Terms of Address in 'night, Mother

The process of naming and addressing one another is of relevance to understanding 'night, Mother's power relationships. Various sociolinguists have commented on the "tu and vous" distinction, a characteristic often present in speech between parents and children. In brief, the address terms parents and children use when speaking to one another are not reciprocal: parents generally address their children with "tu," the less formal address term, while children use "vous," the more formal form. The English language no longer has such distinctions in its pronoun system; nevertheless, a similar phenomenon may be observed in the terms of address people use with one another. For example, in 'night, Mother, the parents are referred to as "Mama" and "Daddy" while the children are called by their first names, "Jessie" and "Dawson." Francine Frank and Frank Anshen claim that it is "possible to make socially significant distinctions...with various permutations of names and titles" and that such distinctions are useful in examining "the notions of 'power' and 'solidarity'" (57) involved in people's interactions.

Ronald Wardhaugh also comments on the significance of the various terms with which people address one another. He mentions that non-reciprocal use of address terms "can be heavily marked for power" (268). In addition, he notes, "It is also quite possible for one person to have a considerable variety of address terms...in the kind of relationship, in which many terms exist, the two see each other as fitting many different roles, with each term marking a different role" (269). Wardhaugh refers to only reciprocal use of multiple address terms; in 'night, Mother, this practice is non-reciprocal: Mama has several address terms for her daughter while Jessie has only a couple of standard ones for her mother. Thus, I consider it an important factor in describing the alternating positions of power within the play.

With this rather general knowledge of address terms and having observed Mama's use of many different terms, I hypothesized that the ways in which Mama and Jessie address each other would reflect their position of power or attitudes in particular parts of the drama. The following tables list Mama's and Jessie's uses of direct address in each segment as well as the total number of times each uses direct address terms per segment. Detailed discussions of Mama's use of address terms and Jessie's use of them follow the tables.

(Bernardy 74-5)



Mama's Use of Address Terms per Segment

Segment Jessie Jess Hon Honey Sugar Child My Girl Sweeheart Totals
1.01 8 4 4 1 4 0 0 0 21
1.02 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 9
1.03 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 15
1.04 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
1.05 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 9
1.06 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
1.07 3 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 5
1.08 17 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 18
1.09 10 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 13
1.10 17 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 21

Grand Total 126

(Bernardy 76)




Jessie's Use of Address Terms per Segment
Segment Mama Mother Totals per
Segment
1.01 6 1 7
1.02 4 0 4
1.03 8 1 9
1.04 4 1 5
1.05 2 0 2
1.06 2 1 3
1.07 2 0 2
1.08 7 0 7
1.09 7 0 7
1.10 9 1 10

Grand Total 49

(Bernardy 76)



Mama's Use of Terms of Address

A cursory glance at these tables reveals that Mama uses eight terms to address Jessie while Jessie employs only two. Incidentally, Mama also uses far more terms of address throughout the dialogue. She does not use them consistently throughout the play, however. In fact, Mama's use of address terms mirrors her changing attitudes and position of power; additionally, her use of them serves to establish her position of power at certain points in the play.

Although Mama uses Jessie's formal name, "Jessie," and the shortened version of it, "Jess," most often her use of "Jess" does not change throughout the play to reflect Mama's changing emotions. Mama's use of "Jessie," however, mirrors her changing mental state. When overwhelmed or dismayed and unable to articulate a more complete reply, Mama cries out the single word "Jessie!" at various points throughout the play. For example, in segment 1.02, after Jessie has likened Jesus' death to suicide and found herself pleased with her assertion, Mama, stunned and offended, is able to reply only with "Jessie!" (19). Another instance in which Mama simply exclaims "Jessie!" is when Jessie tells Mama that finding a job to make her life happier would "only make [her] feel worse" (35). But, as five of the eight instances of this usage occur toward the end of the fifth movement, where Brown has indicated Mama pleads with Jessie, these exclamations tend to reveal something more than shock; they reflect Mama's powerless position at that point in the dialogue.

Furthermore, Mama also tends to punctuate her sentences with the exclaimation "Jessie!"; she does so ten times within the dialogue. Toward the end of the first movement, in segment 1.02, for example, Jessie insists that she will commit suicide. In a desperate attempt to gain control and assert her will, Mama says, "You will not! This is crazy talk, Jessie!" (16). Another example of Mama's punctuating her statement with Jessie's name is when she suggests that they get a dog to improve Jessie's life. Rather than simply asking or suggesting her idea, Mama exclaims, "Let's get another dog, Jessie!" (31). Thus, Mama appears to be exclaiming her statements to enforce her will.

As Mama exclaims only Jessie's full name, reserving other terms of address solely for statements and questions, this address term appears to function in specific ways in Mama's speech. Whether used in exclaimed fragments or at the close of an exclamatory sentence, for Mama, using Jessie's name serves to underline her intense emotions, which range from anxious frustration to shock to forced enthusiasm. This special function of "Jessie" is reinforced by the fact that Mama never exclaims the word "Jess" as a fragment, nor any other of the terms of address in her vocabulary for that matter; neither does she use them to punctuate her sentences. Hence, as Potter's studies of syntactic elements and character traits have shown, these uses point toward a lack of control, or power, on Mama's part. Specifically, Mama's relatively high use of exclaimed fragments in the final segment correlates with two characteristically weak syntactic elements: exclamations and fragments. These outbursts, then, are one indication of Mama's desperate position at specific points within the dialogue. In addition, Mama's use of exclamations throughout the dialogue suggests that she is an excitable character.

Mama also calls Jessie by a number of "pet names," or terms of endearment, that reflect her vacillating attitude toward Jessie as well as her position of power as the play progresses. At the beginning of the play, before Jessie has revealed her intention to commit suicide, Mama uses "sugar" "hon" and "honey" positively. In segment 1.01, for example, Mama uses "sugar" positively four times. She says, "Jessie, it's the last snowball, sugar," (5); "It's Saturday night, sugar" (7); "I'm not trying to help, sugar" (10); and "He [Ricky] just needs some time, sugar" (11) all within the space of a few pages. However, after Jessie reveals that she plans to commit suicide, Mama uses "sugar" only once more; this time in a negative way. In segment 1.02 Mama says, "How am I supposed to act? Tell you to go ahead? O.K. by me, sugar?" (20). In addition, Mama uses the terms "hon" and "honey" rather liberally at the beginning of the play. She calls Jessie "hon" four times and "honey" once early in segment 1.01, before Jessie has revealed her intentions.

After Jessie's revelation, however, Mama's usage of these endearing terms changes. In fact, it drops noticeably during the middle portion of the play. Whereas Mama uses nine endearing terms in the first segment, thereafter her usage ranges from zero to three such terms per segment. Mama uses "hon" and "honey" a total of five times in segment 1.01, but she does not use them again until segment 1.10. Moreover, the terms of endearment Mama uses are often quite the opposite of their literal meaning. For instance, in segment 1.09 Mama uses four terms of endearment with intentions far from positive:

You make me feel like a fool for being alive, child, and you are so wrong! I like it here, and I will stay here until they make me go, until they drag me screaming and I mean screeching to my grave, and you're real smart to get away before then because, I mean, honey, you've never heard noise like that in your life... (78, emphasis mine)
In the stage directions, Norman indicates that Jessie "turns away" at this point in Mama's tirade. However, Mama continues:
...Oh yes, ever since Christmas you've been laughing to yourself and thinking, "Boy, are they all in for a surprise." Well, nobody's going to be a bit surprised, sweetheart. This is just like you. Do it the hard way, that's my girl , all right. (79, emphasis mine)
After this extended speaking turn on Mama's part, Norman gives the stage direction "Jessie gets up and goes into the kitchen, but Mama follows her" (79). There, Mama continues to vent her frustration for another couple of sentences. Jessie can only react with the request, "Leave me alone" (79). In this particular instance, Mama clearly dominates the situation, and she has gained that power through her ironic use of endearing terms. But is Mama really in control? In segment 1.09, Mama's turn lengths are 1.2 times the length of Jessie's, which indicates that she controls the floor slightly more than Jessie throughout this segment, which is the first half of movement five. However, Mama's tirade is set off by Jessie's intentions and her refusal to change them. Mama's outburst results from her inability to gain control; it is a result of her impotence. Therefore, although Mama temporarily dominates the situation through her anger and her scathing remarks, she is unable to seize control effectively and alter Jessie's intentions.

In segment 1.10, the final half of movement five, though, Mama reverts to positive usage of these terms, calling Jessie "hon," "honey," and "child" in a positive, non-demeaning sense. For example, when Jessie remarks that Mama "looked real good" in the dress she wore to Daddy's funeral, Mama says, "I don't remember, hon" (80). When Jessie tells Mama not to let anyone, "especially Loretta," take any food home, Mama says, "Loretta will get all the food set up, honey. It's only fair to let her have some macaroni or something" (81). And, when she hears the shot, she says, "Jessie, Jessie, child...Forgive me" (89). Even though Mama continues to plead with Jessie toward the end of the final movement, her return to her habitual form of address signals that she has come to accept her inability to alter Jessie's intentions, even though she does not condone them. Thus, Mama falls into her role as mother and companion and abandons her self-assigned roles of pleading savior and sarcastic critic.

(Bernardy 75, 77-80)

Jessie's Use of Terms of Address

In contrast, Jessie does not often address Mama directly. Unlike Mama, Jessie uses only two terms of address, "Mama" and "Mother," which is typical for a child in a parent-child relationship. Jessie uses the more formal term "Mother" sparingly, preferring to use "Mama." Jessie sometimes uses the single word "Mama," though her use of the term differs greatly from Mama's use of "Jessie." Jessie does not exclaim Mama's name; she simply states it as a warning, marked as such with ellipses, to avert the goal Mama is pursuing in the conversation. For example, in segment 1.03, Mama tries to force Jessie to explain her reasons for wanting to commit suicide. Jessie severs this line of questioning with a loaded "Mama..." (29). In segment 1.04, Mama reveals that she is not cooperating so that Jessie will postpone or cancel her plans. Again, Jessie answers with a single word of warning, "Mama..." (44). In her final use of this strategy, Jessie says "Mother..." (38) in order to signal that she does not wish to hear any further fabrications about Agnes. Unlike Mama, who exclaims Jessie's name as a reaction, Jessie uses Mama's name as a cautionary signal. Jessie does so when she wishes to say nothing more rather than when she is unable to say more. Thus, Jessie's use of address terms does not designate her as an easily excitable character, but one who is more calm and in control. Perhaps this usage also reflects a greater possession of self, or of self-control.

Like Mama's terms of address, Jessie's also reflect her position of power within the play. Notably, in segments 1.09 and 1.10, Jessie says, "No, Mama" five times. The first time Jessie says "No, Mama" is when Mama pleads with Jessie to "Try it [living] for two more weeks" (75). Her second and third direct refusals are in answer to Mama's continued attempts to coax her into staying by promising to change her domineering ways (75). After these three insistent refusals, Mama goes into her tirade in which she uses terms of endearment ironically. At the end of the segment, though, Norman writes in the stage notes, "mama is nearly unconscious from the emotional devastation of these last few moments" (79), which may signal that Mama has lost control rather than taken it with these statements.

In segment 1.10, Jessie's use of "No, Mama" turns briefly from direct opposition to a thoughtfully intended correction. When Mama indicates that she wishes to give Loretta some food for helping set up the food for the funeral, Jessie instructs her not to be so generous (81). Jessie's final use of "No, Mama," however, signals a return to the type of direct opposition she expressed throughout segment 1.09. By the time Jessie says, "It's time for me to go, Mama," Mama has recovered enough to grab Jessie and insist, "No, Jessie, you've got all night!" (86). Jessie's responds with a curt, "No, Mama." All of these refusals indicate that Jessie is taking an active role throughout the fifth movement. Although Mama attempts to control Jessie, Jessie's firm defiance renders Mama's attempts to take control ineffectual.

In sum, Mama's and Jessie's direct address practices differ greatly, a fact that reveals a conscious differentiation of character language on Norman's part as well Mama's and Jessie's relative positions of power. In addition, the terms of address also work to create or enact the relationship (i.e., Mama's sarcastic use of endearment terms or Jessie's use of "Mama..."), bringing greater control to the one who uses the terms innovatively. I find this inquiry to be worthwhile, for it definitely shows how Norman inscribes the transitory nature of power and the struggle for dominance in the dialogue.

(Bernardy 80-1)


--->>The information contained on this page comes from the following source: Bernardy, Maria Lee. "Beyond Intuition: Analyzing Marsha Norman's 'night, Mother with Concordance Data and Empirical Methods." M.A. Thesis. Ames, IA: Iowa State University, 1996. 74-81.<<---

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