night, Mother
The play "'night, Mother" written by Marsha Norman is not in itself written to be about suicide, but rather it tries to focus on the relationship between the mother and daughter. The fact that the daughter commits suicide at the end is only an incident that happens at the end of the play. This is a fact that some people have missed including some writers whose job it is to review films and plays. Jenny Spencer has addresses this, and has concluded that men may have trouble relating to the characters and the theme of the play. This happens to be the case with Stanley Kauffman in his review of the movie, which was made on an adaptation by Marsha Norman of the play. The play tells the story of a young woman's decision to finally take control her own life. This young woman, Jessie is the daughter of Thelma, and these are the only two characters that are in the play. There are other characters in the story such as Jessie's ex-husband Cecil and her brother Dawson, who are solely secondary characters that do not make an appearance in the play itself. However, they are often mentioned in the dialogue between Jessie and Thelma. The setting is also quite basic as the entire play takes place in the living room and the kitchen of the hou
1987 issue of the journal Modern Drama Stanley Kauffman "The New Republic" 1986 Jessie's mother, Thelma is an elderly woman who needs a lot of help around the house, and depends on Jessie and Dawson to provide it. She has done much to hurt Jessie in the past, such as hiding the truth about Jessie's epileptic seizures, hiding certain truth's about her father from her, and scheming to find her a husband. She is the kind of person who expects their say to be the final say on any matter, and expects everyone to go along with them and their beliefs. She is the kind of person who thinks that they never make a mistake, and someone who thinks that they have no flaws whatsoever to talk about. Works cited (very ad-hoc as teacher didn't want a work cited pasge as she handed out sources and knew where they came from) Jenny Spencer takes the position that males who watch the play will not be able to relate to either character in the play. She writes, "...men may more easily approach the problems addressed in the play in broadly thematic or symbolic terms:" (line 14) She further argues that Marsha Norman subconsciously addresses the female audience through her writing, and this creates even further distance between the male and female audiences of the play. Jenny Spencer feels that the play as written is out of the grasp of males emotionally, but well within the boundaries of a female's emotional understanding especially of the relationship between the mother and daughter. Stanley Kauffman's movie review expresses a view about the movie adaptation of the play that supports Jenny Spencer's claim concerning the male's perception of the play. Stanley Kauffman writes, "...it remains an artificiality, a stunt, which is so proud of its clever shape that in the end pallid cleverness is all it has to offer." He suggests throughout his review that the movie/play is nothing more than a clever idea about
Some common words found in the essay are:
Jenny Spencer, Stanley Kauffman, Jessie Thelma, Marsha Norman, Jenny Spencer's, Jessie Dawson, Meanwhile Jessie, Stanley Kauffman's, Cecil Dawson, jenny spencer, , mother daughter, committing suicide, ninety minutes, stanley kauffman, relationship mother, marsha norman, life committing suicide, beginning play, movie adaptation, call help, relationship mother daughter, final ninety minutes,
Approximate Word count = 1284
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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