Beyond intuition: analyzing Marsha Norman's ǹight, Mother with concordance data and empirical

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Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations
Dissertations
1996
Beyond intuition: analyzing Marsha Norman's
ǹ
ight, Mother with concordance data and empirical
methods
Maria Lee Bernardy
Iowa State University
Follow this and additional works at:https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd
Part of theEnglish Language and Literature Commons
Recommended Citation
Bernardy, Maria Lee, "Beyond intuition: analyzing Marsha Norman's ǹight, Mother with concordance data and empirical methods"
(1996).Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 7081.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/7081
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Beyond intuition:
AnalyzingMarshaNorman^s 'night,Mother
with concordancedata andempirical methods
by
MariaLee Bemardy
A Thesis Submittedto the
GraduateFacultyinPartialFulfillmentofthe
Requirements fortheDegreeof
MASTEROFARTS
Department: English
Major: English(Literature)
Signatures have been redacted for privacy o- * u u ^ ^r
^ " Signatures havebeenredacted for prtvacy
IowaStateUniversity
Ames, Iowa
1996
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1. INTUmONVERSUS EMPERICALDATAINLITERARY
STUDIES 7
CHAPTER2. INVESTIGATING 'NIGHT, MOTHER'S CENTRAL
THEMES ANDTOPICS 27
CHAPTERS. INVESTIGATING MOTHER'S POWER
STRUCTURETHROUGHMAMA'S ANDJESSIE'S SPEECH 64
CONCLUSION 101
WORKS CITED 109
WORKS CONSULTED 112
APPENDIX . TOPICMAPS FOREACHSEGMENT 114
lU
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Iwish tothankmy MajorProfessor, Rosanne G.Potter, who has provided me with
necessary guidance andencouragerhentthroughoutthis demandingprocess. Moreover,
becausesheisresponsibleforboththecreationandmaintenanceoftheIowaStateUniversity
Concordances Database, which Ihave usedextensivelyin this project, shehas made this
studypossiblethroughherdedicationtoempiricalmethodsinliterarystudies. Bothsheand
Joe Stniss have aidedme even further by modifyingthe 'night, Motherdatabase specifically
forthis study. I also wish tothank themembersofmy committee. Professor Virginia Allen
and ProfessorJamesR. Dow, for theirwillingness take part in this endeavor. Finally,I
wantto thankJoelRianfor refusing to let me everdoubtmy abilities.
INTRODUCTION
Duringmy first semester of graduatestudy,Itookacourse calledReading Women
into ModemDrama. During that semesterRosanneG.Potterintroduced me, a student
trainedinintuitivecriticism,tothepracticeofusLagcomputers andempiricalmethodsto
examine literary texts. Irecallbeing moreanxiousthancuriousabout learning thisnew
approach; beforethattimeIhadusedcomputerssolelyforwordprocessingandwasofthe
opinionthatgeneratingtestablehypotheses andinterpretingnumerical datashouldbe
relegatedtothe sciencedepartments. Asthesemesterprogressed,however,I gaineda
workingknowledgeofbasicempiricalmethods andconcludedthatthechallengeoflearning
tousecomputersandempiricalmethodsinanalyzingliterarytextswasworththetrouble. In
thisstudy,I useempiricalmethodstoexamineanddiscussthedialoguefrom 'night,Mother^
MarshaNorman's 1983 PulitzerPrize-winningdrama.
*night, Mother
'night, Motheris arealistic domestic drama that represents an eveningin the lives of
tworatherordinary women,ThelmaGates and her daughterJessie Gates, the onlycharacters
in the play. As describedby Norman, Jessieis "in her late thirties orearlyforties...pale and
vaguely unsteady physically....As a rule, Jessie doesn't feel muchlike talking...." (2).
Thelma,calledMamathroughoutthe play, is "in her late fifties or early sixties. She has
begun to feel herage and so takes it easy when she can, orwhenit serves her purposeto let
someonehelp her,...she speaks quickly andenjoys talking...believes things are what she
says they are" (2,emphasis hers). Oftheir relationship,Norman writes,
There is afamiliarity betweenthesetwo womenthat comesfromhavinglived
togetherfor along time. Thereis ashorthandto thetalkand a senseof
routine comfort in thewaytheyrelatetoeachother physically. Naturally,
thereare also routine aggravations. (2)
All ofthe play's action, whichconsists mostly oftalking, occurs insideoftheir
home, whichNormandescribes as "builtway out on acountryroad, with alivingroomand
connectingkitchen, and acenterhall that leads offto the bedrooms" and filled withitems
"more personal than charming" (3). At the startofthe play, Mama and Jessie appearabout to
spenda "normal"evening together, talking andcompleting householdtasks. However, only
minutes into the play, Jessie announces that she intends to kill herselfat the evening's end.
Whatfollows is a revealing conversation,infusedwiththe intensityofJessie's intentions.
Norm^'s choice to avoidthe commoninterruptions of^t and scene divisions adds to the
tension as well. Withoutthese divisions, time and actions proceedunhindered, andthe
audiencemembers haveno time toremovethemselvesfromthe on-stagereality.
Iselected 'night, Motherfor this studybecauseI was intriguedby the contradictory
feelings Iam leftwith eachtimeIreadorviewit. My feelings abouttheplay arelargely
unchanged since last fallwhen Iwrotethefollowingreader response:
Ifind myselftom between twoverydisparate reactions tothis play. Froma
literaiyperspectiveI amabletoseeJessie's suicide astaking herlifeinto her
own hands and finallyhavingcontrol. Fromthisviewpoint [oneI consider to
be concernedmore with symbolic acts than real-life circumstances],I admit
thatIbelievesheisnot givingup. Sheisjustmaking her own decision....On
the otherhand, lookingattheplay from an emotionaland morehuman
perspective, I seeJessie's suicideas aselfishcry for helpthat she won'tlet
anyone act upon....1see her on abigpowertrip and Ican'tunderstandher
actions orhermotives—^fortheyre^y do seemselfishandillogical [when
lookedat from this level].
(Writtenfor ReadingWomeninto ModemDrama, Fall 1994).
Perhapsmyfinal sentenceofthatresponsesumsupmyfeelingsabouttheplay best:
"SomehowI amleftfeelinganalmostperversesenseoftriumph forJessie'sfinalact."
InthisplayNormanaddresses anumberofissuesthatinterestscholarscurrently
workinginfeministandpsychoanalyticcriticism, schoolsthatI findintriguingand,often.
insightful. Theseissues includemother-daughterrelationships, identity, orality, society's
definitionofthe"feminine," and one'srighttochooseone'sdestiny. Becausetheexisting
scholarship on 'night, Motheraddresses these issuesfrom thefeminist andpsychoanalytic '
traditions, I wantedto see ifthroughempiricalanalysisI couldfind the textualelements that
are responsible for the prevailinginterpretationsor ifIcould reveal any otherissues or
themes thatNorman has inscribedin the text.
Furthermore, 'night,Motherinterestsmebecause"asareader anda viewer Ihave
experiencedan emotionalintensitythat seems incompatiblewith the common,everyday
words both Jessie andMamause. I wonderedhowNormanwrought suchforce into the
play in spite ofa dialogue that seemsdominatedbythemundaneaffairs oflife. In other
words, althoughthe play addresses the theoreticalissue ofwhetherone has the rightto •
choose life or death,Mama andJessie seemnottodiscussthematterin directorspecifically
theoretical terms,butthrough discussing their everyday reality. BeforeIbeganthis study, so
much of theplay's meaning seemedtoliebeyondthe wordsonthepage; Norman seemedto
have written it"betweenthe lines." Iwantedtoseeifusingempiricalmethods could helpme
understandhow Norman expresses the issues ofsuicideand independencein suchpl^and
seeminglyirrelevantlanguage. I wonderedifI couldfind these answersin the textitselfor if
itwassimplysomethingheraudienceunderstoodbecauseoftheirpastexperiencesor
preconceptions.
Thefinal factorin my selecting 'night, Motherfor this study was convenience. First,
I had already studiedreaderresponses to theplay earlierin my graduatework, so I was
familiarwiththetextoftheplayitselfandthevariousresponsespeoplehavetowardthe
play's focusonsuicideasavalidchoice. Furthermore, thetexttotheplaywasreadily
I
availableinsearchablecomputerformrighthereatIowaStateUniversity. Hadaready-made
databasenotbeen available,Iwouldnothavebeenabletoexaminethedialogueinsuch
depth.
Organization of this Study
In this study, alargely descriptive and exploratory mid-range one, I use empirical
methods to analyzethe dialogue ofMarshaNorman's 'night, Mother. As the empirical
approach to textual analysis isnot widelyemployed,inmy firstchapter Iprovide an
overviewofthe scholarship written about 'night, Mother, mostofwhichtakes a dual
feminist-psychoanalyticalapproach. These articlesprovide materialto whichIreferoften
throughoutthis study. Then, in orderto situate my study within the empirical approach and
highlightthe differencesbetweenthese generally acceptedintuitiveapproaches (i.e., feminist
and psychoanalytic) andthe morecontroversialempiricalapproaches,Ipresentexcerpts from
a numberofcriticalarticles that discuss empirical approaches and the resistancethey have met
in the literary field. Afterprovidingthisbackground,Idiscussmy basic researchquestions
andthe articles thathavehelpedmedevelopmy approach.
Throughoutthis study, Iemployempirical methods and beginto formulate some
answers forthose who questionthe valueof applyingcomputers andempirical methods in
tandemwith or in place oftraditional,intuitiveanalysesofliterature.^AccordingtoPotter,
"computersearches"and "statisticalanalysis...are worth doing because&ey confirmthe
sourceofcriticaljudgmentstobetextualratherthanimpressionistic" ("CharacterDefinition,"
427). Myinquiryinbothchapters twoandthreerestsonPotter's observation. Inchapter
twoI examinewhatfeminist-psychoanalyticalcriticshavewrittenabouttwospecificthemes,
foodandidentity. InchapterthreeIalsoinvestigateanideaabout thestmctureof 'night.
MotherXhst JanetBrown,whoworkswithintheaforementionedschoolsofthought, has
forwarded.
Mypurposeinusing these alreadyidentifiedaspects oftheplaywastwofold. First,I
wishedtocorroboratePotter'sassertion aboutreaders' perceptionscomingdirectlyfrom the
text. I thoughtthatconfirmingintuitivereadings oftextswouldbeaworthwhile endeavor,
foritcoulddemonstratethe accurateapplicationofempiricalmethods andforge connections
betweentheempiricalandthemoreconventional modesoftextualanalysis. Secondly,I
wantedtoputempiricalmethods totheirfulluseandactuallyusethemtogeneratenew
informationabouttheplay. Empiricalscholars,suchasJohnB. Smith,have stressedthatin
ordertogainacceptancefromtheacademy, theymustgobeyondthesimpleverificationof
intuitiveobservationsin their studies and,ultimately, enterthe mode termed"computer
criticism." Thus,inmysecondandtbkdchaptersI makeamovebeyondconfirming
conventionalanalyses. I useempiricalmethodstogenerateseveralnewreadingsofthetext.
Specifically,inthesecondchapterIfocus onusingempiricalanalysis toexamine
whatliterary scholars havewritten aboutthethemes offood andidentityintheplay. In
"ComputerCriticism,"Smithasserts thatwhenconductingempirical studiesoftexts, one
necess^y views textualelements, suchaswords andthemes, as"mobilefragments" that
gaintheirmeaningfromtheirlocationwithin andrelation tootherelements ofthewholetext
(23). Withthisapproachtothemeinmind,Iusewordlistsandconcordances, aswellas
topic maps, toexplore 'night. Mother'sthemes. Inaddition toquestioningthevalidity of
severalinterpretationsthroughquantitativeanalysis, Iinvestigatethesethemesfurtherand
discuss anunforeseenbyproduct: howthesethemesfunction in the dialogue.
In the third chapter I explore 'night,Mother'spower structure through adopting Janet
Brown'sconceptofthe play's "movements,"orunits. AsBrown's discussion ofthe play's
structureaccounts for only abriefinterludeinanessay devotedtoexaminingthe themeof
identity, it is necessarily underdeveloped. However, Brownhas providedenough
informationso that I may buildupon her initial observationsand offeramore complexand
specific discussion ofhow the dialogueworks and how specific words and constructions
reveal which characteris in control, or tryingto take control, ofthediscussion at various
points. In this chapter, I use word counts, lexical items, and syntacticfeatures to discuss
how Norman has inscribedthese changesin her characters' speech.
In my conclusion I offersomefinalcommentsontheprocess ofusing computers and
empiricalmethodstostudy 'night,Mother,andsomerecommendations forthosewhoplanto
conductaliterarystudy with empiricalmethods.