The Role Of Family In Tracy Letts August: Osage County

He uses the brightness of light to show the personalities of the households. The text explains the houses as, “... the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard and where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.” This is demonstrating how little of individuality there is in the people of this city. The author says how it is like walking through a graveyard but there is a little bit of light, perhaps the light is to symbolizing how alive the people are; how joyous it is to live their lives. Compared to a graveyard technically the people are still “living” in this story to where a graveyard people are literally dead. Once they begin to talk about Leonard Mead’s house it explains the amounts of light, “They passed one house on one street a moment later, one house in an entire city of houses that were dark, but this one particular house had all of the electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.” The author explains his house as bright but the rest on the city dark concluding this overwhelming idea of how different he is, how lively he is, giving an answer about why he was walking and why in the beginning in the story it was saying how he was the only one walking and that he would choose a route to take and endure this path

    As the time passes she can clearly see the woman in the paper. The woman in the paper is quiet and peaceful during the day, but at night she is imprisoned by the bars in the paper. This is reflection helps the narrator identify her own bars--her husband John. He is away during the day and at home in the same bed with her at night. She also identifies with the woman in the paper by sharing their similar routine. "At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be"..."by daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy its the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour".

Thinking of the farmhouse window made her have a slight change of heart, and knowing she would be able to have the window again changed her behaviour. While describing the farmhouse window, the thought of the old window coming back gave her have a new outlook on life. It was almost like the window brought back a piece from her old life making her feel more whole again. The window is symbolic because it shows the past of Leah and how she is slowly stepping away from the past. Allowing for a bigger window is symbolic because it resembles Leah’s mind, being more open and seeing things more clearly. The house itself has an overall darkness to it and this is shown through Leah’s character and the description of the kitchen, “In the kitchen a naked bulb hung from a twisted back cord [...] Its hard yellow glare revealed every grease mark on the motley wallpaper, every chip in the rust-coloured sink, it shone unmercifully on Ruth’s tired face and unkempt hair” (Morgan 4). The more light that is brought in can have an effect; this effect shows how the darkness that once overshadowed their family is coming to an end. The light from the window is a symbol showing that there is more light coming their way, showing that Leah’s dark and unpleasant mind is changing along with the window.

The seclusion endured by the narrator causes a dramatic change in her mental state. Her surroundings are now coming alive within the walls around her. “I didn’t realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure it is a woman” (736). Initially, the figure witnessed around the walls was merely just the shadow projected from the narrator creeping around the paper. Now this shadow is taking on not just any life form but ironically the form of a woman. Just like the narrator is trapped within the barred windows of the mansion, the woman is trapped within the patterns of the paper. This parallel view is transforming the narrator’s identity within the walls of the paper. However, this obsession begins to heighten. She begins to see the woman through every window in the bedroom. She appears to be creeping not only around the walls but now outside in the garden and along the

A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, by Eugene O’Neill, is a deeply autobiographical play. His life was rampant with confusion and addictions in his family. Each character in this play has a profound resemblance, and draws parallels and connections with a member of his own family. The long journey that the title of the play refers to is a journey into his past. Fog is a recurring metaphor in the play; it is a physical presence even before it becomes a crucial symbol of the family’s impenetrable confusion. It is referred to in the text as well as stage directions in this play. It sets the mood for the play in all its somber hues.

Throughout ‘At Mornington’, Harwood uses descriptions, “night fell”, and similes, “the piece of this day will shine like light” when referring to the power of memory. During ‘The Violets’, Harwood uses imagery such as “ambiguous light” and metaphors such as “unreturning light” and “blurring darkness” to portray time’s ability to pass, and the way that you cannot regain time that is lost. During ‘The Violets’, Harwood also uses the metaphor of the “melting west” to represent a closing day, capturing the vivid colours of the natural phenomenon through the use of evocative imagery. Indeed, the second poem of the diptych of ‘Father and Child’ is ‘Nightfall’. These references to darkness, light and the closing of days can all be seen as symbolic of life, death and the transience of time, as when one day ends and night falls, the transience of that moment will be held in one’s memory regardless of the moment never being able to be relived.

While the narrator recognizes the great care with which her husband is treating her she seems to constantly feel that she is being ungrateful. She calls herself out in her journal for being a “comparative burden” (Gilman) The room in which the narrator resides has a sturdy bed that is nailed to the floor. The narrator notes that there are bars on the windows and rings hooked into the wall. She wrongly assumes that this room was used as a nursery or gymnasium by the previous owners. As the reader, we are able to instill our own thoughts that this room was in fact built to house someone with a mental disorder. This begs the question of what the house really is, to contain such a room away from decent society.

"Although there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunkhouse, inside it was dust". This shows that the light tries to get in but never manages to penetrate the darkness. This is important to the themes of the story because workers' hope for a future farm is just like the light while the cruel reality is like the darkness. Their efforts to realize this plan is just like the light trying to penetrate the darkness, but their dream

The text is very descriptive and loaded with symbols. The author takes the opportunity to relate elements of setting with symbols with meanings beyond the first reading’s impressions. The house that the characters rent for the summer as well as the surrounding scenery are introduced right from the beginning. It is an isolated house, situated "quite three miles from the village"(947); this location suggests an isolated environment. Because of its "colonial mansion"(946) look, and its age and state of degradation, of the house, a supernatural hypothesis is implied: the place is haunted by ghosts. This description also suggests stability, strength, power and control. It symbolizes the patriarchal oriented society of the author’s time. The image of a haunted house is curiously superimposed with light color elements of setting: a "delicious garden"(947), "velvet meadows"(950), "old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees"(948) suggest bright green. The room has "air and sunshine galore"(947), the garden is "large and shady"(947) and has "deep-shaded arbors"(948). The unclean yellow of the wallpaper is

The author defines imagery by manipulating the environment to reflect characters’ emotions and describe the importance of sacrifice. When the father quits the house with the cat, Bedard describes that “[t]he kitchen light went off, and the house darkened.” (57) These details inform us that a big moment of fear and tension is felt inside the house, especially the little

Throughout the play there is a continual reference to light. It is used in the form of bright sunlight,

She places her characters in a rudimentary setting where they "only found a hundred years ago, of how to make candles from wax and string; also how to make glass, which is put in [their] windows to protect [them] from the rain" (24). The population as a whole lacks personality and are not supposed to wonder or ask questions, as it is considered detrimental to their community. Moreover, they have no opinions and love to work. Their plays "are about toil and how good it is"

After being crushed with deep sorrow over the death of his beloved Ligeia, the narrator moves into a decaying abbey to leave behind his lonesome house. Although he leaves the exterior of the house untouched, the narrator decorates the interior with strange but lavish furniture. “The furnishings take on the shapes and colors of his fantastic dreams” as he attempts to cope with his loss (Kincheloe). This supports the idea that the narrator would rather live in his own colorful fantasy (like the inside of his house), than engage in the dark reality (as represented by the outside of the house). Losing Ligeia meant the narrator lost his fulfillment in life; which is why his reality is now gloomy and undesirable. Not only does is the furniture an example of dream imagery, the walls of the desolate house also have a dream effect. The moving images on the walls cause the house itself to seem restless and alive. The narrator imagines this because it represents himself; always on the edge of monstrosity with each changing mood. As he hallucinates on opium, his sense of reality and fantasy is put together as one. With each furnishing, a looming memory of Ligeia haunts him as he reminances her during his opium dreams.

To start off the analysis, the setting of the entire poem is significant. Though the poem takes place in a house, the atmosphere the house is set in is also important. The month is September which is a month of fall which can be seen as a symbol for decline. It definitely insinuates that the poem is leading towards death. Line 1 has “September rain falls on the house” which gives the feeling of a dark and cold night with a storm on top of that. To further develop that, Bishop gives us the failing light in line 2 to also give us an idea of the grandmother’s struggle. Bishop uses the cyclical theme of changing seasons to show the unending nature of what is transpiring within the

The atmosphere of this exposition is clearly foreboding: "the dark clouds, broken chimneys, unused street, solitary cat, and dead air" all prove ominous and reflect the sordid ruling mood. Failed culture and solitary of aimless women ("a cat moved itself in and out of railing") not knowing exactly what to do about their predicaments in which