Brighton Beach Memoirs

As Brighton Beach Memoirs focuses on a single family, the importance and power of the family unit is a critical theme throughout. Shared family history is both a burden and a blessing. In some cases, it is a great source of conflict between the members of the Jerome-Morton family. Each of the three sibling duos are forced to reckon with aspects of their upbringing and determine how to move forward. Kate and Blanche’s relationship is the most explicitly connected to this concept since they are adult siblings and each also has their own children, which gives them a unique perspective on family. Because the women grew up together, they are intimately familiar with both how to provoke and soothe one another. In Act II, for example, Kate shares that she felt that Blanche received preferential treatment as a child, and this has continued and is causing friction now that Blanche is being supported by Kate’s husband and children. However, because Blanche is perfectly aware of the situation, she feels that she and her daughters are a burden and is dissatisfied with the trajectory of her life so far. This coming together of childhood family dynamics and adult family dynamics enables both women to have a deeper understanding of each other and what is needed to resolve the problem.