'Night, Mother Summary
Marsha Norman

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'Night, Mother Study Guide

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Marsha Norman Biography (1)

Marsha Norman

9,570 words, approx. 32 pages

Marsha Norman's first published essay, "Why Do Good Men Suffer"" (1964), written while she was in high school, was awarded first place in a local writing contest and subsequently published in the Kent... Read more

Essays & Analysis (21)

Frank Rich

1,265 words, approx. 5 pages

'Night, Mother premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a production by the American Repertory Theater in December 1982. The following March it opened in New York at the John Golden Theater. I... Read more

Critical Review by Walter Kerr

838 words, approx. 3 pages

In the following review, Kerr faults 'night, Mother for lacking passion. The play, he states, "is controlled, precise, believable. It is also utterly clinical. " It is entirely po... Read more

Critical Review by Brendan Gill

696 words, approx. 3 pages

In this review, Gill praises the powerful simplicity of 'night, Mother. "With superb confidence in her powers," he observes, "the author dispenses with the usual artifices ... Read more

Critical Review by John Simon

526 words, approx. 2 pages

In the highly favorable review below, Simon declares that 'night, Mother "combines the lucent objectivity of a case history with the sublime subjectivity of language, style, art."... Read more

Critical Review by Robert Brustein

1,526 words, approx. 6 pages

In the following favorable assessment of 'night, Mother, Brustein asserts that the play "proceeds with the relentless force of a juggernaut, displaying not a single moment of artifice or... Read more

Critical Review by Richard Gilman

723 words, approx. 3 pages

Gilman provides a mixed evaluation of 'night, Mother, finding it competently written but "commonplace and predictable. " The hyperbole machine is operating on Broadway again. Upon... Read more

Critical Review by Stanley Kauffmann

1,510 words, approx. 6 pages

In the negative review below, Kauffmann contends that 'night, Mother is "a device, a stunt, and not an authentic drama; and it fails a being even the drama it claims to be." If th... Read more

Critical Essay by Jenny S. Spencer

5,268 words, approx. 18 pages

In the essay below, Spencer provides a psychoanalytic interpretation of 'night, Mother, focusing on the mother-daughter relationship. By the time I saw a production of Norman's play �... Read more

Critical Essay by William W. Demastes

3,217 words, approx. 11 pages

In the following excerpt, Demastes examines Norman's efforts to convey complex but inarticulate characters in 'night, Mother. With Marsha Norman's play 'night, Mother (1982... Read more

Critical Essay by Jill Dolan

9,846 words, approx. 33 pages

In the essay below, Dolan explores the reasons for the acceptance of 'night, Mother into the male-defined canon of great literature. The insistent work of liberal feminists to make visible the ... Read more

Critical Essay by Lynda Hart

4,775 words, approx. 16 pages

In the following essay, Hart discusses the central theme of women's quest for freedom, control, and autonomy in Getting Out and 'night, Mother. Marsha Norman became a celebrity in her ho... Read more

Critical Essay by William W. Demastes

4,929 words, approx. 17 pages

In the following essay, Demastes explores how 'night, Mother addresses issues of universal relevance as well as issues specific to feminism. MAY: Mother, this is not enough. […] MOTHER:... Read more

Critical Essay by M. Joshua Karter

5,328 words, approx. 18 pages

In the following essay, Karter discusses the cross-cultural differences that were raised when he directed a production of Norman's 'night, Mother, translated into Russian, at a theater i... Read more

Critical Essay by Janet Brown and Catherine Barnes Stevenson

7,077 words, approx. 24 pages

In the following essay, Brown and Stevenson argue that Getting Out and 'night, Mother foreground many “specifically feminist concerns” through the formal theatrical means of setti... Read more

Critical Essay by Lana A. Whited

4,994 words, approx. 17 pages

In the following essay, Whited examines the motif of suicide in 'night, Mother and Beth Henley's Crimes of the Heart, noting that both plays present connecting with family and community ... Read more

Critical Essay by Linda Ginter Brown

9,161 words, approx. 31 pages

In the following essay, Brown explores how hunger is treated as a metaphor for the psychological needs of the characters in Lillian Hellman's Days to Come and Norman's 'night, Mot... Read more

Critical Essay by Jenny S. Spencer

5,834 words, approx. 20 pages

In the following essay, Spencer contrasts the responses of male and female critics to 'night, Mother, asserting that the play foregrounds issues of female identity, feminine autonomy, and the m... Read more

Critical Essay by Frank Rich

750 words, approx. 3 pages

Critical Essay by Frank Rich "We've got a good life here," says Thelma Cates to her daughter, Jessie, in Marsha Norman's new play, "'Night, Mother." Ma... Read more

Critical Essay by John Simon

433 words, approx. 2 pages

Critical Essay by John Simon 'night, Mother [is] honest, uncompromising, lucid, penetrating, well-written, dramatic, and as unmanipulatively moving as we expected from the author of the remarka... Read more

Critical Essay by Richard Gilman

586 words, approx. 2 pages

Critical Essay by Richard Gilman The hyperbole machine is operating on Broadway again. Upon a modest two-character play with nothing flagrantly wrong with it—but not much to get excited about e... Read more

Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann

1,390 words, approx. 5 pages

Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann If the hoopla about Marsha Norman's new play ['night, Mother] were credible, the current state of American drama would be better than it is…. B... Read more

'Night, Mother SummaryMarsha Norman

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'Night, Mother Study Guide

Marsha Norman Biography (1)

Essays & Analysis (21)

'Night, Mother Summary
Marsha Norman