The Depths of Night Mother by Marsha Norman

969 Words2 Pages

“‘Night Mother”, by Marsha Norman, is a play that dives into the struggles of a mother and daughter. First performed in 1983, the play became a major success both in Broadway, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, and was first performed as a play. (Spencer, pg. 1) Jessie is a middle aged woman, who is divorced, moved back in with her mother, and struggles with, what she believes, is a failed life. Thelma, Jessie’s mother, realizes that Jessie wants to commit suicide due to comments that Jessie makes. Thelma tries desperately to convince her daughter out of committing suicide; however, she is unable to convince Jessie. Jessie believes that has not reached the potential that her family wanted her to be; therefore, making her a failure in her marriage, her relationship with her son, and for her entire life. After Jessie and Thelma talk about funeral arrangements, Jessie leaves to commit suicide. The play finishes with Jessie saying, “’Night Mother.” and a shot fired, while Thelma realizes that there was nothing she could do. (Norman, pg. 18) The script of the play is very precise in how the actors are supposed to act, what the setting is supposed to look at, the tone that the actors must have when playing the role of Jessie and Thelma, the atmosphere, and the mood that the play is supposed to have.
The scripted gives every detail of what the house is to look like and states that the house should be more, “…comfortable than messy.” By having the set look like a comfortable home gives an atmosphere of what many, in the audience, would consider a homely feeling. (Norman, pg. 1) With guidance from Marsha Norman, the author of the play, she displays how she envisions the play being acted out and brought into the lives of the audience...

... middle of paper ...

...tp://www.gaston.k12.nc.us/schools/ngaston
/faculty/jslee/Course%20Outline%20and%20Syllabus/'night%20Mother.pdf>.
Rich, Frank. "THEATER: SUICIDE TALK IN ''NIGHT MOTHER'" The New York Times. The
New York Times, 31 Mar. 1983. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
/04/01/theater/theater-suicide-talk-in-night-mother.html>.
Rosefeldt, Paul. Masterplots. 4th ed. N.p.: Salem, 2010. ACC Library Services. Web. 27 Apr.
2014.
40cdbe7d79bdfb1e263a%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4210&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=lfh&AN=103331MP423639820000191>.
Spencer, Jenny S. "Norman's 'night, Mother : Psycho-drama Female Identity." Norman's 'night,
Mother : Psycho-drama Female Identity. Unknown Publisher, 3 Sept. 1983. Web. 27
Apr. 2014. .

Show More
Related

  • A Raisin In The Sun Analysis

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Theme during the beginning of the play is the value and importance of dreams. Each person in that house has a goal that they want to reach but is delayed in t...

    Read More

  • An Acquaintance with Darkness by Ann Rinaldi

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as… A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.

    Read More

  • Hollocaust Survivor: Night by Ellie Wiesel

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” (Wiesel 2006, p. 34) Elie Wiesel is a humanitarian but better known as a holocaust survivor and the author of the book Night. Elie recounts the horrors of his experience throughout the book and revisits times which he had not touched upon in years. His book initially only sold a few copies but later on through this renewed interest, Elie Wiesel’s book skyrocketed to fame and he started his journey in his humanitarian activities which in turn earned him a Nobel peace prize and resulted in his famous speech, Hope, Despair, and Memory. In Elie Wiesel’s speech, Hope Despair and Memory Elie Wiesel reminds us through his use of pathos and ethos as a speaker of the despair that humankind can create, but through our recollection and memories obtained from such despair we can summon the future with hope of change.

    Read More

  • Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is the story of an African boy, Kek, who loses his father and a brother and flees, leaving his mother to secure his safety. Kek, now in Minnesota, is faced with difficulties of adapting to a new life and of finding his lost mother. He believes that his mother still lives and would soon join him in the new found family. Kek is taken from the airport by a caregiver who takes him to live with his aunt. It is here that Kek meets all that amazed him compared to his home in Sudan, Africa. Home of the brave shows conflicts that Kek faces. He is caught between two worlds, Africa and America. He feels guilty leaving behind his people to live in a distant land especially his mother, who he left in the midst of an attack.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Mothers in The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plays, The Glass Menagerie and A Raisin in the Sun, deal with the love, honor, and respect of family. In The Glass Menagerie, Amanda, the caring but overbearing and over protective mother, wants to be taken care of, but in A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, as she is known, is the overseer of the family. The prospective of the plays identify that we have family members, like Amanda, as overprotective, or like Mama, as overseers. I am going to give a contrast of the mothers in the plays.

    Read More

  • Our Secret by Susan Griffin

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.

    Read More

  • Mother Any Distance by Simon Armitage

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    though he is moving away but at the same time he claims that he feels

    Read More

  • Our Secret by Susan Griffin

    440 Words  | 1 Pages

    In "Our Secret" by Susan Griffin, the essay uses fragments throughout the essay to symbolize all the topics and people that are involved. The fragments in the essay tie together insides and outsides, human nature, everything affected by past, secrets, cause and effect, and development with the content. These subjects and the fragments are also similar with her life stories and her interviewees that all go together. The author also uses her own memories mixed in with what she heard from the interviewees. Her recollection of her memory is not fully told, but with missing parts and added feelings. Her interviewee's words are told to her and brought to the paper with added information. She tells throughout the book about these recollections.

    Read More

  • Themes In Night By Ellie Wiesel

    680 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book, Night by Ellie Wiesel, this book Ellie documents his experiences before the Holocaust and in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. In this book, Ellie Wiesel discusses his experiences, some of these experiences changes Ellie as a person physically and mentally. Although Ellie Wiesel has experienced horrible things, he has been able to deal and survive through these horrible experiences.

    Read More

  • West with the Night, by Beryl Markham

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    Beryl Markham’s West with the Night is a collection of anecdotes surrounding her early life growing up as a white girl in British imperialist Africa, leading up to and through her flight across the Atlantic Ocean from East to West, which made her the first woman to do so successfully. Throughout this memoir, Markham exhibits an ache for discovery, travel, and challenge. She never stays in one place for very long and cannot bear the boredom of a stagnant lifestyle. One of the most iconic statements that Beryl Markham makes in West with the Night is:

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Tim Crouch's 'I, Cinna'

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    The stage and set of this production is in the tiny and dismantled apartment of Cinna, as if a box set. The rest of the play unfolds off-stage, as if in a contemporary setting. There are flashes to the “outside” including protests, police officers,

    Read More

  • Communication In A Note On A Marriage

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now that the play, “Post-its (Notes on a Marriage),” could make the audience react to feel distanced and questionable of the actions of the characters, how can that relate to everyday life? traits of the play Post-its (Notes on a Marriage) through staging and conversation,

    Read More

  • The Mother, by Grazia Deledda

    906 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is perhaps no greater joy in life than finding one’s soul mate. Once found, there is possibly no greater torment than being forced to live without them. This is the conflict that Paul faces from the moment he falls in love with Agnes. His devotion to the church and ultimately God are thrown into the cross hairs with the only possible outcome being one of agonizing humiliation. Grazia Deledda’s The Mother presents the classic dilemma of having to choose between what is morally right and being true to one’s own heart. Paul’s inability to choose one over the other consumes his life and everyone in it.

    Read More

  • Outline For Blood Relations By Sharon Pollock

    2421 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction: The play, Blood Relations by Sharon Pollock is about a thirty-four-year-old woman, Lizzie Borden, who feels trapped in a late nineteenth century society she feels she does not belong to. Lizzie has been acquitted of the murders of her father, Mr. Borden, and step-mother, Mrs. Borden. The majority of the play takes place through flashbacks as the future Lizzie and her friend, the actress, are acting out scenes from before the acquitting.

    Read More

  • Motherhood in The Summer Before the Dark by Kate Brown and The Fifth child by Harriet Lovatt

    5038 Words  | 11 Pages

    Motherhood in The Summer Before the Dark by Kate Brown and The Fifth child by Harriet Lovatt

    Read More

More about The Depths of Night Mother by Marsha Norman

Open Document