In Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart, location is paramount in understanding how the characters feel and work in the world in which they live. Hansberry’s Ruth Younger is trapped in her tiny apartment, sleeping in a makeshift bedroom and acting as a mother to her own family and to the family that she works for. Her home has transformed into a prison, and Ruth is desperate to escape. Similarly, Henley’s Lenny MaGrath is the last granddaughter, playing caregiver for her dying grandfather as her sisters have long moved out of the oversized home. Lenny, stigmatized by her inability to have children and endless need to be nurturing, is only occupying a home that belongs to Old Granddaddy even as she has been the only one living there for three months. Lenny and Ruth have found themselves in a house turned prison, going through the motions of life as they assume it should be, while living in homes that no longer fit. However, as these plays progress, each woman learns to demand her own autonomy and, in turn, claims ownership over their homes. The location within A Raisin in the Sun and Crimes of the Heart functions first as a prison for Ruth Younger and Lenny MaGrath, and it is only after these women take control of their lives that they are able to transform the prison homes into homes of empowerment.