Doug

*Aged in his 20’s

*Pyromaniac

Personal Qualities:-Aggressive nature, threatening, dominant, volatile, rude, uncouth, coarse, criticising, disrespectful, frank, intimidating, sexually charged, mischievous, cheeky, rough.

Relationships:Doug has an unresolved problem with his mother, which makes for a poor relationship. He feels his ego has taken a severe battering from is mother, because, despite his age, she still treats him like a child. He felt he had to stand up to his mother to resolve the conflict.

Conflict:
Doug and his mother clearly didn’t get along. He was told by a doctor he had to resolve the conflict with his mother. He felt it necessary to do so by paying her back for treating him like a child. So one day he gathered her 5 cats and lit them on fire. His plan backfired as one cat ran into the house and burnt the house down. He was put into the asylum and still faces problems with his mother.

Motivation/Goals:
Doug merely longs for a personal connection with others, but how he speaks to people is his main barrier. He is determined from day one to burn the theatre to the ground. He lights small fires here and there and is eventually placed in a closed ward. Lewis taking over his role in the play wouldn’t have helped preventing Doug from trying to the burn the theatre down. A motivating factor for Doug was his anger, anger with his mother, with his world and angry with his lack of connection to the theatre. In the end we find the theatre was burnt down, Doug being the major suspect of course.

Emotional and intellectual growth:
As a person, Doug doesn’t mature a lot during the play. He kept to his ways of being cruel to those who he saw to be weaker than himself, often women, and he also remained an angry person because of a number of reasons. However, as he is articulate and perceptive, his intelligence enables him to manipulate both those in his circumstances and those around him, but he continues with the same emotional mindset throughout the play. Lighting fires was his only way to get his mind off his problem.

Key quotes associated with Doug:

-One main quote associated with Doug is, “Go burn a cat!” Used by at least 3 different characters throughout the play. It is so important because it relates directly and literally to the things he has done in his past. It is seen by the patients as the only way to hurt him deep down, because it triggers the memories of his mother.

-Doug’s main quote, coming under the theme of Love is; “(about Lucy) You said she was into free love didn’t you? Can’t get over it. you do this old fashioned opera-this is the era of free love and orgies.” This is typical of Doug’s mindset. He links love directly to sex, which links in to him seeing women as sexual objects.
-Doug’s main quote, coming under the theme of Fidelity is; “Women like to pretend they don’t play around, but they’re just more secretive about it. They don’t brag like men.” Doug tends to believe what he hears. Not knowing about Doug’s personal relationships with other women, readers are lead to believe this, because he would have little respect and trust in women, because of his mother.

-Doug is given a lot of one-liners in the play to provide a comedic side to it. These are suited to his character as he is seen to be a bit of a larrikin.

by Garrison & Callum