Problems in the Family: Brighton Beach Memoirs
...e, for example, girls legs. Eugene is so obsessed with this newfound glory that he repeatedly drops his napkin to look at her legs during dinner in Act I. Other family members seem to be having their own problems. For instance, Stanley has his issues going on with his job. He is worried about losing his job, but at the same time he wants to remain loyal to his principles. He wants to know that what he did is right, and that he should not have to apologize for doing something that he thought was right. Stanley is eighteen and he is the second breadwinner in the family. This is a big responsibility for him, for he has to help his father make money for the rest of his family. He is also a fairly young man, who has only just recently entered into adulthood. This high level of responsibility is a great impact upon his life. Thinking that he could not face his parents after his wrongdoings, such as being rude to his supervisor, and losing money during a poker session, drove him to enlist in the army. Stanley has one thing that he does not let down, his dignity. He has been brought up in such a manner to respect himself and his family. He does nothing other than look up to his father, and he feels completely ashamed to tell his father about his mistakes, and he is embarrassed as well as saddened by these events. By the end of Act II, Stanley comes clean with his errors, and he is surprised by his father’s take on all of what he had done. He is elated with the fact that his father accepts his mistakes, understands him, and even relates to him. Rather than talking down to him, his father regards Stanley as an individual, and decides to teach him a few tricks of the trade. He is relieved to her what Jack has to say to him regarding his gambling fiasco. Jack reassures Stanley when he says “Don’t be so hard on yourself. That’s what you’ve got a mother and father to do” (Simon, 102). Jack even builds a certain unspoken camaraderie with Stanley when he tells him: “you and I are going to go out in the back yard and I am going to teach you how to play poker” (Simon, 103). Stanley is highly enthused by this action, and he feels at ease with his mistakes. Another character who has a problem that afflicts his life would be Jack, the patriarchal figure in the play. Jack’s problem, however, is different because it is on another level. His responsibility is that he must provide for a family of seven, now that his sister-in-law has been a widow for nearly six years. He must work two jobs, be the main breadwinner, and also be the head of the household, caring for six other individuals, being a father to four. Jack has recently lost his second job because the company went bankrupt, and therefore he must make ends meet. He, however, is able to hold himself together, be very supportive and patient, despite all the stress that he must incur. When Stanley tells him about almost losing his job, and about his gambling and losing a week’s salary, Jack handles it with a grain of salt. He is very caring and understanding and remains to be a good role model for Stanley, as well as Eugene. His temper never flares up much, even after he has his heart attack. He still cares deeply for all of his family, including his extended family. He provides for all of them, and does not hesitate to work extra-hard in order to bring more into their home. At the end of the play, Jack gets news that his family has escaped and will be arriving in New York soon. The advent of seven more mouths to feed does not appear to Jack as a misfortune, rather, he looks at it as a blessing. For example, rather than thinking about all that he will have to do to provide for the newcomers, he says: “They got out. That’s all that’s important. They got out” (Simon, 107). This shows Jack’s unyielding selflessness, he thinks of others before he thinks of himself. Kate, the matriarch of the household, has a lot of stress on her as well, although she does not take it like a grain of salt the way her husband does. Her main worries are concerning her family. She admits this is her own fault for she is a worrier, she says this in Act II. She says, “I’m not happy unless I can worry. My family were worriers” (Simon, 73). She worries about her husband’s health, her sister’s health, her son’s job, her other son’s education, her nieces educations and lives, as well as the possibility of her family escaping Hitler in Europe. Her problems increase when the family’s problems increase. She does a lot to guard her husband’s feelings about having to care for her sister and her family. She also tries to hide this from her sister, because she does not want Blanche to feel that she is a burden upon her family. She tries her best to keep the family together, until she just unloads all of her frustrations upon her sister. She lets years worth of anger and resentment pour out on her sister, and this causes a rift between the two sisters. With her husband’s help, she sees things in a better light, and things are repaired between her and her sister, Blanche. She is once again able to pull her family together again and although she may be worrying, she is still happy, because after all, she said it herself, worrying makes her happy. Blanche, the widow, dependent sister, and currently asthmatic mother is one of the weakest characters in this play. She is not a weak character due to writer’s error, rather, she is made to be that way. But, toward the end of the play, she starts to self-assert herself, thereby finding a solution to her problems. She has been a widow for the past six years, and she cannot seem to get over her husband’s passing. She attempts to go out on a date with their neighbor Mr. Murphy, which turns out to be a sour event because Mr. Murphy drives drunk and gets into an accident. Her daughter, Nora, is in a rebellious state of affairs, and Blanche feels like she has lost control of so much in her life. A major affliction that Blanche suffers from is the fact ...