'night, Mother by Marsha Norman
'night, Mother is a poignant play by Marsha Norman that explores the complex dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship in the face of profound despair. The narrative centers on Jessie, a middle-aged woman who reveals to her mother, Thelma, her intention to commit suicide. Over the course of the play's ninety-minute runtime, a tense dialogue unfolds as Thelma desperately attempts to persuade Jessie to reconsider her decision, highlighting themes of control, loss, and the societal pressures that women face. Jessie feels trapped by her circumstances, including a failing marriage, a troubled son, and her struggles with epilepsy, which she believes have rendered her powerless in her life. The play has been noted for its dark humor and critical examination of women's experiences, eliciting diverse reactions within feminist discourse. While some view it as reinforcing negative stereotypes of self-destructive women, others appreciate its candid portrayal of a mother's struggle with the impending loss of her child. 'night, Mother won a Pulitzer Prize and gained recognition for its emotional depth and unflinching examination of life's messy realities, further adapted into a film in 1986.
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Subject Terms
'night, Mother by Marsha Norman
First produced: 1982, at the American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, Massachusetts
First published: 1983
The Work
“The things we as women know best,” Norman has explained, “have not been perceived to be of critical value to society.” The mother-daughter relationship is a “perfect example of that.” At the play’s outset, the middle-aged Jessie announces to her mother, Thelma, that she is going to kill herself. Norman has described the ninety minutes that follow as “the fight of their lives.” Thelma exhorts, cajoles, and pleads with Jessie to abandon her plan. Jessie remains implacable. She feels trapped in the house she and Thelma share. Her husband has abandoned her; her son is a delinquent. She blames her epileptic fits for her failings as a wife and mother and for her inability to hold a job. She also blames the epilepsy—considered emblematic by critics of the plight as a woman in society—for rendering her unconscious and out of control, to be handled and observed by others.
Jessie has not felt in charge of her life, but she takes charge of her death. At the play’s opening, she is collecting old pillows and towels to minimize the mess when she shoots herself. Such meticulousness indicates Jessie’s need for control, and is ironic in view of the violence of the act she is planning.
Not until Norman heard an audience laugh at its dark humor during a reading of the play did she have confidence of its acceptance. Her husband at the time, Dann Byck, Jr., produced ’night, Mother for its Broadway run, the personal nature of the project causing Norman to want to keep it in the family. The play won four Tony nominations, including best play, and a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A film version, scripted by Norman, appeared in 1986.
Critical discussion has focused on the issue of suicide in the play, but its feminism has also been debated. Some feminists condemn ’night, Mother for perpetuating the stereotype of the self-destructive woman. Others praise it for highlighting the struggle of women like Thelma to relinquish their hold on adult children. “We all lose our children,” Norman, a mother of two, has remarked: “You think for a lifetime they belong to you, but they are only on loan.” Regarding the violence in the play, Norman has commented that women “are not afraid to look under the bed, or to wash the sheets; we know that life is messy.”
Bibliography
Betsko, Kathleen, and Rachel Koenig. Interviews with Contemporary Women Playwrights. New York: William Morrow, 1987.
Browder, Sally. “ ‘I Thought You Were Mine’: Marsha Norman’s ’night, Mother.” In Mother Puzzles: Daughters and Mothers in Contemporary American Literature, edited by Mickey Pearlman. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. This article looks at Jessie’s reliance on her mother, Thelma’s reliance on her daughter, and what impact these relationships have on the self-concept of each woman.
Burkman, Katherine H. “The Demeter Myth and Doubling in Marsha Norman’s ’night, Mother.” In Modern American Drama: The Female Canon, edited by June Schlueter. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990. A psychological exploration of the relationship between mother and daughter that traces ’night, Mother to the ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Kore.
Demastes, William W. “Jessie and Thelma Revisited: Marsha Norman’s Conceptual Challenge in ’night, Mother.” Modern Drama 36, no. 1 (1993): 109-120. Demastes suggests that, although it is a realistic social drama, the play attacks the established order and denies understanding.
Gill, Brendan. Review in The New Yorker. LXVI (April 11, 1983), p. 109.
Grieff, Louis K. “Fathers, Daughters, and Spiritual Sisters: Marsha Norman’s ’night, Mother and Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie.” Text and Performance Quarterly 9, no. 3 (1989): 224-228. The focus of this study is the relationship of the emotionally crippled daughter with her long-absent father.
Gross, Amy. “Marsha Norman.” Vogue 173 (July, 1983): 200-201, 256-258. A general interview article that discusses Norman’s views on ’night, Mother.
Harriott, Esther. American Voices: Five Contemporary Playwrights in Essays and Interviews. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988.
Hart, Lynda, ed. Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Woman’s Theatre. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989.
Kane, Leslie. “The Way Out, the Way In: Paths to Self in the Plays of Marsha Norman.” In Feminine Focus: The New Women Playwrights, edited by Enoch Brater. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1989. This article compares the mother-child relationships and the development of self in ’night, Mother to similar concepts examined in Norman’s other plays.
Morrow, Laura. “Orality and Identity in ’night, Mother and Crimes of the Heart.” Studies in American Drama 3 (1988): 23-39. This study examines the relationship of orality in the development of female identity in Norman’s play and compares it to Beth Henley’s play.
The New York Times Magazine. Review. May 1, 1983, p. 22.
Porter, Laurin R. “Woman Re-Conceived: Changing Perceptions of Women in Contemporary American Drama.” Conference of College Teachers of English Studies 54 (1989): 53-59. This journal article provides a comparison of the play to Crimes of the Heart and Agnes of God.
Savran, David. In Their Own Words: Contemporary American Playwrights. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1988.
Smith, Raynette Halvorsen. “ ’night, Mother and True West: Mirror Images of Violence and Gender.” In Violence in Drama, edited by James Redmond. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Smith compares Norman’s and Sam Shepard’s treatment of violence in relationship to gender.
Spencer, Jenny S. “Marsha Norman’s She Tragedies.” In Making a Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Women’s Theatre, edited by Lynda Hart. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 1989. A feminist reading of Norman’s dramas in which ’night, Mother is seen as a drama of feminine passivity.
Spencer, Jenny S. “Norman’s ’night, Mother: Psycho-Drama of Female Identity.” Modern Drama 30, no. 3 (1987): 364-375. Takes a psychological approach in comparing the audience response of men to the play with the audience response of women.
Stone, Elizabeth. “Playwright Marsha Norman: An Optimist Writes About Suicide, Confinement, and Despair.” Ms. 102 (July, 1983): 56-59. An interview of Norman in which she explains Jessie’s relationship to her mother, Jessie’s suicide, and other aspects of ’night, Mother.
Tweeton, Leslie. “Art for Art’s Sake: The American Repertory Theatre,” in Boston Magazine. LXXVI (February, 1984), p. 23.