The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Example questions - CCEA

Use these questions to hone your knowledge of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and to practise using your notes and analysis in organised paragraphs that focus on how particular themes or ideas are shown in the play. There is an example answer in the following section to demonstrate how you can do this.

• How does Stephens use the character of Siobhan in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
• To what extent do the adult characters in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time show respect towards Christopher?
• How does Stephens present family relationships in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
• In what ways does Christopher grow up during the course of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
• How does Stephens present modern life in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
• What dramatic methods does Stephens use to show Christopher’s perspective on the world?

Below is a demonstration of how to use the material in this section to answer an example essay question. The answer below is not a full essay, but only an extract of a longer answer showing some of the points that could be made.

Q: What dramatic methods does Stephens use to show Christopher’s perspective on the world?

A: Stephens adapted the stage play of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time from Mark Haddon’s successful novel in 2012. The protagonist, Christopher, narrates the tale from an unusual perspective which may or may not be at least partly a product of neurodivergence such as autism. This, however, is never mentioned directly in the novel. Haddon stated that he did very little research into the topic of autism whilst writing the novel, and offers the idea that Christopher’s value as a protagonist comes from his unique perspective on the world and not from any particular diagnosis he could have had. This unique perspective includes his self-awareness and attention to detail, his talent and intelligence, his determined approach to challenges and his frequent failure to fully understand what other people are saying, particularly when they speak in metaphorical idioms. This means the audience can see things differently through Christopher’s eyes, and evaluate events in a new way because of the protagonist’s perspective.
 
Stephens presents Christopher as being very self-aware; we see this when he says “I see everything. Most other people are lazy.” This shows that Christopher knows himself very well, an impressive trait for a 15-year-old. It is also humorous that his opinion of other people is that they are lazy for not being as observant as he is. We see at different points that Stephens presents Christopher as being excitable or unpredictable when he writes a use of gesture into the stage directions: “As he talks he raps out a nervous rhythm with his hand.” Christopher gets so engrossed in what he is seeing out of the train window and what he is telling the audience, he wets himself. This event comes as a surprise to the audience, highlighting how unpredictable Christopher can be. It also compliments the first point – it is surprising for a 15 year old to know themselves well, and it is also surprising for them to be wetting themselves at that age. Stephens also uses listing in this scene to show the various degrees of detail Christopher sees the world in: “There are nineteen cows in the field… There is a village in the distance, which has 31 visible houses… a plastic bag from Asda… Coca Cola…”. Most people do not see the world like in this way, so this helps the audience to understand that Christopher has a very unique outlook.
 
This essay could go on to make the following points, backed up by evidence from the play and analysis/interpretation of that evidence:

• The use of overlaid dialogue by the Ensemble voices shows the extent to which Christopher finds the busy environment of the train station to be chaotic and overwhelming, marking out his experience as more intense than other peoples’ and his perspective as unique.
• The use of long and detailed sentences by Christopher when he explains complicated astrological and mathematical ideas to other characters, showing his talent for maths and his intelligence; the fact he passes his A-level Maths exam further shows his unusual intellect for someone so young.
• Christopher’s admission that he does not understand other people’s speech, particularly metaphors, shows his unique perspective and can sometimes create a humorous tone.