Jessie wants to end her life. In the small amount of time between life and death, Thelma finds out more about her daughter than she ever did in her entire time with her. Thelma also unloads secrets and concerns that she never revealed to the person closest to her, her daughter Jessie.
‘Night mother is a play that unwinds spellbound confessions and displays intense emotions that run through the course of people’s lives. Jessie and Thelma are powerful characters that makes one feel apart of the story. Jessie for the first time in her life feels like she has a sense of control and death is freeing her as she sees life imprisoning her. The whole play is intriguing and complex and causes us to question our very existence as human beings.
Moreover, this play is brilliant in every aspect, that is, characters, dialogue, and pacing. It illustrates a central perspective about the nature of what creates drama in a story: the anticipation of an outcome of a dramatic issue. In this case, it means that Thelma and the story’s audience learns of Jessie’s plans. As a result of learning Jessie’s plans both Thelma and the readers are thrust deep into the heart of the story’s main question: will Jessie really kill herself or can Thelma find a way to stop her? Setting up a situation with an outcome in doubt and then resolving that issue in a fulfilling manner creates drama. The territory that ‘Night mother explores is that, the more reasons Thelma tries to grasp to convince Jessie not to kill herself, the more she reaffirms Jessie’s belief that her life is meaningless and its simply better to end her pain suffering with a clear mind.
Jessie: “And I can’t do anything about my life to change it, make it better but I can
stop it.”
This brilliant piece of dialogue, spare, evocative and tightly written cuts through to the heart for Jessie’s motive for wanting to die.
Further into the story, it is revealed why one of Thelma’s friends refuses to visit their house, because she has seen death in Jessie’s eyes. This is a deeper step into the author using what is at stake for Jessie- life or death- to explore the reality of Jessie’s life. For probably the first time ever in their relationship, Thelma speaks the truth to Jessie. This causes Jessie to dig deeper for the truth and ask her mother whether or not she ever truly loved her father. Again, Thelma speaks a truth she's never voiced before. It leads up to a revelation that Thelma suspected that Jessie’s father also suffered from the same seizures that have always pestered Jessie’s life. The secrets Thelma keeps hidden, spills out in a ‘downpour’.
Subsequently, Jessie and Thelma talk about Jessie’s ex-husband whom Thelma schemingly introduced to her. During the marriage, Jessie fell off a horse and the accident was thought to have led to her epileptic disorder. One of the truths however, that comes out was that Jessie began having epileptic fits as a child, but Thelma kept it hidden. It was something she didn’t want to think about, so she found a way to simply move on.
Thelma: “ I don’t like things to think about. I like things to go on.”
As Jessie talks about her former husband, her desire to end her life comes as sheer relief. Again, Marsha Norman has found a way to use Jessie’s approaching death to give each revelation about her life a jewel-like quality of clarity. When it comes out that because of her medication Jessie can now think more clearly, Thelma immediately concludes that, that is a reason for Jessie to want live. But for Jessie, the medication has had another effect.
Jessie: “If I’d ever had a year like this, to think straight and all before now, I’d be
gone already.”
As the time fast approaches when the “night” will be over, in desperation Thelma tries to find some way to stop Jessie’s plans. But as that final moment of Jessie’s life draws near, Thelma appears to be very dispassionate and compliant and finally accepts that she is going cut off her life. As Jessie moves to go to her room however, Thelma ‘snaps’ back into reality and observes that she is really about to commit suicide.
She attempts painstakingly to persuade Jessie not to kill herself, but her attempts are made in vain because she fails to hold Jessie back from entering the room to put her plans into action. As Jessie locks the door, Thelma collapses and cries out,
“Jessie, child…forgive me…I thought you were mine.”
The gunshot answers with a sound like “no” and the anticipated outcome is final.
To conclude, the play’s sadness is above and beyond tears. In reading it, one hopes for a happy ending but the writing is too good for any simple twist of fate-with a happy ending the story would be pointless. Throughout the play, Jessie is tranquil, not bitter and does not try to make her mother feel guilty for her reasons for wanting to die. Her logical and calm explanation for her decision and her mother’s frantic attempts to prevent the inevitable is Norman’s powerful about the sacredness of one’s right to control his or her own fate and the wisdom of respecting that when all other options are taken away. This profoundly moving play develops its drama not from hiding what is at stake-Jessie’s overhanging death- but by setting it out in a manner that the author develops drama around the outcome of the question: will Jessie kill herself?
It is the nature of drama, that there can only be a story if there is a determinant to what sets the story into motion. ‘Night mother is an example of where something obvious and abrupt-Jessie’s impending death- can give dramatic meaning to common events such as making cocoa or eating a caramel apple. Norman excels in setting up the issue at the beginning of the story in a way that it connects with the readers. By making what is at stake in the story clear and direct, the author frees herself to begin the task that should face every storyteller, that is, bringing the readers fully into and involved with the world a story’s characters inhabit and seek to shape.
‘Night mother is a gut-wrenching story that deals with relationships and the search for the true meaning of life. This is a story that compels admiration and Norman deserves praise for her great piece of work and for excelling in the art of storytelling.
