 |
| "You didn't say it would be so soon, Jessie. I'm scared. I love you." |
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Night, Mother
While one could argue that "Will Jessie kill herself?" is the major dramatic question of Night, Mother, there is probably a more interesting question to ask the play. Once Jessie reveals to Mama that she plans to kill herself, she is unfaltering in her decision. This is something she decided she would do last Christmas and despite Mama's pleading and attempts to convince her not to, we do not see a moments hesitation from Jessie. She has already decided that this is the way it will be. Since Jessie's death is more or less inevitable from the beginning of the play I think a better major dramatic question would be, "Will Mama be able to handle Jessie's death." In the end of the play, although Mama is horrified that her daughter has just killed herself, she still manages to pick up the phone and call Dawson as Jessie had instructed her. This simple act shows that Mama has already begun to accept that her daughter is gone and she must move on with her life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
With this one, I don't quite understand what you are saying the MDQ is, if you are arguing that it is NOT, "Will Jesse kill herself?". I DO think that it is the MDQ. My argument was that it is in fact so because it is the only question in the play that could have a definite "yes" or "no" answer. All other questions presented in the play such as "Why does Jesse wants to kill herself?", are questions that can almost be opinion based because there seems to be no solid answer. Jesse presented so many things to mom that helped build a case as to why she wanted to kill herself. It wanted solidly, because of Dad's death, it wasn't solidly about her husband leaving, neither was it only because of her son not being around. So therefore, I argued that "Will Jesse kill herself is the only MDQ of the
ReplyDeleteplay.