Bussey holds a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies and a bachelor's degree in English literature and is an independent writer specializing in literature. In this essay, she explores Blessing's characterization of the matriarch Dorothea in Eleemosynary.

Blessing's Eleemosynary is a minimally staged play with few props. This simple presentation brings the reader's focus sharply toward the three characters, Dorothea, Artie, and Echo. By eliminating all distractions from the stage, Blessing manages to remove his three characters from the concreteness of a setting. He challenges the audience to understand these three women and how they relate to one another and the world. There are no secondary characters or context cues on which we can rely for information or perspective. Blessing's play is all about characterization, and it hinges on Dorothea.

Dorothea is Artie's mother and Echo's grandmother, but she has acted as mother to them both. The action...