Characters in the Play, August: Osage County

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Recommended: Mental illness and oppression in literature

The play “August: Osage County” by Tracy Letts is undoubtedly rich in text. The characters have been developed in a very compelling manner. The way they have been presented criticizes the American society in this current age. The main characters in the play, the Weston family, have outstanding personalities. Besides being overly sensitive, the Weston family is for clever members. Their unity is coupled with destructive and supportive engagements. In this essay, I am going to focus on the character profiles of the main characters in the play. The main characters are the Weston family members. I will also discuss the themes in the play.
The Weston family has five members and a housekeeper who lives with them. Individual members of this family have distinct personalities. They influence each other with their mannerisms. Beverly Weston is the Father of the home. He has three daughters who are over 40 years of age. He is married to Violet. He is an outstanding intellectual who at one time was a world class poet. He has a chronic habit of alcoholism. Though polite, he is emotional and miserable. These mournful and down in the dumps character has ultimately made Beverly suicidal.
Violet Weston is the wife of Beverly. She is a conniving woman. After the death of his her husband, she is depressed. To keep herself going, she turns to pills and pain killers. She eventually gets addicted to the drugs. She later learns that her mouth has cancer. Despite her affliction, Violet does not desist from her scornful and evil abuse.
The first daughter of Violet Weston is Barbara Fordham. In the entire play, she is seen to be making great efforts to maintain sanity in their family. She is a mother to a 14 year old girl. She is strong and caring. Her...

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...ng and immature girls. Bill and Steve are both engaged in a relationship, but have other multiple sexual interactions.
The other lesson we learn from the play is that of wishful thinking. The majority of the characters in the play fear solitude yet do not want to relate intimately. This has caused them sadness and eventually loneliness. Violet’s daughters were victims of this vice. Their ages are advanced yet they were still living with their parents. This is what Violet, their mother, to keep haunting Barbara about her advanced age. Throughout the play, we see that every character got what they deserved. Those who did well had goodness come their way.
In conclusion, I can say that the lessons derived from the play were tagged on the characters in the play.

Works Cited

Letts, Tracy. “August: Osage County”. New York: Theatre Communications Group,
2008. Print.

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