Examples Of Stupidity In The Play Proof

Josh Lieb once said, ¨Insanity is just what we call stupidity when it doesn't make sense.¨ This quote relates to someone who does something others may not understand and not necessarily being incorrect or crazy. In the play Proof by David Auburn the main character, Catherine, is perceived as mentally ill by other characters like her sister Claire. Although she is perceived to be crazy she is actually a misunderstood genius. Throughout the play Catherine grieves the loss of her father who was a genius mathematician whose mind gradually deteriorated from mental illness. With her sister urging Catherine to leave their family home, and a former student of her father's searching through his old notes, Catherine struggles to maintain her sanity as

After I dropped out of school I had nothing to do. I was depressed, but at a certain point I decided, Fuck it, I don't need them. It's just math, I can do it on my own. So I kept working here. I worked at night, after Dad had gone to sleep. It was hard but I did it.¨ then after a pause separated by the word ´beat´ Claire responds, ¨Catherine, I'm sorry but I just find this very hard to believe.¨ then Catherine responds saying, ¨Claire. I wrote. The proof.¨ (Auburn 61). As it is hard to believe Catherine wrote it due to it being in her dad's notebook that was in his stuff, and in very similar handwriting. But later on this is almost proved to be Catherine's for a few reasons. One is that according to Hal all of her father's work was dated, this was not. Another is that she used more recent math to solve this proof that her father had already been crazy and unable to do by the time it was discovered. So is is impossible that Robert wrote it and Catherine's genius is once again misunderstood. This also leads to the theory of mental illness being a construct because catherine does admit to having been depressed which in turn drove her to use her genius and write a