Margrethe's Role in Copenhagen Anonymous College

Margrethe’s character in Copenhagen mirrors the inherent complementarity and uncertainty in the play. Frayn uses Margrethe’s character to catalyze events in the play, analyze the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg as an ideological conflict, and voice the subtle emotions of the play to the audience. Frayn dispels preconceived notions about the pure scientific background of the meeting through Margrethe’s steady deflation of the esoteric stereotypes of male scientists. Margrethe plays the role of a translator by translating Bohr and Heisenberg’s scientific jargon into associable and humanistic dialogue for the audience. Margrethe engages the principles of uncertainty and complementarity by voicing Bohr and Heisenberg’s covert emotions which allowed them to sift through both moral and personal ramifications. She embodies uncertainty by fulfilling the stereotypical role of a housewife without scandalizing the audience while also being vocal about her scientific ideas. She embodies complementarity by using these two sides to her personality as complements to steadily nudge the audience away from a formula of a scientist.

Frayn uses Margrethe to reduce quantum mechanics to the study of elements characterized by a personal drive and...