Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Character Analysis

The Illnesses of Catherine and Christopher

In the stories The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Proof, both main characters have some form of mental disease. In Proof, Catherine shows signs of having the same form of mental that her father shows. All though the disease is never said, you can suspect is some form of dementia or Alzheimer's. In the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Christopher appears to have some form of autism spectrum. Both characters appear to have some form of mental disease, but nothing is said. I will give my reasoning behind what I think each character portraits based off of behavior.

First I will start with why, and what I think is wrong with the main character in David Auburns

play Proof, Catherine. At the beginning of the play, it is stated that Catherine's' father has some form of mental disease. Roberts disease is also never to be said, but it is said that he lost his mind many years back. Catherine, much like Robert, had a rare talent in the field of mathematics. Towards the end of the first scene, Catherine makes a confession that she wrote one of the proofs that was found up in Roberts desk. For me, that was the first sign that Catherine had the same form of disease that Robert had. I feel that because of her super talent in mathematics like her father, she too would have mental problems. I think that because there are many times where a person is greatly gifted in one subject, but have mental deficiencies in other areas.

The next sign for me that Catherine had some form of mental issue came in the second scene. When Catherine's sister, Clair, began insisting she moves to New York with her. I saw Clair insisting to Catherine as a sign of her knowing Catherine had something wrong with her. Clair wanted to take care of Catherine the way that Catherine took care of their father, Robert. Clair's many attempts went useless, even as far as selling the house in which Catherine once lived in. I found that seeing Clair think that Catherine had some mental disease as the point of decision for me. Once I read that even Clair could see, and think that there was a mental disease with Catherine, I too believed that.

My final conclusion on whether Catherine has a mental illness or not is a definitive, yes. I think that Catherine has all the signs pointing to some form of illness, and I believe it will be the same illness that her father struggled with before his death.

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, the main character is a young boy named Christopher. Unlike Catherine, you can very obviously tell what it is that is wrong with Christopher. I believe that Christopher is autistic to some degrees, and here is why.

In the very beginning of the first act of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, it starts with Christopher in his neighbor's garden. Christopher is balled up, hands of ears, face down, groaning in the yard. Christopher is like this because what he has seen of his neighbor, Mrs. Shears, dog. Christopher's behavior came off very strange and unusual at first. I knew Christopher had some form of mental illness as soon as he screamed and hit the police officer in the yard. Christopher would continue this behavior throughout the play when he was either worried, scared, or upset about a certain situation.

The next sign from Christopher for me was in the middle of act one. Christopher was talking to his father, Ed, with Siobhan also being in this part. Christopher was telling Siobhan about how he would be a very good astronaut, and how much he enjoys being alone for long periods of time. Christopher was also telling Siobhan how he enjoys outer space, computers, and machines. This particular section caught my attention because Christopher also expressed that he hated the colors brown, and yellow. This caught my attention because these are the kinds of things that children with autism would be interested in, and also showed his hatred for those two particular colors.

Another sign that pointed towards Christopher possibly having autism, would be his great abilities in mathematics. When Christopher would be angry, or scared, he would begin to count out prime numbers, or other sets of number out loud. Christopher showed his love and great abilities for mathematics throughout the play. In act two, Christopher wanted to take the "A level" math course that was offered at his school. Many people had doubt in Christopher's ability to do well and succeed at such a difficult challenge. Christopher had his mind set on getting an "A" in this course all along. Once Christopher took his mathematics test towards the very end of the play, he received the score he promised he would achieve. To me, Christopher's incredible ability in math was just another sign of his autism.

The final and most definitive sign for me, was when Christopher would not let anyone touch him.

Christopher has an issue with anyone, including his parents, touching him in any form of way. Christopher and his parents developed some other form of sign of affection when he was very little. This sign of affection would be hold out there hands, and touching finger tips together. Christopher and his parents would do that whenever he was scared, or worried about something that was happening around him. Christopher would scream, or throw a temper

tantrum if any one tried touching him in any way, other then with putting out there hand, and connecting finger tips.

I feel that with all these signs together, it made it very clear that Christopher had some form of illness. I strongly feel that with all the signs that Christopher showed, he suffered from some degree of autism.

Overall I felt that because of the way the characters were, they made each play far more interesting. I think that is Catherine didn’t show any signs of developing illness that her father had, the play wouldn’t have kept the readers on edge. With Christopher I thought that showing he had some form of illness from the very beginning made things much more interesting. I thought that because of his illness, it made the story much more entertaining and kept me interested in what was going

on.