Barbara attacks Violet due to her attitude when having dinner, the opened secret of Barbara and her husband's separation and also her random comments being offensive towards Barbara. The pills issue erupts and allows Barbara to take some physical action in order to let her anger out. This is quite shocking for the rest of the family, yet still surprised for the fact of Violet taking pills.
Barbara yells at Violet, saying that she is in charge now if Violet has not figured it out yet therefore, everything will go according to how she wants regardless of pleasing others in her decisions. Violet is shown as being quite weak and "defeated" as she being the mother of the household, has been exploited by her own daughter.
While Violet is resting, the three daughters are shown together, looking at their mother, this shows a sign of affection towards their mother. Even though they may shout or be aggressive towards their mother, they still care about her health.
Barbara is speaking with the doctor who has provided Violet with those pills, the doctor seems quite careless, making Barbara feel further annoyed, enabling her to become aggressive by throwing the pills to the doctor. This too shows how she is worried about her mother's health and that the doctor is neglecting her health and showing no signs of concern.
After visiting the doctor, while driving back, Violet says that she feels sick and to stop the car, this allows her into attempting to run away as she feels that she is a burden for everyone else. Barbara runs after her asking what she is doing, showing signs of concern and agitate. This shows how despite everything she will be with her and that their relationship of a mother and daughter is still there.
WWW: excellent overview of Barbara's character here
ReplyDeleteEBI: Can you start to compare this to the violence displayed in Dr Foster?