August: Osage County: Act 3, Scene 5 Summary & Analysis

Barbara and Ivy sit in the dining room. Ivy is dressed, but Barbara is still in pajamas. Ivy asks Barbara if Violet is clean. Barbara says she is—“moderately.” Ivy says she’s nervous, and Barbara realizes that Ivy wants to tell Violet about her and Little Charles’s relationship tonight. Barbara begs her sister not to mess up the uneasy rhythm she and Violet have settled into, but Ivy says it’s now or never—she’s leaving for New York tomorrow. Barbara tells Ivy it’s not a good idea for her and Little Charles to take things any further. There are lots of fish in the sea, she says, and she advises Ivy to “rule out the one single man in the world” she’s related to. Ivy says she loves the man she’s related to, but Barbara tells Ivy that love is a “crock of shit.”

Johnna brings dinner in from the kitchen—she has made catfish. After she exits once again, Ivy asks why Barbara thinks Ivy shouldn’t tell Violet the truth. Barbara tells Ivy she needs to rethink her entire relationship with Charles, before urging her to be quiet and eat her catfish. Ivy says she has hoped against hope for years that someone would come into her life, but before she can finish her tragic monologue, Barbara cuts her off and tells her to eat her fish.

Violet walks into the room, and Barbara calls for Johnna to bring Violet a plate. Violet insists she isn’t hungry, but Barbara tells her that she needs to eat. Johnna brings the food in and tells the women that she’s going to eat upstairs in her room. Barbara tells Violet to eat her fish, but Violet refuses. Barbara and Violet grow belligerent with one another and begin cursing and shouting back and forth. Ivy interjects, telling Violet that she needs to talk to her about something. Barbara tells Ivy, repeatedly, to shut up, but Ivy keeps pressing the issue. As Ivy continues trying to reveal the truth and Violet complains about not wanting to eat, Barbara repetitiously tells her mother and her sister to shut up and eat their fish.

Ivy, frustrated, throws her plate on the floor, and it smashes. Barbara asks if they’re all going to start “breaking shit now,” and says that she can “break shit” too—she throws a vase off the sideboard onto the floor. Violet then throws her plate to the floor, too. Barbara calls for Johnna to come clean up a “little spill” in the dining room. Ivy begins to tell Violet her secret, referring to Little Charles as “Charles.” Barbara says that if Ivy doesn’t refer to him as “Little Charles” Violet won’t know who she’s talking about. As Ivy gets closer and closer to breaking through Barbara’s interruptions, Violet finishes Ivy’s sentence for her—“Little Charles and you,” she says, “are brother and sister.”

Ivy, shocked and believing that Violet is delirious, tries to go ahead with her confession, but Violet is in her own world, and continues speaking. She reveals that she has always known the truth about Little Charles—no one slips anything by her. Barbara urges Ivy not to listen to Violet, but Violet keeps talking. She reveals she knew the whole time Beverly and Mattie Fae were having an affair, and says that Beverly “tore himself up” over Little Charles’s true parentage until the day of his death. 

Ivy is devastated. Violet says it’s time the girls knew: they are getting older, and “never know when someone might need a kidney.” Violet says, though, that the sensitive Little Charles should be protected from the truth. Violet looks at Ivy and asks how Ivy found out. Ivy looks back and forth between her mother and her sister, and then lurches away from the table. She asks why Violet would have told her such a thing—Violet asks why she cares. Ivy accuses Barbara and Violet of being monsters and runs from the dining room. 

Barbara follows Ivy into the living room, begging Ivy to listen to her. She reveals that Mattie Fae told her the truth earlier, but she didn’t know what to do with what she’d learned. Ivy screams that she won’t let Barbara change her story and runs out to the porch. Barbara follows her. Ivy says she plans to go to New York anyway—she assures Barbara that she will never see her again. Barbara begs Ivy to see that the revelation is not her fault—it was their mother who told her. Ivy proclaims that there’s no difference, and then leaves.

Barbara, in a daze, reenters the house, where Violet is lighting a cigarette. She tells Barbara that they “couldn’t let” Ivy and Little Charles run off together—Ivy’s place is here. Barbara tells Violet that Ivy said she plans on leaving anyway, but Violet predicts that Ivy won’t go. Ivy’s sweet, Violet says, but she’s not strong like the two of them.

Barbara expresses her surprise at the fact that Violet always knew about Mattie Fae and Beverly. Violet says that though she’s never told either of them she knew about it, Beverly always “knew [she] knew.” Violet says that if she had had a chance to talk to Beverly “at the end,” she would’ve told him not to kill himself over Little Charles and all the “ancient history” between himself and Mattie Fae. Violet says if she had reached Beverly at the motel, she would’ve told him that feeling “cast down” didn’t let him off the hook.

Barbara asks Violet what she means by “if [she] had reached him at the motel.” Violet admits to calling the Country Squire Motel, but not getting a hold of Beverly—she assumed it was too late, and he’d checked out. She called the motel Monday, after she’d emptied the safety deposit box. She admits that she probably should’ve called sooner—or called the police, or called Ivy—but she and Beverly had an arrangement. She reminds Barbara that to people of their generation, who never had any money growing up, money is important. 

Barbara asks Violet how she knew where Beverly was, and Violet answers blithely that Beverly left a note saying he could be reached at the Country Squire Motel. She did call him, she reminds Barbara, after she got into the safety deposit box. Barbara points out that if Violet could’ve stopped Beverly from killing himself, she wouldn’t have needed to get into the safety deposit box. Violet replies that hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Barbara asks if Beverly’s note said, or implied, that he was planning on killing himself. Violet doesn’t answer at first. When Barbara presses her, she says only that if she’d had her wits about her, she would’ve done things differently. Barbara tells Violet that she is “fucked-up.”

Violet calls Barbara a “smug little ingrate” and tells her that one of the reasons Beverly killed himself was Barbara. She tells Barbara that Beverly never would have killed himself if Barbara had been around. Beverly and Violet, abandoned with nothing but the realization that they had “wasted [their] lifetimes” devoting themselves to the care and comfort of daughters who left them behind, turned against one another. Violet tells Barbara that Beverly’s blood is as much on Barbara’s hands as it is her own.

Violet goes into the study, muttering about how Beverly did “this” to weaken her, and to make her prove her character. She reveals that she would have waited to call him until after she got the safety deposit box no matter what the note had said, and calls to Beverly that she is stronger than him at last. Barbara agrees. She tells Violet that Violet is the strong one, and then kisses her, collects her own rental car keys, and leaves.

Violet calls after Barbara and staggers through the house, pursuing her as Barbara collects her purse and car keys and goes. Violet cannot catch up to Barbara though, and winds up in the kitchen, turning around and around, disoriented, trying to find her daughter. She starts calling for Ivy, too, and then Beverly. She winds up in the living room, where she puts on the Eric Clapton record “Lay Down, Sally” and dances for a moment before attacking the machine, destroying the record.

Violet calls for Johnna, and then goes to the stairway. She begins crawling up on all fours, calling for Johnna again and again all the way to the attic. She enters Johnna’s room and crawls into Johnna’s lap. Johnna soothes Violet while Violet mumbles “and then you’re gone, and then you’re gone”—over and over. Johnna herself begins intoning a line from a T.S. Eliot poem: “This is the way the world ends.”