Marsha Norman's Plays "Night Mother" Analysis

Not like many other plays you have read or seen before, ‘night Mother written by Marsha Norman is a play which focuses on only two main characters. The entire play is spoken through the thoughts of a mother (Mama) and daughter (Jessie). Most of their conversations are revolved around the informal, yet bizarre reveal of Jessie's plan to commit suicide. In ‘night Mother we can discover the true psychological identities of the two main characters. When discovering the stories behind these two characters you begin to realize everyone has a different perception of life. With this being said, we all have obstacles we are faced with during our time on this earth.

In this play, Jessie Cates has many challenges in her life. She faces depression, seizures, memory loss, abandonment, a forced marriage, along with a controlling mother. She has known no other world where these feelings and conditions have not controlled every move. This has made her concept of time become blurred in a way. ‘Night Mother is a play filled with turmoil, failed existence, and tragedy. Death creating a new life in a sense, because it is symbolizing the freeing of oneself from the bondage of a miserable and pointless existence.

This play takes place strictly in the house that belongs to Thelma Cates, better known as Mama throughout the play on an isolated country road. The house is filled with afghans, knitting baskets, and many of “Mama's" latest works in progress. The home is very compact and seems to be filled with a clutter of possessions, all belonging to Mama. Lines of the set are also filled with static and give a feeling of containment within the space of the stage. Static lines are symbolic to the static and dead place Jessie is feeling inside herself. Showing crystal clear that Jessie has a feeling of disconnect between her mother and her feeling of alienation in her own home.

This overall points out the fact that although Jessie has been living with her mama for quite some time, she has no personal values or connections that make this house feel like a place of security, as it does for most. This shapes the idea of why Jessie is planning to commit suicide with the idea of cutting the ties from her current life of repetition and struggle believing there is no other option for her or no one she feels she can turn to.

Suicide in this play seems to be the catalyst that brings Jessie and Mama to finally open up and talk to one another. Some may begin to believe that Norman implies that suicide is an acceptable alternative to continuing living life one may consider unbearable, but Jessie’s is far from that in the playwright. Norman is not taking an authorial stance at all, rather she is simply allowing the women in her play to speak straightforwardly. The result of this in ’night, Mother comes to be a tragedy in the fact that the characters have passed up a lifetime of opportunities to understand one another and have the chance to reach a mutual understanding in Jessie’s final hours of life.

Unlike characters in a more classical tragedy, neither are able to realize the full extent of one another's loss. Which you would assume would be inevitable living in such a small home constantly surrounded by one another's presence. The family home being on an isolated country road allows for the idea that isolation is a key factor in the play. Thelma, on one hand, is comfortable with her simple country way of living. She never wanted much and could find a way to be happy with whatever she had, even if it meant lying to herself.

Jessie, on the other hand, is wanted much more for her life than the bad cards she was dealt. She cannot settle for the life she was given and try to make the best of it. Being so opposite from her mother brings the feeling of isolation to be prominent in her mind. She can no longer go through the motions of her drab life when she feels as though she's up against her world with no one there beside her. When thinking about an isolated country road you begin to think of neighbors being far and few making human interaction or any type of help that could be sent to aid Jessie, a lost cause. With the lock of a door, she can end her pain altogether and no one will hear and/or question the gunshot for miles on end.

In conclusion, the setting is a very prominent factor in ‘night Mother. It sets a tone of chaos and detachment from a true reality. The Cates home which is nothing by clutter and disarray allows us to look deeper into how this home represents Jessie’s feelings about her life on a daily basis. The country road this home is placed on is all part of the larger image of isolation Jessie has battled up to her decision to commit suicide. ‘Night Mother is a play filled with turmoil, failed existence, and tragedy. It is remarkable when read-only looking at the surface, but when torn apart and magnified you are able to find bigger meaning to all the madness.