School of Distance Education

August: Osage county
by Tracy Letts 
Tracy Letts is a multifaceted award winning actor and 
playwright. From pulp-inspired crime, to horror, to his 
own family tragedies, the subject matter of Tracy Letts' 
plays has been diverse. Letts received the 2008 Pulitzer 
Prize for Drama for his play 
August: Osage County
and 
a Tony Award for his portrayal of George in the revival 
of 
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
He has written the 
screenplays of three films adapted from his own plays.
August: Osage County 
written by Tracy Letts, is 
undoubtedly a brilliant play about a dysfunctional family 
that is obligated to deal with veiled duplicities and 
cruelty. It centers on the home of the Weston’s up 
country in Oklahoma -overheated Midwestern Plains 
territory.
When the large Weston family unexpectedly reunites 
after Dad disappears, their Oklahoman family homestead 
explodes in a maelstrom of repressed truths and 
unsettling secrets. The matriarch, Violet, depressed and 
addicted to pain pills and “truth-telling,” is joined by her 
three daughters and their problematic lovers, who harbor 
their own deep secrets, her sister Mattie Fae and her 
family, well-trained in the Weston family art of cruelty, 
and finally, the observer of the chaos, the young
Cheyenne housekeeper Johnna, who was hired by 
Beverly just before his disappearance. Holed up in the 
large family estate in Osage County, Oklahoma, tensions 
heat up and boil over in the ruthless August heat. All 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
24 
major actions in this play show the character’s need for 
escape through a push a pull pattern found within the 
scenes. Throughout act two, the characters constantly 
push and pull against one another, unable to keep their 
bodies or their mouths still and quiet. They argue and 
fight one moment, and then the next, they have nothing 
to say. Their restless demeanor illustrates their need to 
escape from their family both physically and 
emotionally. The language throughout the play conveys 
a lot about the characters’ eager attempts to escape their 
past. Karen’s undying attempts to make her new fiancé 
Steve a part of the family illustrates her need to 
distinguish herself as her own woman. Throughout 
second act, she continuously talks about him to the 
others, making him out to be the greatest thing that has 
ever happened to her. In making Steve a part of the 
family and getting her family’s approval, she would be 
able to truly distinguish herself away from her 
hometown in Oklahoma. She wants to be her own person 
with Steve, living a new, glamorous life away from all 
the madness and disorder she once knew. With this 
sporadic language, Letts also utilizes contrasting images 
of order and harmony to further convey a sense of 
disorder. The house is constantly a mess, something that 
is inevitable in a household with two substance abusers. 
However, Johnna creates a sense of order that the house 
does not possess on it’s own.
Letts also uses literal images of the blacked-out windows 
at the beginning of the show to create a setting in which 
the characters want to escape. . From the top of the first 
act, the audience immediately sees a dark, gloomy home. 
Another way Letts shows the inescapable feeling in this 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
25 
show is through the unbearable Oklahoma heat. The heat 
is representative of the intolerable dysfunction present in 
Beverly and Violet’s home. Once Beverly started talking 
about Violet’s addiction, Johnna physically shows the 
audience that she is hot. This idea is manifested 
throughout the play to show how inescapable the family 
dynamics are. Another example of Violet’s need to 
escape through her drugs comes out through her slurred 
dialect. In the beginning scene when she first meets 
Johnna, she can hardly get a solid sentence formed. 
Through this language, the audience can quickly pick up 
on her inability to control the affect the drugs are having 
on her body. In an attempt to regain control and make 
sense, she tries to over-articulate. But despite her 
attempts, the drugs have taken over her ability to do so, 
thus causing her to slur her words. Violet is unable to 
process her sadness and anxiety. She cannot fathom the 
thought of having to take care of the bills and house all 
by herself now that her husband is gone. She is slowly 
realizing that she will be the one taking care of 
everything now, and cannot deal with all of the 
overwhelming feelings that come with the responsibility. 
This slow loss of control is shown in her taking pills in 
order to escape from her pain.
A prominent theme in 
August: Osage County 
is the way 
shame is used to dehumanize another character. Each 
character does it in some form or another, giving him or 
her a feeling of false power over the other.
Another theme in this show is the character’s need to 
escape their problems with something external, whether 
that is drugs or physically leaving home. Barbara and 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
26 
Karen moved away from home and started their own 
families; Bill escaped his relationship with Barbara by 
having an affair; Jean escapes her father’s affair and 
parent’s separation through marijuana; Ivy and Little 
Charles plan to get away by moving to New York 
together; Beverly and Violet used alcohol and drugs in 
order to escape their troubles.