Even though pitted against each other in the prevailing circumstances, the protg doesn’t hesitate to protect his student/son. Bohr’s defensive reaction in response to Margrethe’s attack can be perceived as Bohr’s display of his emotions towards Heisenberg. “Not to criticize, Margrethe, but you have a tendency to make everything personal” (73).

Bohr tries to interject this sudden turn in the conversation. Margrethe, while talking about complementarity, quickly metamorphoses the conversation into an attack on Heisenberg’s personal choices in advancing his career. Both Bohr and Heisenberg on several occasions note Margrethe’s ability to move beyond their science and bring it to a more “personal” level (Frayn 73). Margrethe mirrors the emotional connection that Bohr and Heisenberg share and nudges the audience come to terms with their meeting as an emotional and ideological conflict within the realm of quantum mechanics. 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.įrayn uses Margrethe to reduce quantum mechanics to the study of elements characterized by a personal drive and ideology. She embodies uncertainty by fulfilling the stereotypical role of a housewife without scandalizing the audience while also being vocal about her scientific ideas. 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. Margrethe plays the role of a translator by translating Bohr and Heisenberg’s scientific jargon into associable and humanistic dialogue for 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. 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.

Margrethe’s character in Copenhagen mirrors the inherent complementarity and uncertainty in the play.

Copenhagen play