Night, mother by Marsha Norman Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Night, mother by Marsha Norman - Research Paper Example Basing on the plot, we can’t but consider a â€Å"Night, motherâ€Å" to be a dramatic writing. Jessie is so exhausted and upset, her life is so terrible that she considers death to be the blessing. She just wants â€Å"to rest† and the only place she can find calm and rest is another world. Jessie simply can’t see the reasons to live further, she can’t see anything in her life that could hold her to live. Thus her decision seems to be easy to take. â€Å"Jessie knows she could choose to live rather than to die, but she lacks the appetite for the choice† (Burkman). At the same time, we can admit that Jessie’s actions can be motivated by the desire to revenge her mother. Thus, we should also analyze Jessie’ s nature. From this point of view she seems not to be an unhappy victim, but an unforgiving creature. Here Jessie seems to be selfish as she made her mother go through very difficult ninety minutes. Moreover, she warned her about h er intentions and this seems to be done deliberately to make her suffer. We can admit that an unhappy woman parted from her beloved husband, suffering from illness, just turn into a neurotic creature that needs revenge. Really, suicides are never committed only because of despair, the motivation is usually closely connected with the desire to revenge. Thus, we can assume that manipulation is the motivation of Jessie, her main focus. Actually, her mother deserves that. Her mother is too childish, she concentrated her attention only on her own wishes. â€Å"â€Å"Mama hums a tune as she stretches to reach the cupcakes in a cabinet in the kitchen. She can’t see them, but she can feel around for them, and she’s eager to have one, so she’s working pretty hard at it. This may be the most serious exercise Mama ever gets† (Norman 9)†. She is so self-centered that can’t notice the state of her daughter and Jessie can’t find a key to her heart. The dialogues held by a mother and her daughter are very important in the play. A spectator can learn much from these dialogues. By means of different phrases mother and daughter try to reach their goals. Jessie tries to give her mother hints about her real intentions by specifying the locations of different household items: "I asked you if you wanted that swimming towel and you said you didn't" (Norman 19). This was daughter’s answer to the mother’s question that was asked to reveal her intentions. By means of such phrases with hidden sense Jessie manipulates her mother that is why some critics think that Jessie’s main intention was to manipulate. If she simply said: â€Å"mom, I am going to commit suicide†, it would not have such a result. She makes her mother afraid and worried and this is her decision as she wants her mother finally to pay attention to her and her problems. She is exhausted because she feels outcast and left alone with her