Mahsa Hashemi

This thesis is a poststructuralist study of Marsha Norman’s plays Getting Out, ‘Night, Mother, and Traveler in the Dark. It draws on the concept of deconstruction to expose the fluidity of binary oppositions in the plays and present new interpretations of them. In ‘Night, Mother, the life/ death binary is reversed as Jessie’s suicide becomes an act of autonomy rather than negation, suggesting that death can represent presence and liberation rather than mere absence. The patriarchy/ matriarchy opposition collapses when Thelma’s maternal authority reproduces patriarchal control, revealing how both systems rely on similar structures of domination. In Getting Out, the self/ other binary dissolves as Arlene and Arlie reflect fragmented identities shaped by institutional power, blurring moral boundaries between guilt and redemption. Similarly, Traveler in the Dark destabilizes the faith/ reason opposition, portraying science and spirituality as interdependent forces in human understanding. These findings demonstrate that Norman’s characters inhabit liminal spaces between opposing concepts, thereby exposing the instability of meaning and constructed nature of social and moral hierarchies. By revealing the interplay between presence and absence, power and vulnerability, the plays challenge Western logocentric ideals that privilege stability, authority, and coherence. Ultimately, this study contributes to poststructuralist literary criticism by providing detailed textual evidence of how deconstruction operates within Norman’s drama, redefining notions of identity, autonomy, and human experience in contemporary American theatre.