31 pages • 1 hour read
Marsha NormanA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Anton Chekhov, a significant playwright in the realism and naturalism movements, argued that a gun that appears onstage in the first act must be fired by the end of the play. Although this dramatic principle also functions as a metaphor for the necessity of curating details and story elements so that nothing is superfluous or gratuitous, it can also be taken literally. Once Jessie retrieves the gun from the attic, even after she removes it from view, the existence of a loaded gun makes a dramatic promise. It must be fired, at least metaphorically, which means that the story must resolve it as a dramatic element. Likewise, most of Chekhov’s major plays resolve the promise of the gun with a character’s suicide (Ivanov, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya) or a death by shooting (Three Sisters).
In ’Night, Mother, the playwright employs conventions of naturalism, so the promise of the gun is significant as a nod to Chekhov. However, in postmodern theatre, playwrights don’t always conform to genre conventions. The gun must be resolved, but audiences have become accustomed to solutions that deliberately defy predictability. Audiences expect dynamic characters—characters who change during the story, usually because of the action.
Plus, gain access to 8,450+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Aging
View Collection
American Literature
View Collection
Dramatic Plays
View Collection
Mental Illness
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Mothers
View Collection
National Suicide Prevention Month
View Collection
Pulitzer Prize Fiction Awardees &...
View Collection
Women's Studies
View Collection