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Maurice Wilkins
A graduate student at King’s College assigned to assist Rosalind Franklin with her research in X-ray crystallography, and the man who eventually helped her to capture and develop Photograph 51. Portrayed in the play as earnest, helpful, and eager to please, Gosling is often the first character to step outwards from the action of the play to offer commentary on the events being portrayed. Rather than appearing as a know-it-all, however, Gosling’s comments on the events of Rosalind Franklin’s life and career are meant to bring to light the parts of Rosalind’s story that have often gone overlooked. In this respect, Gosling assists Rosalind in death just as he did in life—by lifting up her voice and her work—and attempts to atone for the mistakes he made in sharing her work without her permission. Gosling is rattled by Rosalind’s cancer diagnosis, knowing that his repeated warnings to her to avoid the beams of their X-ray machine during her research went ignored time and time again. Despite his youth, Gosling is intelligent, warm, and focused intensely on the values of collaboration and openness in his workplace. He represents hope for the future of the scientific profession and the scientific community more largely.
Ray Gosling Quotes in Photograph 51
The Photograph 51 quotes below are all either spoken by Ray Gosling or refer to Ray Gosling. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Photograph 51
Quotes
ROSALIND. It’s absurd, isn’t it? Archaic! […] This business of the senior common room…
GOSLING. I suppose. But ... you can’t worry about it. […] It’s not like biophysicists have such great conversations at meals anyway. They tend just to talk about the work. They never take a break.
ROSALIND. But those are precisely the conversations I need to have. Scientists make discoveries over lunch.
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ROSALIND. As a girl, I prided myself on always being right. Because I was always right. I drove my family near mad by relentlessly proposing games to play that I’d win every time. […] And when I was at university, and it was becoming as clear to my parents as it always had been for me that I would pursue science, I left Cambridge to meet my father for a hiking weekend. (Staring again at the image.) And atop a mountain in the Lake District, when I was eighteen years old, he said to me, “Rosalind, if you go forward with this life… you must never be wrong…”
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WILKINS. But what are we celebrating??
GOSLING. It’s amazing, really—
ROSALIND. Have some faith in me. There is something to celebrate. Take a leap of faith.
WILKINS. (Bitterly.) As though you would ever do that. […] I mean, my God, can you even hear yourself? The irony?
ROSALIND. (Slowly.) I take a leap of faith every day, Maurice, just by walking through that door in the morning ... I take a leap of faith that it’ll all be worth it, that it will all ultimately mean something.
WILKINS. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
ROSALIND. No, you wouldn’t.
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CASPAR. Watson and Crick got hold of the paper Rosalind had written. It was confidential.
CRICK. It wasn’t confidential. Another scientist at Cambridge gave it to us. […]
WILKINS. Well it wasn’t published, that’s for sure. And it included [….] information that became critical to your work.
WATSON. I’m sure we would have gotten there sooner or later, even without it.
WILKINS. So would we have done, with the benefit of your work. You had ours but we didn’t have yours!
WATSON. There was no “we” where you were concerned. […]
GOSLING. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how they got the paper, only that they got it.
CASPAR. And that Rosalind didn’t know she should be in a hurry.
ROSALIND. I think I’m thinking about how I’ve come to the end of thinking. […]
WILKINS. We could talk it through. It might help. […]
GOSLING. For a moment, everything stopped. Different ways our lives could go hovered in the air around us. […]
ROSALIND. You know, I think I am going to call it a night. I haven’t been home before midnight for a fortnight and really what’s the point of being here and not getting anywhere? […]
GOSLING. And then there was only one way everything would go.
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GOSLING. There’s no science that can explain it. Loneliness. […]
CASPAR. Rosalind? (She clutches her stomach.)
WATSON. It works, Francis. It works. (A very long beat.)
CRICK. It’s ...
WATSON. I can’t believe it.
CRICK. It’s life unfolding, right in front of us. (Rosalind doubles over in her chair, and gasps.)
CASPAR. Rosalind?
WILKINS. It’s the loneliest pursuit in the world. Science. Because there either are answers or there aren’t.
ROSALIND. If I’d only ...
GOSLING. Been more careful around the beam.
WATSON. Collaborated.
CRICK. Been more open, less wary. Less self-protective.
CASPAR. Or more wary, more self-protective.
WATSON. Been a better scientist.
CASPAR. Been willing to take more risks, make models, go forward without the certainty of proof.
CRICK. Been friendlier.
GOSLING. Or born at another time.
CRICK. Or born a man.
Get the entire Photograph 51 LitChart as a printable PDF.
Ray Gosling Quotes in Photograph 51
The Photograph 51 quotes below are all either spoken by Ray Gosling or refer to Ray Gosling. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Photograph 51
Quotes
ROSALIND. It’s absurd, isn’t it? Archaic! […] This business of the senior common room…
GOSLING. I suppose. But ... you can’t worry about it. […] It’s not like biophysicists have such great conversations at meals anyway. They tend just to talk about the work. They never take a break.
ROSALIND. But those are precisely the conversations I need to have. Scientists make discoveries over lunch.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
ROSALIND. As a girl, I prided myself on always being right. Because I was always right. I drove my family near mad by relentlessly proposing games to play that I’d win every time. […] And when I was at university, and it was becoming as clear to my parents as it always had been for me that I would pursue science, I left Cambridge to meet my father for a hiking weekend. (Staring again at the image.) And atop a mountain in the Lake District, when I was eighteen years old, he said to me, “Rosalind, if you go forward with this life… you must never be wrong…”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
WILKINS. But what are we celebrating??
GOSLING. It’s amazing, really—
ROSALIND. Have some faith in me. There is something to celebrate. Take a leap of faith.
WILKINS. (Bitterly.) As though you would ever do that. […] I mean, my God, can you even hear yourself? The irony?
ROSALIND. (Slowly.) I take a leap of faith every day, Maurice, just by walking through that door in the morning ... I take a leap of faith that it’ll all be worth it, that it will all ultimately mean something.
WILKINS. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
ROSALIND. No, you wouldn’t.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
CASPAR. Watson and Crick got hold of the paper Rosalind had written. It was confidential.
CRICK. It wasn’t confidential. Another scientist at Cambridge gave it to us. […]
WILKINS. Well it wasn’t published, that’s for sure. And it included [….] information that became critical to your work.
WATSON. I’m sure we would have gotten there sooner or later, even without it.
WILKINS. So would we have done, with the benefit of your work. You had ours but we didn’t have yours!
WATSON. There was no “we” where you were concerned. […]
GOSLING. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how they got the paper, only that they got it.
CASPAR. And that Rosalind didn’t know she should be in a hurry.
ROSALIND. I think I’m thinking about how I’ve come to the end of thinking. […]
WILKINS. We could talk it through. It might help. […]
GOSLING. For a moment, everything stopped. Different ways our lives could go hovered in the air around us. […]
ROSALIND. You know, I think I am going to call it a night. I haven’t been home before midnight for a fortnight and really what’s the point of being here and not getting anywhere? […]
GOSLING. And then there was only one way everything would go.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
GOSLING. There’s no science that can explain it. Loneliness. […]
CASPAR. Rosalind? (She clutches her stomach.)
WATSON. It works, Francis. It works. (A very long beat.)
CRICK. It’s ...
WATSON. I can’t believe it.
CRICK. It’s life unfolding, right in front of us. (Rosalind doubles over in her chair, and gasps.)
CASPAR. Rosalind?
WILKINS. It’s the loneliest pursuit in the world. Science. Because there either are answers or there aren’t.
ROSALIND. If I’d only ...
GOSLING. Been more careful around the beam.
WATSON. Collaborated.
CRICK. Been more open, less wary. Less self-protective.
CASPAR. Or more wary, more self-protective.
WATSON. Been a better scientist.
CASPAR. Been willing to take more risks, make models, go forward without the certainty of proof.
CRICK. Been friendlier.
GOSLING. Or born at another time.
CRICK. Or born a man.
