The Theme of Empathy in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ is based on the novel by Mark Haddon and adapted by Simon Stephens into a play. In the play, the theme of empathy is explored, and the audience perceives this theme through the other characters and how they converse with Christopher. In addition, the modern ensemble style is used to engage the audience and let them understand the play, the characters, and the themes.

Christopher has an elevated form of autism which allows him to understand complicated mathematical problems but also leaves him incapable of comprehending emotions. He does not understand metaphors; distinguish emotions, and his lack of imagination makes the audience consider Christopher to function as a computer rather than as a human being. For instance, when the death of Christopher’s mother is announced, Christopher's father grieves for the loss of his beloved partner. On the other hand, Christopher acknowledges that his father is upset but is unable to empathize with his father's emotions. Christopher can recognize some emotions by the faces that people make, but he partially identifies with the emotions.

A fundamental character that explores the theme of empathy in various ways is Ed, Christopher’s father. He is presented as being rough, bad-tempered, and sometimes impatient; however, he lovingly and diligently cares for his son. Ed does empathize with Christopher, as demonstrated in act 1when he says “I’m not taking no for an answer” to Mrs. Gascoyne, showing persuasiveness to get Christopher to do his A-levels since he really wants to take them. However, there is a moment in which empathy lacks between these two characters when “Ed hits Christopher hard”. This moment in which the two “tussle” proves how badly Ed loses his temper and his mind is blurred by anger. At that moment he does not realize that Christopher is unable to fully understand what he is trying to communicate to him, and unfortunately, the situation reached its climax and became uncontrollable. This scene is followed up by an important gesture between the two characters (“Ed holds his right hand up [...] Christopher does the same with his left hand”) signifying they are back on good terms. For the audience, Ed’s outburst builds tension and foreshadows the future as they wait to find out more about the book’s future, whereas the gesture builds empathy for both characters as they try to follow the enigmatic situation.

The theme of empathy is further demonstrated by his language is very precise and detailed. For example, when Christopher explains the details of his school friend, “And he once [...] And he ate strings and rubber bands and tissues and...”, to his father it automatically creates empathy for Ed that feels inundated by the unnecessary information. The repetition of the word “and” allows a sensation of being overwhelmed to be created. The structure of the play includes multiple characters that help you understand what is happening in Christopher’s mind, so the audience is aware of his thoughts and feelings and has empathy for him.

The theme of empathy is also explored by Judy, Christopher’s mother. In this case, there is a great lack of empathy from his mother as she has never understood how to handle Christopher. This is first encountered when Christopher is reading Judy’s letters and discovers that “you wouldn’t let me touch you” which implies that there was, even when Christopher was younger, a lack of empathy. This scene provokes the audience to feel empathy towards Judy as they understand that it is quite difficult to handle a situation in which you don’t seem to bond with your son. Due to the chronological structure, the theme is also presented further on, when the two characters meet for the first time in the play. The absence of empathy is shown since “She goes to hug him. He pushes her away so hard that she even falls”. The audience can recognize at this point that his mother has scarce empathy towards Christopher, especially regarding emotional responses (Judy does not realize the stress she puts on her son when touching him).

Finally, there is Siobhan’s character that is also important when talking about empathy. Siobhan may be seen as Christopher’s guide in his life since she is the one who gives him advice and reassures him when he is agitated, as his teacher and as a narrator. Their strong bond helps the audience to get into Christopher’s mind (as the structure of the piece, being a play within a play distances the audience) and it makes the audience aware of the empathy that there is between them. The audience can sense a strong connection between the two characters since Siobhan is very encouraging, particularly about the book he has written. She tells him he “can still be very proud” about what he had written as it was “great”. The audience empathizes with her since she wants Christopher to acknowledge the work he has done and be proud of it. However, the scene in which the audience empathizes with Siobhan more than ever is the last one, in act 2, when Christopher asks her “Does this mean I can do anything, Siobhan?”. It is a scene that sets a feeling of anguish upon the audience since both them and Siobhan know the answer but doesn’t want to admit it to Christopher as it would be far too heartbreaking.

Overall, features of empathy connect different aspects of the drama to create a unified piece. The characters, the themes, the dialogue, and the structure help to attract audiences interested in a variety of different genres, not only modern drama productions. The playwright manages to make the audience experience a thought-provoking play whilst still keeping them entertained.

References

1. Haddon, M. (2003). The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Vintage.
2. Ozawa, C. P. (2017). Unreliable Narration and the Breakdown of Empathy in Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Modern Language Studies, 46(2), 30-45.
3. Prosser, E. (2018). Understanding Autism through Metaphor in Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Disability Studies Quarterly, 38(1).
4. Rothe, A. (2019). Teaching empathy through The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The CATESOL Journal, 31(1), 51-61.
5. Zilberstein, A. (2014). Autism as a narrative strategy in Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Journal of Literary Semantics, 43(2), 241-257.