The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

Marsha Norman, whose plays have attracted the attention of audience with the unique charm, is one of the most famous and successful woman in contemporary American literary circle. Her daily language not only describes common people and daily life, but also highlights personal thinking and living situation in the whole society.Most of characters in Norman's plays are mainly women who are trapped in dilemma in the life. Jessie, who represents this kind of women typically, is the heroine in the play'night Mother. A panoramic view of the miserable life experience of Jessie is presented before spectators with much dialogue between her and mother. To get rid of the trap set by life and reality, Jessie finally resorts to suicide to obtain her true-self.This thesis aims to make a study of the reasons for Jessie's suicide with the help of Sartre's existentialism theories. The choice made by Jessie actually helps her achieve autonomy and deconstruction of nothingness.In addition to introduction and conclusion, the thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter one centers on factors of suicide in Jessie's individual life. This chapter is subdivided into two parts. The first part explores chanciness of individual life that leads to Jessie's suicide. The epilepsy she inherits from her father by accident causes lots of incidents, which not only leads to loss of sense of self in the atmosphere of patriarchy culture, but also makes her lose the fundamental dignity and respect as an independent human being. The second part discusses Jessie's being deprived of belief due to the absurdity of the world. Only by committing suicide can she obtain the relief and autonomy that she has never be given before.Chapter Two explores the influence of the alienation from the society and the family on Jessie's decision to kill herself. The first part illustrates the social barrier when Jessie confronts in human society. The frustration brought by alienation deeply damages her courage to live in the world. The second part discusses the difficulties of communication with her family, which can be summarizes as alienation from mother who attempts to force Jessie to accept her value of life and from patriarchy culture represented by father, husband and son. Under multiple power of alienation, Jessie loses her self-identity, finding no meaning of her existence.Chapter three focuses on the meaning of Jessie's suicide. Discussing the life experience of Jessie, the first part explores Jessie regains her autonomy and overcomes the alienation from others with the endeavor of death. The second part explores that Jessie not only gets control of her fate by suicide, but also starts her new life in psychology and deconstructs the nothingness of death.The conclusion is the summary of analysis. By employing the theory of Sartre's existentialism theories, it is safe to draw the conclusion that the reason why Jessie commits suicide mainly lies in chanciness of life, absurdity of the world and alienation from others. Overcoming the choicelessness and powerlessness of life, Jessie not only finds the lost self-identity, but also successfully deconstruct nothingness of death by the way of suicide.