Ella Tate is the mother of the family. As the play opens, she and Wesley are both looking through the chunks of the broken door that her husband, Weston, broke in a fit of rage. Ella is a highly dysfunctional individual with no capacity to cope with her husband's alcoholism. She often changes topics when she feels it in her best interest and tries to ignore the things going on immediately around her. Ella decides to take matters into her own hands and puts the house up for sale without consulting her husband.