Barbara Fordham, one of the main characters in Tracy Letts’ darkly comic drama August: Osage County is a forty-six years old daughter of Bev and Violet. This person plays an important role in the play. Trying to consider this character from the point of view of different theories discussed in class, it is important to pay attention to the following information.
Barbara Fordham is the eldest daughter in the family. During the whole play, she tried to gain control over her mother and her daughter who smokes in her 14. Being also preoccupied with the problems in her marriage and separation with her husband, Barbara Fordham works hard on trying to settle the relationships in her family and on understanding what goes wrong with her family relations, where she has made a mistake in daughter upbringing, etc.
Starting the discussion with the role and responsibility theory, it is obvious that Barbara Fordham is a Family Hero. She was good at school and now she is a teacher. She teaches others how to behave. However, she is unable to cope with her personal life that frustrates her. As a result, she sometimes acts inadequate, especially when it comes to settling the relationships with her husband.
They are unable to understand the reasons for their separation and this fact makes Barbara mad. Even though she tries to be good at everything, she is unable to do it. Being a family hero, too much work is laid on Barbara’s shoulders, therefore, she is unable to cope with everything that creates the reasons for feeling guilty and lonely. Everybody considers her as somebody who is unable to complete the task up to the end and who can only direct others. Nevertheless, according to this theory, Barbara Fordham is a leader, she has come home to help settle the problems there as she is a very helpful person.
Turning to Erik Erikson’s stages of psychological development, which are as follows, basic trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, ego integrity vs. despair, Barbara Fordham appears at the several stages in the play and it is possible to see her evolution from the beginning up to the end of the story.
In the middle of the third stage, Barbara says that “Dissipation is actually much worse than cataclysm” and this is the time when she appears at the final stage of Erikson’s development, integrity vs. despair, where wisdom in the central characteristic feature of a human psychological condition. However, at the beginning of her separation with her husband she experiences will (autonomy vs. shame and doubt stage) to make everything better, however, she fails to do it.
Furthermore, her relationships with her daughter may be characterized through the basic trust vs. mistrust stage as she hopes her daughter is going to refuse from smoking. Being loving and caring for all members of the family, Barbara Fordham faces a number of difficulties the overcoming of which becomes her main goal.
The choice of Barbara Fordham as a character for discussion may be explained by my desire to speak about an elder child in the family and to consider the problems she faces as being the eldest child in my family, I would like to learn on her mistakes and never make mine.