Thematic Order in 'night, Mother Caroline Koonce 12th Grade

“‘night, Mother” by Marsha Norman is a play wrapped neatly in a bow; at a forty-minute run-time and with two characters, at first it doesn’t appear that there is much to the play. Upon further inspection, however, many hidden layers of the play jump out at you from all directions. Perhaps the most visually striking one is schedules/lists/order – the house is meticulously organized from top to bottom and covered in lists, mostly written by Jessie and covering subjects from that week’s groceries to what Christmas presents her mom should receive after her death for the next 20 years. Jessie is borderline paranoid about keeping order in her mother’s household, focusing on the one thing she can control and organize as the rest of her world falls down around her. Order and reason out of chaos is ultimately what Jessie is trying to achieve and what her mother is willing to tear down for Jessie’s sake.

The theme that ties all of the relationships and concepts together in the show is control, or a fear of a lack of it. Control is the ultimate goal for Jessie, whether it takes the form of organizing her mother’s candy jars or making the final decision to end her life. Every move Jessie makes is planned and calculated for a specific...