Domestic Violence in Sam Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class

his paper attempts to examine family relationships in Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, focusing on the violence, both verbal and physical, that governs those relationships. Attention is paid to the causes and manifestations of the violent relationship between Weston and his wife Ella as well as to its effect on their children Wesley and Emma. In the process, the paper foregrounds the wider historical context of domestic violence as well as Shepard’s skillful use of memorable visual images and narrative episodes in illustration of aggression within the family.