GCSE: Kelly's DNA

Themes

Death and Violence

Leadership

Youth

Responsibility

Power

Mark and Jan

- Used as chorus or narrators, throw the audience directly into the action and fill in the gaps

- the first lines of the play are voiced by these characters. The audience knows immediately about the death, but how it happened is withheld. Short lines to build tension.

‘JAN: Dead?

MARK: Yeah.

JAN: What, dead?

MARK: Yeah

JAN: Like dead, dead’

- They are responsible for the bullying that led up to Adam’s death, but try to justify it

- Mark: ‘We were having a laugh, weren’t we…’ is repeated throughout the play

- Even though Mark and Jan repeat that it was just ‘a laugh’, they also use violent language throughout their speech - ‘terrified’, ‘crying’, ‘stubbed out cigarettes’, ‘punch him’, ‘pegged a stone’

- Mark: ‘Oh yeah, Adam he was laughing harder than anyone.’ An attempt to place the responsibility onto the victim

- Mark and Jan are less able to assert their own authority, and look to Phil for guidance, asking him questions ‘Jan: Are we going to be in trouble?’

Leah

- One sided conversations with Phil in a number of scenes, her speech is almost a monologue. She has less power in the relationship.

- ‘I talk too much, so shoot me. So kill me, Phil, call the police, lock me up, rip out my teeth with a pair of rusty pliers, I talk too much’ repetitive, distressed, self-inflicting, language. She exaggerates in an attempt to gain Phil’s attention.

- Unfinished sentences ‘are you thinking a negative thing about-‘

- ‘It’s Adam, Phil, Adam! We used to go to his birthday parties, he used to have that cheap ice cream and we used to take the piss, remember?’ Leah is more of a moral character than most of the others, but still falls under Phil’s power

- Power dynamic changes at the end of the play, as Leah uses silence against Phil. She then walks off leaving Phil to call after her

- ‘Suddenly she stops chewing and spits the sweet out.’

Phil

- Phil maintains power over Leah by not speaking

- He spends most of his time on stage eating, which shows that he is choosing to not respond to Leah

- When Leah tells him that she murdered her pet he ‘shrugs’ which foreshadows that he isn’t a moral character

- ‘I’m in charge. Everyone is happier. What’s more important; one person or everyone?’ he is calm when he speaks. This juxtaposes the other characters who a panicky. He is a natural leader. Short, straightforward sentences. Tries to justify his horrendous actions.

- Only pays attention to Leah when she walks away from him. And he calls out ‘Leah? Leah?’ this is the only time he shows affection

- At the end of the play Phil the stage directions say ‘Phil is not eating’. This hints that he has he has been slightly negatively affected by the events of the play.

John Tate

- Only appears in one scene. Uses fear to control others.

- He panics as he is unable to control his friends or the situation.

- He bans the word ‘dead’ and then threatens that if somebody says it he will ‘bite their face. Or something’. The ‘or something’ suggests that he has not properly gathered his thoughts.

- ‘you crying piece of filth’ talks down to other members of the group. Patronising language.

Cathy

- has no remorse for the group’s actions, and says the situation is ‘exciting’ and ‘better than ordinary life’

- When asked for a TV interview she only considers her own personal gain ‘they might even give me money for it’

- She says ‘we showed initiative’ when asked about taking the postman’s DNA and framing him. Is she trying to climb the social hierarchy? Really clever? Or really stupid?

- At the end of the play Cathy has taken over the group and gone mad with power ‘Cathy doesn’t care. She’s too busy running things…She’s insane. She cut off a first year’s finger, that’s what they say anyway’

Richard

- Stands up to John Tate’s leadership ‘you shouldn’t threaten me John’ uses direct address

- Uses sarcasm and criticism to put others down

- Cathy: "It was great"

Richard: "It was shit"

- Sarcasm ‘Why don’t you pop down the station and say, ‘excuse me, but the fat postman with the bad teeth doesn’t actually exist, so why don’t you let him go’

Brian

- Brian is the weakest link of the group, which is why he is chosen as the one the ‘fake man’ shows his ‘willy’ to – he is somebody who the group view as a more likely victim

- Cathy slaps him and he ‘giggles’ he is mad

- Ends up acting like a child. He sings rhymes and repeats himself ‘Shall we hold hands? Come on, let's hold, let's hold, let's hold hands, come on, let's’

- Completely distracts himself from the violence, is in a state of denial ‘D'you feel how wonderful this day is?’

- At the end of the play, he is put on ‘medication’. He feels so guilty that he has become mentally unwell

Danny

- He is the most sensible character. He has a ‘plan’ to be a dentist

Unlike the other characters, he thinks about the impact of their actions in the real world.

- ‘I cant get mixed up in this. I’m gonna be a dentist’

- ‘Dental college is part of the plan, A levels are part of the plan, dead people are not part of the plan, this is not Dental college.’ Selfish and cruel. Though he is upset by the situation, his sadness is because he might not get his dream job, rather than because somebody is dead.

Lou

- Lou will follow whoever is the leader at the time, even if it’s the ‘dangerous game’ of being best friends with Cathy

- Only speaks short sentences, has a lack of power

Adam

- Victim

- We learn about him through everybody else’s speech.

- Unpopular, easy to bully, a target because he admired the group ‘He’ll do anything to be part of the group’. Anything is not an exaggeration

‘They stand around a boy who looks like a tramp’ ends up feral at the end of the play. He is physically injured and has a head injury.

- ‘I woke up with liquid on my head’ confused about what happened to him, bad memory cased by injury