BlogLearn50 Important Quotes You Should Pay Attention to in Photograph 51

50 Important Quotes You Should Pay Attention to in Photograph 51

Abstract background . DNA molecule with X chromosomes - Photograph 51 quotes

Are you delving into the discovery of DNA with Anna Zeigler’s play Photograph 51, all whilst looking for some good quotes to analyse? 

Look no further! We’ve compiled a list of 50 quotes that can get you started with your analysis. 

Let’s dive right in! 

Quotes about Rosalind’s Autonomy in Photograph 51
Sexism Quotes in Photograph 51 
Acknowledgement and Recognition
Religion and Antisemitism
Quotes about Odile in Photograph 51 
Appearance
Fame, Glory and Regret
The Fate of Women in Patriarchy

Quotes about Rosalind’s Autonomy in Photograph 51

#1: ‘The lights rise on ROSALIND.’

  • Page 11
  • Characters: Rosalind (stage direction)
  • Techniques: Symbolism

#2: ‘When I was a child I used to draw shapes… I drew patterns of the tiniest repeating structures. In my mind were patterns of the tiniest repeating structures.’

  • Page 11
  • Characters: Rosalind (to audience) 
  • Techniques: Aside, Imagery

#3: ‘If I have to do everything myself, I will.’ 

  • Page 26 
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Gosling 
  • Techniques: Symbolic of Rosalind’s Resolve 

#4: “In fact you shouldn’t try to win me over because you won’t succeed. I’m not that kind of person.” 

  • Page 35
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Symbolism 

#5: “But Rosalind didn’t hypothesise the way Crick and I did; she proved things, and proving things, as all scientists know, isn’t…well for one thing it isn’t fast.” 

  • Page 39
  • Characters: Watson (speaks to audience) 
  • Techniques: Repetition, Dramatic Irony, Foreshadowing 

#6: “She opens a drawer and files it away.” 

  • Page 46
  • Characters: Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Symbolic of Rosalind’s Resolve

#7: ‘You’re behaving a bit like a banshee, Miss Franklin.’

  • Page 47
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Simile, Mythological reference to Gaelic Folklore, Symbolism

#8: ‘Take a leap of faith… I take a leap of faith everyday.” 

  • Page 48
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Symbolism, Repetition 

Sexism Quotes in Photograph 51

#9: ‘And when I first told my father I wanted to become a scientist, he said, ‘Ah I see.” …Then he said “No.”

  • Page 11
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaks to audience) 
  • Techniques: Imagery, Motif 

#10: ‘You will be assisting me in my study of the Signer DNA from switzerland.’

  • Page 13
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Symbolic of patriarchy 

#11: ‘I should feel that I came here under false pretences.’

  • Page 13
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Wilkins
  • Techniques: Imagery, Foreshadowing 

#12: ‘I eat in the senior common room…It’s for men only.’

  • Page 17
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Symbolic of Patriarchy 

#13: ‘The great difference, you know, between The Winter’s Tale and the story on which it’s based – Pandosto – is that in Shakespeare’s version the heroine survives.’ 

  • Page 21
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Intertexual reference, Symbolism, Foreshadowing 

#14: ‘Kindness always works with women.’ 

  • Page 33
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Gosling 
  • Techniques: Pathos, Symbolic of patriarchy 

#15: ‘ROSALIND stands in a spotlight, or it’s possible that we just hear her lines – a recording, or she speaks from offstage. In this scene WATSON and CRICK watch her, or watch a space that represents her. Their lines should run over some of hers; they’re talking over her.’ 

  • Page 42
  • Characters: Rosalind (stage direction) 
  • Techniques: Symbolic of loss of control over narrative, Imagery 

#16: ‘I mean didn’t she feel that something was at her back, a force greater than she was…’ 

  • Page 25
  • Characters: Crick (speaker), Watson 
  • Techniques: Symbolism of patriarchal power, Imagery 

#17: “So busy analysing the speaker, they didn’t hear what she was saying.’ 

  • Page 43
  • Characters: Gosling (speaks to audience) 
  • Techniques: Symbolic of the loss of narrative voice 

#18: ‘Life is and has always been unfair. That is its enduring hallmark.’ 

  • Page 48 
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind
  • Techniques: Motif, Irony, Symbolism 

#19: ‘She really is a right old hag, isn’t she.” 

  • Page 53
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Metaphor 

#20: “See, women expect men to fall upon them like unrestrained beasts.” 

  • Page 59
  • Characters: Crick (speaker), Watson, Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Simile 

Acknowledgement and Recognition

#21: “I think it’s a very exciting notion and who the hell got it isn’t what matters.” 

  • Page 76
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), 
  • Techniques: Dramatic irony 

#22: ‘You offered it up, like a leg of lamb we’d share for dinner.” 

  • Page 56
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Simile, Imagery 

#23: Watson: “Whenever there’s one on the DNA chain, there’s always the other.” …

Wilkins: “Like a team. A successful team.” 

  • Page 71
  • Characters: Watson, Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Dramatic irony

Religion and Antisemitism 

#24: “Just that…people…worked hard to…come up with these ways to save…well, the Jews, and then all you hear back from them is how they don’t approve. It feels a little…”

  • Page 15
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Allusion 

#25: “You’re absolutely right that the Jews should be in a more grateful frame of mind these days.” 

  • Page 16
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Irony, Tone of sarcasm 

#26: “The Jews really can be very Ornery.”

  • Page 40
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Wilkins, Crick 
  • Techniques: Allusion

Quotes about Odile in Photograph 51

#27: ‘WILKINS: ‘I suppose what I’m wondering is… how do you and Odile…how does it work so well? 

WATSON: It works because she doesn’t know that he ogles every other woman who crosses his path.’ 

  • Page 59
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick, Wilkins
  • Techniques: Symbolic of patriarchal power, and unfaithfulness 

#28: ‘Of course I love her. I mean, I honestly don’t know what I’d do without her. I can’t even imagine that life. And as soon as we have the money, we’re going to have children.” 

  • Page 59
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick, Wilkins
  • Techniques: Simile, Juxtaposition 

#29: “Odile’s roasts aren’t bad…Almost as tender as her thighs.” 

  • Page 62
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick, Wilkins
  • Techniques: Simile, Connecting imagery 

#30: ‘Jim, you go and help Odile bring out our new tea set and then we’ll sit and have a nice cup.’ 

  • Page 68
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick, Wilkins
  • Techniques: Symbolic of Female Oppression

#31: “Why should I help her? She’s your wife.” 

  • Page 68
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick, Wilkins
  • Techniques: Symbolic of Patriarchal Power

#32: “Odile has taken the guest room as her own, she moved her things into it slowly, gradually, over the last few months, She was clever. It was only when nothing was left that I realised she was gone.” 

  • Page 77-78
  • Characters: Crick (speaker), Watson
  • Techniques: Imagery, Symbolism 

Appearance

#33: ‘I wonder how she would look if she took off her glasses and did something novel with her hair.’

  • Page 42
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick 
  • Techniques: Symbolism

#34: ‘I mean she could possibly be attractive if she took even the mildest interest in her clothes.’

  • Page 42
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick 
  • Techniques: Symbolism 

#35: “She’s a cipher where a woman should be.”

  • Page 43
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick  
  • Techniques: Metaphor

#36: “He didn’t say – he couldn’t say – that he’d imagined her dowdier.” 

  • Page 57
  • Characters: Crick (speaks to the audience)
  • Techniques: Aside, Irony

Fame, Glory and Regret

#37: ‘It means large homes in the countryside without leaky radiators. It means suits tailored to fit.” 

  • Page 65
  • Characters: Crick (speaker), Watson 
  • Techniques: Imagery, Motif 

#38: ‘I can’t sit still. I’m energised. I want to take on everything now. The world. Everything. Women. You know.’ 

  • Page 77
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick
  • Techniques:  Symbolism 

#39: ‘But wasn’t it worth it? Now we’ll never be forgotten.’

  • Page 77
  • Characters: Watson (speaker), Crick
  • Techniques: Rhetorical question, Motif 

#40: ‘Truly all I ever wanted was to support my family, to do science, to make some small difference in the world.’ 

  • Page 77
  • Characters: Crick (speaker), Watson 
  • Techniques: Alliteration, Irony

#41: ‘Not until we’ve gotten it right. We start again’

  • Page 81
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Crick, Watson 
  • Techniques: Dramatic irony

#42: ‘And I have spent my whole life in regret.’ 

  • Page 83
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Symbolism

The Fate of Women in Patriarchy

#43: ‘No, I‘m not too lonely.’ 

  • Page 45
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Rosalind’s Mother 
  • Techniques: Irony 

#44: “Rosalind, if you go forward with this life. You must never be wrong. In one instance you could lose all you’ve achieved” 

  • Page 46
  • Characters: Rosalind’s Father (speaker), Rosalind
  • Techniques: Foreshadowing, Symbolism 

#45: “ROSALIND doubles over in her chair and gasps.” 

  • Page 75
  • Characters: Rosalind (Stage direction)
  • Techniques: Parallels, Juxtaposition, Foreshadowing 

#46: “I have two tumours. Twin tumours. Twins scampering around my body on tricycles, dropping handfuls of dirt as they go…For a moment I think of naming one Watson and the other Crick.” 

  • Page 75
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaks to the audience) 
  • Techniques: Aside, Personification, Symbolism 

#47: “Rosalind was thirty-seven when she died. It was a particularly cold april that year; there was frost on the trees in London; the Alps stayed snow-covered well into June.” 

  • Page 80
  • Characters: Gosling (speaks to the audience), Watson, Wilkins and Crick
  • Techniques: Aside, Imagery, Symbolism 

#48: “I love that Hermoine wasn’t really dead, That she comes back.” 

  • Page 82
  • Characters: Wilkins (speaker), Rosalind 
  • Techniques: Allusion

#49: “Hope. They all project it. Leontes projects life where there is none, so he can be forgiven.” 

  • Page 83
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Parallels, Allegory 

#50: “She simply didn’t stand out, I suppose.” 

  • Page 83
  • Characters: Rosalind (speaker), Wilkins 
  • Techniques: Allegory, Symbolism 

On the hunt for quotes from other texts?

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Abhisha Vaheesan completed her VCE in 2021 and is currently an undergraduate student studying Bachelor of Radiography and Medical Imaging (Honours) at Monash University. As much as she is invested in Biology and putting together the building blocks of life, she is equally immersed in debating the conflicts of modern literature. Aside from this, she loves listening to music, is an avid writer and K-drama fanatic.

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