Dr. Givings prides himself, as a man of science, with the ability to remain unaffected and unemotional. Not only does he keep a professional demeanor while treating patients, but he also maintains passionless courtesy while interacting with his wife. When Dr. Givings walks in on Leo painting Elizabeth, however, it becomes clear that he is embarrassed by intimacy and afraid to be vulnerable or lose control. Despite Catherine’s obvious emotional pain, Dr. Givings dismisses her distress rather than treating her right away because he is aware, on some level, that performing intimate physical acts on patients is different from performing them on his wife. Dr. Givings is frustrated with his wife’s desire for intimacy, but Catherine helps him to stop repressing his own emotions and allow himself to be fully naked, both physically and emotionally, with her for the first time.

Catherine is the protagonist of the play and the central figure of the home in which the play is set. Catherine’s husband compares her to Madame Bovary, a literary figure who craved excitement and committed suicide because she believed it would be dramatic. However, Catherine’s struggles with her own insecurities and loneliness are not, as her husband characterizes them, overreaction or