Previous
Act Two, Scene 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Proof, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Genius and Mental Instability
Family and Heredity
Sexism
Proof, Trust, and Credibility
Caretaking and Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
It’s the day after the party, right after Catherine announced that she wrote the proof. Hal is baffled, asking multiple times if she really wrote it. Claire asks Hal how and where he found the notebook, cutting off Catherine whenever she offers answers. Claire eventually asks Catherine directly if she wrote the proof, and Catherine says yes—she started it when she got depressed after she had to drop out of school to take care of Robert.
Neither Hal nor Claire appears to believe that Catherine wrote the proof. Although the characters haven’t explained why they doubt Catherine, the audience may also feel hesitant to believe Catherine—from her imagined conversation with Robert to her paranoid assumption that Hal was stealing notebooks, the audience has good reason to doubt Catherine’s word. They need more evidence to believe her statement. If Catherine did write the proof, it is important to note that she did so during a period of depression. It would seem that mental illness and genius are inextricable from each other. If the proof is hers, it would mean that she inherited both Robert’s mental instability and his genius, both of which come into play when she writes this proof.
Themes
Claire doesn’t believe Catherine, because it’s written in Robert’s handwriting. Catherine asks Hal to confirm that it is actually her handwriting and not her father’s, but Hal isn’t sure. Claire then asks Catherine to explain the proof without using the book, which Catherine angrily says is impossible—it’s extremely long, and she didn’t memorize it.
Claire’s immediate refusal to believe Catherine is in-line with her behavior so far—she never respects what Catherine says. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that she doesn’t believe that Catherine wrote the proof, particularly because Claire believes that Catherine is succumbing to the same mental illness that Robert suffered from. As a result, Claire interprets information to match her theory, as opposed to objectively gathering evidence to make a claim. But with Catherine’s history of delusions, it does make sense to be skeptical of her claim. In order to get Claire, Hal, and the audience to believe her, Catherine needs to provide proof.
Themes
But Catherine refuses, exclaiming that Hal wants to claim the discovery as his own. Hal denies this; he just wants to know more about the proof. When Catherine says that she can explain it to him now, Hal tells her that “[she] [doesn’t] know.” She claims again that she wrote it, but he says that it’s written in Robert’s handwriting. Catherine quietly insists that her handwriting looks similar to her father’s.
Themes
Get the entire Proof LitChart as a printable PDF.
Catherine laments that she trusted Hal with her work; she chose him to be the first person that she told. When she asks if he wants to test her handwriting, he replies that Robert could have dictated it to her. As a mathematician, he “know[s] how hard it would be” to make this kind of discovery. When Catherine reminds Hal that she, too, is a mathematician, he dismisses her, saying that she only took a couple college classes and that this kind of math could only be accomplished by someone like Robert when he was “at the peak of his powers.”
Furious, Catherine tells Hal that just because the work is “too advanced” for him doesn’t mean that she didn’t write it. People like Hal just don’t want to believe that she—someone who never got a Ph.D.—could accomplish such ground-breaking work. Without a word, Hal leaves the porch.
Themes
Catherine is distraught. After a moment, she tries to destroy the notebook in her hands, but Claire grabs the book away from her. When Catherine manages to wrestle it back, she simply throws it to the ground and walks away.
Themes
