Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on 'night Mother, Tragic but not Tragedy. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that argues that Marsha Norman's play 'night, Mother fails to fit the definition of Greek tragedy. This examination of the play reveals that it is not Greek tragedy, merely tragic, because Jessie's final act accomplishes no purpose. It is merely her final abdication of personal responsibility. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khnornm.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
live; ---Dorothy Parker As Dorothy Parkers cryptic remarks about suicide suggest, suicide does not work well as a problem-solving device. Yet, suicide as a problem-solver, is precisely
how Marsha Norman intends her audience to perceive Jessies suicide in her play night, Mother. Norman obviously intends for her audience to view Jessies suicide as a form
of triumph in that she has finally gotten her mother to acknowledge her autonomy as a human being. This interpretation would mean that Jessies fate is tragedy, as in the
classic Greek meaning of that term, in that Jessie ends her life at a moment of exalted triumph over her mother. However, a closer examination of this play reveals that
it is not Greek tragedy, merely tragic, because Jessies final act accomplishes no purpose. It is merely her final abdication of personal responsibility. Jessie and her mother Thelma live an
isolated existence in a rural setting. The entirety of the play occurs on an evening in which Jessie announces that she intends to commit suicide. Over the
next roughly hour and a half, mother and daughter talk, establishing real communication for the first time in Jessies lifetime. From this conversation, the audience learns that Jessie is about
forty and has epilepsy. However, the source of Jessies psychic pain is not her condition, but rather the fact that she has never obtained any sense of her own
autonomy. Thelma has never seen Jessie as a person in her own right, but rather as an extension of herself. Norman would have the audience believe that because
Thelma has never allowed Jessie the freedom to her own wants, desires and aspirations, Jessie has been stunted for life, like a plant kept in the dark, and therefore is
...