The characters in Tracy Letts’ play August: Osage County suffer from broken family dynamics and abuse that result in the characters attempting to take control of their lives and escape from their fate but ultimately succumbing to it. The Weston house becomes representative of a prison in which the past and present sufferings of the family continue to haunt them. Beverly Weston appears in the play for only a brief time, but during his time in the play Letts starts to reveal the broken nature of the Weston family and how the family members desperately seek to escape. A washed-up poet and self-proclaimed alcoholic Beverly’s state of affairs seem bleak. With his daughters all leading their own lives, and only a substance-abusing and argumentative wife at home, …show more content…
Barbara strategy to escape is multifaceted. Barbara lives in Colorado, showing that she sought to physically escape her dysfunctional home and start fresh somewhere else. Furthermore, Barbara often attempts take matters into her own hands and create the ideal world she desires, similar to her mother. One such example occurs when Barbara orders her family to search for and remove Violet’s various drug stashes from the Weston home. Barbara adopts a controlling attitude from her mother, which creates tension not only with Violet but her husband Bill as well, expanding the issue of the broken family to her daughter Jean. Brought in before Beverly’s disappearance, Johana is brought in as a housekeeper for the Weston family. While Letts identifies Johana as a Native America, her role as housekeep plays a larger role to the plot of the play. Despite having few lines in the play, she appears to be the most morally grounded and compassionate character. She remains supportive in the chaotic household and keeps some of the characters, such as Jean, from despair and destruction by providing them