More On Demeter: Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother

Abstract

IF Beckett explores the difficulties Of integrating the Demeter and Persephone aspects of his characters in the three plays discussed in the former chapter, Marsha Norman in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play, ‘night, Mother, takes up a similar torch. Departing from an overt dramatization of a split self in an earlier drama, Getting Out (1977), in which Norman explores the relationship between Arlene, newly released from prison, and her earlier, juvenile delinquent self, Arlie, the author offers in ‘night, Mother a dramatization of doubling between mother and daughter that leads to a character integration her earlier heroine sought in vain.

Much of the material in this chapter appeared in “The Demeter Myth and Doubling in Marsha Norman’s ‘night, Mother,” in Modern American Drama: The Female Canon, ed. June Schlueter (New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984), 254–263.