"You don't have to [kill yourself]."
"No, I don't. That's what I like about it."
The presumed power that Jessie finds in her suicide lies in the security of being able to make her own decision. She can be at peace with the knowledge that, in this choice, she will finally be in absolute control of her life. She does not kill herself for her mother, to prove a point, to get back at someone. Jessie chooses to commit suicide simply because she wants to, for herself. That control is where her joy lives.
"I'm not talking about the fits here, Jessie! I'm talking about this killing yourself. It has to be me that's the matter here. You wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't. I didn't tell you things or I married you off to the wrong man or I took you in and let your life get away from you or all of it put together. I don't know what I did, but I did it, I know. This is all my fault, Jessie, but I don't know what to do about it, now!"
In this quote, the audience gets the chance to see why Jessie's suicide hurts Mama so much: Mama feels like she must be to blame. Mama cannot stand the idea of Jessie committing suicide, because then she has to take responsibility for her own actions and choices as a mother. However, this perceived martyrdom of taking the blame for Jessie's unhappiness is just an attempt by Mama to make herself feel better. Mama is behaving selfishly by making Jessie's choice to commit suicide all about herself. Jessie has made it clear that on of the reasons she chose to commit suicide is so that she can finally feel like she has some control over her life. She wants to have a decision that is solely hers and Mama is attempting to deprive her of that. We, as the audience, have the opportunity to see a closer look into why Jessie feels like she can only have control in her own suicide. Her mother won't allow her to make personal choices without attributing them to being a consequence of Mama's own past decisions, which prevents Jessie from being able to be an independent, self-ruled human being.
“Seems O.K. I had Cecil’s all ready in there, just in case I couldn’t find this one, But I’d rather use Daddy’s."
In this quote, the audience sees that Jessie is serious about committing suicide as she already thought of a back up plan. It seems Jessie has thought of everything including making sure the house is in order and Mama knows what to do when she’s gone. Nothing is going to stop her from killing herself. This is something she has to do for herself in order to feel in control of her life.
“People don’t really kill themselves, Jessie. No, mam, doesn’t make sense, unless you’re retarded or deranged and you’re as normal as they come, Jessie, for the most part. We’re all afraid to die.”
“I’m not, Mama. I’m cold all the time anyway.”
In this quote, Mama is trying to make sense of the situation. She thinks that Jessie is a normal happy woman and believes everyone fears death. For Jessie, this is about making sure her mom knows that she is going to kill herself and there’s nothing Mama can do to prevent the inevitable. Jessie is even trying to make light of the situation by saying she’s cold all the time already.
