The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (play) - Sample exam
In your exam, you may be asked a question about the whole text OR about an extract from the text as well as the whole text. Either way, these are the analysis skills you will need to use.
The question
How does Stephens present Christopher's mother, Judy in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
Write about:
how Stephens presents Judy in the extract
how Stephens presents Judy in the rest of the play
The extract
Judy
Dear Christopher. I said I wanted to explain to you why I went away when I had the time to do it properly. Now I have lots of time. So I’m sitting on the sofa here with this letter and the radio on and I’m going to try and explain.
I was not a very good mother, Christopher. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you’d been different, I might have been better at it. But that's just the way things turned out.
I'm not like your father. Your father is a much more patient person. He just gets on with things and if things upset him he doesn't let it show.
But that's not the way I am and there's nothing I can do to change it.
Do you remember once when we shopping in town together? And we went into Bentalls and it was really crowded and we had to get a Christmas present for Grandma? And you were frightened because of all the people in the shop. It was the middle of Christmas shopping when everyone was in town. And I was talking to Mr Land who works on the kitchen floor and went to school with me. And you crouched down on the floor and put your hands over your ears and you were in the way of everyone so I got cross because I don’t like shopping at Christmas either...
From Part One
Before you go onto the next page, make some notes about what you could write about:
Hints
Think about the key words in the question ('present', 'mother').
Think about this extract - how is Judy portrayed? Which of Stephens' key ideas are presented here? Family, honesty and trust, or braving the unknown? Highlight some key points.
Think about the rest of the play and how she is presented.
