, and unpredictable young man, Watson provides much of the comic relief in the play—even amid his cruel treatment of Rosalind, his shameless competitiveness, and his self-aggrandizement.
James Watson Quotes in Photograph 51
The Photograph 51 quotes below are all either spoken by James Watson or refer to James Watson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Photograph 51 Quotes
WATSON. But she wasn’t [in the laboratory,] was she. She was too busy snow-shoeing and ... enjoying things like ... nature and small woodland creatures.
CRICK. I mean, didn’t she feel that something was at her back, a force greater than she was ...
WATSON. You mean us?
CRICK. No. I mean fate.
WATSON. What’s the difference?
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WATSON. It’s just incredibly exciting.
WILKINS. What is?
WATSON. To be born at the right time. There’s an element of fate to it, don’t you think? And I don’t believe in fate.
CRICK. She’s really that bad?
WILKINS. Worse.
WATSON. The Jews really can be very ornery.
WILKINS. You’re telling me.
WATSON. Is she quite overweight?
WILKINS. Why do you ask?
CRICK. James is many things but subtle is not one of them. […] You see, he imagines that she’s overweight. The kind of woman who barrels over you with the force of a train. […]
CASPAR. (To the audience.) To Watson and Crick, the shape of something suggested the most detailed analysis of its interior workings. As though, by looking at something you could determine how it came to be ... how it gets through each day.
WATSON. Do tell us what our little ray of sunshine is keeping busy with these days.
CRICK. (Actually worried.) Wilkins, old boy. Are you sure you’re quite all right?
WATSON. Anything new on her docket? If you don’t mind sharing, that is.
WILKINS. I honestly couldn’t give two damns. I’m happy to tell you all I can remember.
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CASPAR. Watson and Crick got hold of the paper Rosalind had written. It was confidential.
CRICK. It wasn’t confidential. Another scientist at Cambridge gave it to us. […]
WILKINS. Well it wasn’t published, that’s for sure. And it included [….] information that became critical to your work.
WATSON. I’m sure we would have gotten there sooner or later, even without it.
WILKINS. So would we have done, with the benefit of your work. You had ours but we didn’t have yours!
WATSON. There was no “we” where you were concerned. […]
GOSLING. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how they got the paper, only that they got it.
CASPAR. And that Rosalind didn’t know she should be in a hurry.
GOSLING. There’s no science that can explain it. Loneliness. […]
CASPAR. Rosalind? (She clutches her stomach.)
WATSON. It works, Francis. It works. (A very long beat.)
CRICK. It’s ...
WATSON. I can’t believe it.
CRICK. It’s life unfolding, right in front of us. (Rosalind doubles over in her chair, and gasps.)
CASPAR. Rosalind?
WILKINS. It’s the loneliest pursuit in the world. Science. Because there either are answers or there aren’t.
ROSALIND. If I’d only ...
GOSLING. Been more careful around the beam.
WATSON. Collaborated.
CRICK. Been more open, less wary. Less self-protective.
CASPAR. Or more wary, more self-protective.
WATSON. Been a better scientist.
CASPAR. Been willing to take more risks, make models, go forward without the certainty of proof.
CRICK. Been friendlier.
GOSLING. Or born at another time.
CRICK. Or born a man.
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James Watson Character Timeline in Photograph 51
The timeline below shows where the character James Watson appears in Photograph 51. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Photograph 51
...As he begins to recall aloud the events of January 1951, other voices join him—James Watson and Francis Crick help him to reconstruct a goodbye party taking place in Paris as...
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Watson, Crick, and Caspar step in to comment on what’s just happened. Watson says the “race...
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...departures, Crick says he supposes Rosalind must have felt “that something was at her back.” Watson asks if Crick means the two of them, but Crick says he means “fate.” Watson...
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...Wilkins delivers a lecture explaining the importance of studying and understanding DNA, a young American scientist—Watson—approaches him and compliments his presentation, adding that Wilkins’s lecture has inspired him to determine, once...
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Watson tells Wilkins that he wants to learn crystallography and come to work with him. Watson...
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Rebuffed by Wilkins, Watson approaches another scientist who takes him on and pairs him with Francis Crick, a young...
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Crick and Watson step forward to explain just how close Rosalind was to discovering the structure of DNA—but...
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...a model. He goes to visit Crick in Cambridge, and is surprised to find that Watson is there, too, as Crick’s new research partner. Crick and Watson ask Wilkins about his...
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...structure held at King’s, Rosalind delivers a lecture while her colleagues watch. In the audience, Watson and Crick speculate about how attractive “Rosy” would be if she “took off her glasses...
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A week later, Watson and Crick have made their model. They invite the researchers from King’s to come see...
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...they stare at it, Rosalind remarks that she’s never seen anything like it. Caspar and Watson identify the thing she’s looking at as the infamous Photograph 51. Gosling states that the...
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Watson, watching the above exchange, chimes in and states how ludicrous it was for Rosalind to...
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Watson flashes forward to January 1953. Watson travels to London, bringing with him a paper on...
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Watson goes down the hall to Wilkins’s office and vents to him about Rosalind being an...
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On the train back to Cambridge Watson sketches what he can remember of the image, realizing that it is the key to...
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...to come to Cambridge for dinner, and Wilkins accepts. When he arrives, he finds that Watson is there, too. As the three men drink, Wilkins tells Watson and Crick he’s still...
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Watson switches the subject to DNA and asks if Wilkins has any new research to report....
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Crick and Watson encourage Wilkins to make his own model—he says that he can’t as long as “Rosy”...
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Time moves forward. Gosling explains that things begin moving “quickly” as Watson and Crick get their hands on Rosalind’s new paper—which is confidential. They claim to have...
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Crick and Watson succeed in unlocking the key to DNA’s double helix structure, which in turn allows them...
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That February, Watson and Crick invite their colleagues from all over England to Cambridge. Rosalind, Wilkins, Caspar, and...
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A few days later, in Cambridge, Watson and Crick are in a pub finalizing their theory. Meanwhile, in London, Rosalind and Caspar...
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In Cambridge, Crick and Watson finalize their model at the pub. In London, Caspar takes Rosalind’s hand—seconds later, she utters...
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Wilkins travels to Cambridge and examines Watson and Crick’s model. As he does, Rosalind steps forward and announces, to the audience, that...
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Elsewhere, Watson and Crick examine their published findings bound in printed form. Crick seems uninterested and claims...
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Rosalind asks if Crick and Watson’s model is “beautiful.” Wilkins tells her it is. She tells Wilkins that the two of...
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...Gosling says he can’t not report “what happened.” Wilkins begs to “start again.” Crick and Watson try to talk some sense into Wilkins, reminding him that his name is on the...
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