In Tracy Letts’ perform August: Osage County, all the Weston daughters—Barb, Ivy, and Karen—shows evidence of deeply seated emotional damage. A large amount of the emotional destruction the girls have got can be caused by their parental input, and getting treated therefore harshly by their mother, Purple. Although all three daughters knowledge emotional harm at the hands of their particular mother, every reacts differently to it, and the effects of the emotional damage manifests themselves in varying ways in every single daughter.
The most youthful of the Weston daughters, Karen, displays emotional damage as a result of lack of interest she received from Purple as a child. Violet’s neglect of Karen appears multiple times through the dinner landscape. The first time arises when Violet mentions the sideboard in her dining room. She at first addresses Barb, asking, “you have any kind of interest in that? ” (Letts 86). The moment Barb does not express curiosity, Violet becomes to Ivy, who says a similar thing. Throughout the chat, Karen occasionally says that she considers the sideboard is “really pretty” (Letts 86). Yet , she receives no acknowledgment and is handed over by her mom. This connection shows Karen’s underlying need to be noticed by her mom, because of the not enough attention this lady has received her entire life. Another instance of Karen’s emotional distress arises in Take action III, once Violet tells the girls the storyline about the boots. Karen dotes on her mom when, “Violet sits, exhales. Karen sees a palm cream in the bedside stand, rubs that on her hands” (Letts 106). This action demonstrates that Karen remains to be trying get on her mother’s good part, even as a grown woman. Later on inside the same landscape, Violet explains to the girls that, “my momma was a awful, mean outdated lady. Perhaps that’s where I have it from” (Letts 107). Karen sweetly responds, “You’re certainly not nasty-mean. You aren’t our mom an we all love you” (Letts 107). Karen’s deep-seated emotional harm is present in this article because even though Violet had spent the afternoon by speaking eviscerating everybody, Karen continue to tells her mother she is not awful —however wrong that may be— to jump on good terms with her. The psychological damage Violet inflicted upon Karen in her the child years is also obvious in Karen’s past love life. Karen speaks of your man called Andrew, with whom the girl used to be engaged. He would by speaking berate her and be unfaithful on her, nevertheless Karen could tell himself, “No, you love him, you love him permanently, and here is an opportunity to call and make an adjustment in the manner you see the world” (Letts 59). Claire almost immediately mirrors Violet and how the lady acts towards Karen, also because Karen will try so anxiously to be loved by her mother regardless of her abusive habits, she does not understand that which is not how you should be cared for by an additional human. Steve then gets into Karen’s lifestyle afterwards, and is also yet another mistake. Karen seems to be drawn to vicious people as being a repercussion of her going after her inappropriate mother’s love her whole life. Violet’s forget of Karen rooted mental damage profound within her psyche, and ultimately changed Karen right into a co-dependent and spineless girl.
Ivy—the middle Weston daughter—experiences her own sort of emotional harm at the hands of Purple, but in a contradictory method to Karen, and yields different effects as well. Ivy is the just daughter that stays in Oklahoma to address her father and mother, and because with this, she has a lot more face-to-face contact with her mom. Contrary to Karen’s lack of attention from her mother, Ivy gets the most her single mother’s attention because she stayed close to residence. The overexposure to Purple that Ivy is confronted with creates a incredibly subdued outside in Ivy. In Take action I, Violet begins to question Ivy about Barb and her aspect of the family. Ivy replies in extremely succinct, necessary words, not giving any kind of extra data than what is required. Violet after that begins to berate Ivy, contacting her “hopeless” and a “schlub” (Letts 25). Violet’s volatile character is aimed towards Ivy so often that this begins to have on her self-image down. Regularly being known as names and having her appearance bashed takes its fee on Ivy, though much less obviously since would have been thought. Down the line in the enjoy, it is shown that Ivy is a very passionate and caring woman when her relationship with Little Charles is launched. Ivy’s subdued exterior comes from the emotional damage of years of Violet’s harsh words. Ivy has learned to remain calm and she will not try to guard herself or question her mother, mainly because she knows that that will only spur her mother’s wrath on further. Violet provides inflicted a great deal emotional harm on Flowers that it has turned her presence coming from a passionate and lively woman to a silent and reclusive one. Flowers also appears to absorb a few of the disdain her mother aims at her. At the start of Work III, Ivy makes it clear to her sisters that your woman does not “feel that [sisterly] connection incredibly keenly, inch and only thinks them to always be “accidentally connected by genes, a random selection of skin cells. Nothing more” (Letts 102). Ivy’s mental distance from her siblings is due to root anger, since she “resents the responsibility she actually is had to take for observing over the fear of her parents’ second option years” (Isherwood). Violet’s disregard of Karen may have got turned her into a even more out-spoken and dependent person, but Ivy suffered overexposure to Purple, and in the conclusion became a shell of herself.
Barbara, or Barb, is the oldest Weston daughter, and displays her emotional destruction in ways unique to those of her two sisters. In Act 2, Bill describes Barb, showing her, “You’re thoughtful, Barbara, but you are not open. You aren’t passionate but you’re hard. You’re an excellent, decent, funny, wonderful woman…but you’re a pain in the ass” (Letts 77). However severe, such descriptors can only be expected of Barb, given her status as oldest child. Barb definitely shouldered the duty of being the oldest kid, and was expected to behave as a role unit to her younger sisters, in particular when Violet got her meets. Barb’s psychological damage runs deeper than it does in her siblings, and manifests itself as a power complicated. The most apparent example of Barb’s power complicated occurs in the tail end of Act II, once Barb actually tears a pill bottle of wine from her crying single mother’s hands and screams for her, “I’M RUNNING THINGS NOW! inch (Letts 97). This estimate may seem straight-forward in meaning, but the actual connotation is a lot heavier. In the context in the scene, this line denotes that electrical power has shifted from Purple to Barb, ultimately modifying Barb right into a newer edition of her mother. This kind of tone shift at the end of Act 2 sets up the subsequent events in the rest of the play. A more concealed example of Barb’s need for electricity happens immediately after Dorrie is found bothering Jean in the middle of the night. When Barb and Invoice approach the scene, they are really distraught about what happened and immediately get started asking Blue jean what is going on. Blue jean repeatedly tells them that nothing happened, and demands, “what’s the big deal? inches (Letts 120). When Expenses tells her that her only becoming fourteen is definitely the big deal, the girl replies with, “Which is only a few years young than you like them” (Letts 120). Barbara slaps Blue jean for this review, sending her daughter crying into the residence. Although Blue jean said absolutely nothing derogatory to Barb, and was, in a deluded method, standing up on her mother, Jean’s comment is interpreted as a blow to Barb’s lack of ability to keep Costs from cheating on her. Barb cannot stand that the lady looks ridiculous because Bill is affiliated with another girl, and attempts to shut down Jean’s ridicule of her. Barb’s reaction further more proves which the emotional damage she suffered as a child as a expanded woman provides caused her to develop a strong power sophisticated.
Each Weston child suffers serious emotional harm, whether it be as a result of their mom Violet, or perhaps by the individuals who came into their lives later on. Karen’s deficiency of attention morphed her into a very centered woman who always requires a man in her life. Ivy’s over-exposure to her mother and her verbal assaults transformed Ivy from a passionate and completely happy woman right into a subdued and cautious one particular. Barb’s pressure of being the oldest girl in the Weston family caused her to build up a deep power sophisticated, one that seems to gradually develop throughout the perform. In Take action III, Flowers says to Barb: “Well…that’s not true. You weren’t [Beverly’s] favorite. I was. You’re mother’s favorite” (Letts 104). This kind of quote perfectly exemplifies the unbalanced powerful between the Weston girls and the mother, the most hurtful and heartbreaking element in the mental damage each daughter bears.
