玛莎•诺曼《晚安，妈妈》中杰西之死剖析_英语论文

Deconstructing the Death of Jessie in Marsha Norman’s Night, Mother

摘要

玛莎•诺曼（1947-）是一位当代美国备受注目的女性戏剧作家，她创作的戏剧《晚安，妈妈》获得了1983年普利策戏剧奖。该剧从人们熟悉的日常生活中取景，通过母女俩的对话向观众展示了以杰西为代表的当代女性在生活中所处的困境。许多国内外的学者从对男权社会的批判、女性的自我意识、存在主义、女性主义等多个角度来剖析《晚安，妈妈》中女主人公杰西的死。本文在借鉴前人研究成果的基础上，拟从杰西与妈妈的对话中，分析她与父亲、丈夫以及儿子的关系，并结合新时期女性主义对男权社会的反抗来解构杰西之死，挖掘她最终走上死亡这条不归路的深层原因，由此总结评论“杰西之死”所引起的得失意义。

关键词：玛莎•诺曼；《晚安，妈妈》；死亡；解构

Abstract

Marsha Norman（1947-） is a female playwright who is stationed in the center of attention in contemporary American literary field. Her masterpiece, Night, Mother won Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1983. Mainly adopting daily language, Night, Mother demonstrates the audience the heroine’s dilemma in life which Jessie, as the typical representative of contemporary women, is trapped into through the conversation of mother and daughter. Many scholars both at home and abroad dissect Jessie’s death in Night, Mother through the perspective of the criticism of the patriarchal society, females’ self-consciousness, existentialism and feminism. On the basis of referring to the predecessors’ research findings, this thesis aims at deconstructing Jessie’s death by analyzing the relations between Jessie and her father, husband and son and combining the resistance of feminism in the new period to the patriarchal society, also excavating the root causes of her walking on the road to death without return, thus making a comment on the gains and losses that “Jessie’s death” brings us.

Key Words: Marsha Norman, Night, Mother, death；deconstruction

Contents

Introduction 1

1. Introduction to Marsha Norman and Her Night, Mother 3

1.1 Introduction to Marsha Norman 3

1.2 Introduction to Night, Mother 3

2. Death and Deconstruction 4

2.1 Concept of Death 4

2.2 Introduction to Deconstruction 5

3. Analysis of Jessie and Her Death 7

3.1 Secondary Causes of Jessie’s Death 7

3.1.1 Epilepsy and Mother’s Concealment 7

3.1.2 Different Attitudes towards Life between Mother and Jessie 8

3.2 Main Causes of Jessie’s Death 9

3.2.1 Influence of Men Family Members 9

3.2.2 Being in the Depth of Despair 10

4. Gains and Losses of Jessie’s Death 11

4.1 From the Positive Aspect 11

4.2 From the Negative Aspect 12

Conclusion 14

References 16