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Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County as a Paradigm of Bad Parenting

Abstract:

 One’s character is shaped by the family he/she has and the way he/she is raised up. Bad parents affect their children tragically, and the later consequences the parents are the ones who pay for being bad ones. Tracy Letts explores the dark side of family life in his domestic play August: Osage County (2007) which is one of the well-known contemporary plays of the American theatre in the twenty-first century. The playwright presents the Westons as an embodiment of the image of family disconnected relationships due to bad parenting. Violet is a model of bad mother who plays the main role in the destruction of her family. The impact of bad parenting is revealed in the circle of the former abused children who turned to be abusers of their own children, or the search for love and care in the others as an alternative of the parent image.

This paper aims at examining the reasons of being bad parents concerning Violet in particular, and the psychological effects of her aggressive behavior and insufficient care on her three daughters. The importance of the study lies in demonstrating the shape of the characters of the daughters in facing the challenges of life.

Keywords: bad parenting, behavior, character, psychological effects, mother figure