August: Osage County

The house described in the stage directions is imposing and decrepit, symbolizing the strong influence of the Weston family’s demons from the past to the present. It is an enormous house with three floors and a front porch, and it is defined by its history:

A rambling country house outside Pawhuska, Oklahoma, sixty miles northwest of Tulsa. More than a century old, the house was probably built by a clan of successful Irish homesteaders. Additions, renovations and repairs have essentially modernized the house until 1972 or so, when all structural care ceased (9).

Like the house, Violet and Beverly stagnated as a couple in around 1972, a couple of years after Little Charles was born. It was built around 1907, which is right after the Osage Nation was forced to divide their land into individual parcels, which is how Irish homesteaders would have been able to acquire the land. It isn’t clear how long the house has been in the family, but the three Weston sisters grew up there. For years, Violet and Beverly have been largely alone in the house, neglecting its upkeep and accumulating clutter. Violet insists on making the house so hot that it’s uninhabitable, especially at the height of summer when the play takes place. She has made the home even more claustrophobic by covering the windows. She is hiding from the outside world, preventing herself from seeing beyond the house’s stifling walls. The heat is so oppressive that it killed a series of parakeets that Violet bought as pets, symbolizing that the atmosphere is to toxic to support life and can only hasten death.

Despite the window coverings that block out the imagined world, the house set gives the audience a voyeuristic view of the family’s private dramas. This contradicts the family’s rampant secrecy and ability to bury their ugly truths, symbolizing that secrets cannot be hidden forever. Johnna’s presence in the attic shows that the family cannot escape the Osage County’s Indigenous heritage and the fact that they are permanent interlopers.

The rooms give the illusion of privacy, but with so many people in the house, someone is always watching or listening. Ivy and Little Charles try to be subtle, but most of the characters catch on to their relationship. Steve thinks he can take advantage of Jean undetected in a dark room, but Johnna finds them with her frying pan. In the third act, when Barbara removes the window coverings as a symbolic gesture of openness and transparency, it becomes clear that the house is hiding even more destructive secrets. It seems to be impossible to keep secrets within the house, as if the walls have eyes. Ivy and Little Charles try to be subtle, but most of the characters catch on to their relationship. Steve thinks he can take advantage of Jean undetected in a dark room, but Johnna finds with her frying pan. In the third act, when Barbara removes the window coverings as a symbolic gesture of openness and transparency, it becomes clear that the house is hiding even more destructive secrets. In an attempt to be shocking, Violet announces her intention to get rid of everything in the house and start fresh. She tries to give away pieces of furniture, but no one will take them. The clutter in the house is the family’s emotional baggage, and purging the home of those secrets and memories is ultimately impossible.