Choice in 'night, Mother Anonymous College

Marsha Norman’s ‘Night Mother is rife with haunting images and conversations, but no item specified in the play is more revealing than the gun which Jessie chooses to use to end her life. Jessie’s careful decision to use her father’s gun gives tremendous insight into how Jessie’s past has impacted, and drastically impaired, her present.

Jessie puts a tremendous amount of thought into selecting and preparing the gun she will use to kill herself, and says she specifically wanted to use her father’s. Her choice to use her father’s gun, loaded with bullets which she buys herself, highlights an interesting dynamic in her development: She has inherited all of her father, and none of her mother. Though she spends this last night with Thelma, Jessie’s mother is not physically represented in the act of Jessie’s suicide. This mimics the family dynamic that has existed all throughout Jessie’s life–Jessie and her father were always very connected, even similar in their epileptic tendencies. Thelma was always an outcast of sorts, and “...jealous because [Jessie would] rather talk to [her father] than anything.” Just as the family lived, with Jessie and her father sharing a silent solidarity not extended to Thelma, the family is torn apart....