’night, Mother | ’night, Mother

At a glance:

Author: Marsha Williams
First Published: 1983
Type of Work: Play
Type of Plot: Psychological realism
Time of Work: The late 1970’s or early 1980’s
Setting: Rural United States
Genres: Domestic realism, Drama, Psychological drama, Domestic tragedy
Subjects: 1970’s, United States or Americans, Memory, Mothers, Parents and children, Suicide, Communication, Alienation, 1980’s, Honesty, Pain, Death or dying, Depression, mental, Truthfulness and falsehood, Loneliness, Life and death, Happiness, Epilepsy
Locales: United States

Jessie Cates, a pale and somewhat physically unsteady woman in her late thirties or early forties. Overweight, afflicted with epilepsy, unable to hold a job, abandoned by her husband, and plagued by a delinquent son, Jessie faces a discouraging future: life with an aging mother and years of thoughtless holiday gifts from an insensitive brother and sister- in-law. Deciding finally to make a choice about her life, she calmly announces early in the play, “I’m going to kill myself, Mama” and then single-mindedly goes about the business of setting the...

’night, Mother | ’night, Mother

At a glance:

Characters Discussed

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