Jessie's Quest for Autonomy through Suicide in Marsha Norman's night Mother

Peter Brüstle

• Publisher: GRIN Verlag
• Year: 2003
• Edition: 0
• eBook ISBN:
  9783638188739
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1, 3 (A), University of Freiburg (English Seminar), course: Proseminar: Death in American Literature, language: English, abstract: 'night, Mother, a more recent American play, which, in form of a dialoguebetween a mother and her adult daughter deals with the daughter'sdesperation for missing autonomy and her decision to gain control over herlife by ending it, has met with controversial reception from critics afterwinning the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. On the one hand it was celebrated as asuccessful drama by a female playwright, whereas it was denied on the otherhand as betraying Feminism.Still, in my paper this struggle will not be continued. What I am interested inhere is, how the play treats the subject of free death as a specific way ofdying. In our current society this subject arouses either greed for sensation orit is looked upon as a taboo and the public treatment or defense of it isnormally denied. Examining the plays reception by critics it is striking that theprotagonist's carried out death is mainly deemed positive or even comparedwith a heroic deed. In the face of this debate I will examine Jessie'sdesperation with her life and show, if she is in the end really successful inreaching autonomy and a personal identity through suicide.The first objects of my research are going to be Jessie's current situation, herinward state of mind and how she comes to the decision that death mightconstitute a solution to her problems. The next step will be a discussion ofthis decision and its justification with the help of two different works onsuicide, of which one is rather a scientific study and the other one aphilosophical treatise on the topic. Finally, I will have a look at those critiqueswhich are in favor of Jessie's suicide as a positive and successful action andput them in context with the plot of the play, which will lead to a conclusionof what Jessie has actually reached and in how far her suicide might be seenas a wrong reaction.