DNA: Character Quotations (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Key word or phrase to memorise: “right” and “perfect”

What the quotation means:

In this line, Leah warns the unresponsive Phil that she could “walk out” and leave whenever she feels it is the right time

Theme: Responsibility

• This line foreshadows Leah’s increasingly desperate state and final departure:

  • Leah is aware, perhaps even pre-empting, the chaos to follow

• Kelly’s Leah is disciplined, with a sense of morality:

  • The connection of “perfect” and “right”, implies Leah’s strong values

  • She states emphatically that she will act upon her own judgement of the “circumstances”, suggesting she knows right from wrong

Key word or phrase to memorise: “tiniest”

What the quotation means:

Leah explains to Phil that human beings are closely related to bonobos, not to chimpanzees, and says that the difference between the two species is slight

Theme: Innocence and sin 

• Leah’s explanation about genetic similarities between humans, chimps and bonobos underlines Kelly’s exploration of empathy and human nature in the play:

  • The superlative “tiniest” emphasises how small the genetic differences are

  • The suspended sentence implies that this tiny variation has a significant impact 

  • The acronym DNA (the title of the play) refers both our genetic make-up and to traces left by humans that are used as evidence of criminality

Key word or phrase to memorise: “natural order” and “anomaly”

What the quotation means:

Leah tells Phil her thoughts on life and the universe, suggesting that human beings disrupt nature and represent an abnormality

Theme: Innocence and sin 

• The juxtaposition of “natural” and “anomaly” illustrates Leah’s deep concerns about the conflicts in her life, and the behaviour of her peers:

  • She suggests that nature is thrown off balance by human beings

  • The short sentence asserts her opinion that people (“us”) are the problem  

Key word or phrase to memorise:   “happy”

What the quotation means:

Leah tells Phil that the idea of happiness is a social construct, considered the norm or even an obligation

Theme: Truth and reality

• Leah’s description of happiness, that it is something we are “supposed to do”, challenges contemporary attitudes about mental health:

  • Her frustration is conveyed in the repetition of the word “happy”, which is spoken with cynicism in a list of rhetorical questions

  • Kelly uses contrasting vocabulary to compare happiness with “failure” and “deviation”, suggesting it is elusive and fleeting

Key word or phrase to memorise: “DNA nightmare”

What the quotation means:

Phil instructs Danny, Cathy and Mark to buy a new pack of bin liners as the ones at home will contain traces of their DNA

Theme: Bullying and violence

• Phil’s first words in the play are instructions, presenting him as a dominant character:

  • The imperative phrase, “Do not be tempted”, places him firmly in charge

• Phil’s informal language, such as “knocking around the house”, shows his rather sinister, cavalier response to Adam’s death:

  • Describing a “DNA nightmare” is another understated response to the murder, which presents him as callous, even disturbed

Key word or phrase to memorise: “Sorry”

What the quotation means:

Phil’s impatience with Brian is demonstrated. He ignores Brian’s plea not to go to the police and, using a violent threat, forces him against his will

Theme: Bullying and violence

• Phil’s dominance is signalled by his adoption of the language of a soothing parent:

  • The repetition of “yes” implies a condescending tone

• Phil’s short and superficial apology presents him as a dangerous manipulator:

  • The others listen to his orders and follow his plans 

• He first cajoles and then threatens Brian, representing his power

Key word or phrase to memorise: “kindly”

What the quotation means:

Phil attempts to convince Adam to return to the bush where he has been hiding for days

Theme: Truth and reality

• The stage directions reveal Phil’s duplicity as he attempts to deceive Adam:

  • The audience is aware of Phil’s power, wilfully dominating and isolating others, so the adverb “kindly” highlights the way he exploits others

Key word or phrase to memorise: “Leah”

What the quotation means:

Phil’s final words are to Leah who has left him alone in the field; his calls are in vain as she does not reply

Theme: Truth and reality

Kelly presents Phil as vulnerable in Act 3 and, like other characters, we see the impact of his actions on his mental stability:

• His pleading tone and the repetition reflect a newly-found vulnerability

• His attempt to engage with Leah comes too late and coincides with the audience’s sense that this is a desperate and sudden acknowledgement of her identity and worth to him

Key word or phrase to memorise: “crawling”

What the quotation means:

Adam relates how he had to crawl in the darkness to find his way

Theme: Innocence and sin

• Adam’s vulnerability is emphasised in this scene as Kelly presents him as childlike

• Kelly’s use of visual imagery accentuates the darker themes in the play:

  • Adam describes his frightening experiences in present tense continuous verbs

  • The repetitive phrasing creates an unstable narration and conveys Adam’s fear

Key word or phrase to memorise: “light”

What the quotation means:

Adam explains how a light that he saw in the darkness motivated him to move forward

Theme: Innocence and sin

• Kelly uses juxtaposition to contrast the dark hole with the light Adam sees:

  • Adam believes the light is heaven, perhaps emphasised with the repetition of “high” and the ellipsis, which leaves the implication of his words ambiguous

  • The contrasting imagery may convey ideas about good and evil, or life and death

Key word or phrase to memorise: “new”

What the quotation means:

Adam tells the other characters that he felt reborn (a new person)

Theme: Innocence and sin

• Adam describes a spiritual awakening as he leaves the hole, linking light to his escape:

  • His name has biblical allusions, implying he is like Adam, the “first man”, coming out of a metaphorical darkness

  • The line is delivered dramatically, as Kelly directs it to be spoken slowly, pausing at each repeated phrase to emphasise the word “new”

Key word or phrase to memorise: “living dead”

What the quotation means:

The play begins as Mark and Jan discuss Adam’s death. Mark clarifies the reality of the situation to Jan (that Adam is actually dead)

Theme: Truth and reality

• Mark’s language consists of opposing ideas, like “Not” and “yes”, or “living” and “dead”:

  • This juxtaposition highlights their confusion, while relieving the dark opening

  • Mark’s banter with Jan makes him a comic character as he and Jan speak in staccato-like stichomythia (short, witty lines exchanged between them)

Key word or phrase to memorise: “laugh”

What the quotation means:

Mark suggests that their torture of Adam was “just for a laugh”, adding that Adam found it funny when they stubbed out cigarettes on him

Theme: Bullying and violence

• Kelly presents Mark as a prankster and bully who tries to excuse his abusive behaviour

• Here, and throughout the scene, Mark tends to dismiss the event, mitigating the effect of their cruelty with words like “really” and “just”

Key word or phrase to memorise: “pegged a stone”

What the quotation means:

Mark explains how Adam fell in the hole (the “grille”) in a vague reference to someone throwing a stone at Adam when he was balanced on the edge

Theme: Truth and reality

• Mark’s casual narration of the event depicts how he takes pleasure in others’ suffering:

  • He describes the torture Adam endured with colloquial language, such as “pegged” (threw) 

  • His vague reference to “someone’s” actions conveys how the group of bullies becomes an anonymous collective and seeks to deny his culpability