The Virgin Suicides - Essay Example

?Introduction The Virgin Suicides is a haunting yet funny novel set in the 1970s about five sisters, the boys who admired them from afar, and the sisters’ suicides. There are number of themes that run throughout the book, but one of themes is that then narrators do not know what compelled the sisters to take their own lives. However, there is stark evidence that one of the major factors in the sisters’ decisions to kill themselves is because of the isolation that they felt due to their parents’ extreme overprotectiveness. The girls became recluses, unable to go to school or leave the house after an incident where Lux, one of the Lisbon sisters, comes home late from a dance. The parents were afraid of the girls’ independence, and showed signs that they wished for Victorian moralities for their daughters, for the parents were also afraid that the girls would capitalize on their budding sexuality. As these fears drove the parents to the drastic measures of virtually imprisoning the girls, and the girls’ suicide was probably a result of this decision, it can be said that the parents fears of letting the girls be independent and to experiment with boys were the key decisions that led to the girls’s suicides. Discussion One of the themes of the novel is the lack of independence of the girls, and the parents’ desperate attempt to subvert any sense of independence that the girls might have had. This is a theme that is found in the book and in life, for much has been written about how women should be weak, and docile, not strong and independent, and this apparently is what motivated the Lisbon parents. According to Simone De Beauvoir (1949) the appearance of femininity is one of docility, futility and weakness, and that “to please they must abdicate” (De Beauvoir, 1949, p. 353). This is shown by an examination of great novels, such as Little Women, The Last of the Mohicans and The Mill on the Floss. In each of these novels, the tomboyish, independent woman is pushed aside, romantically, by the protagonist boy. According to De Beauvoir, this is proof that passive, servile women are preferred to their independent sisters (De Beauvoir, 1949, p. 352). Alex de Tocqueville felt that women entered confining marriage, and that these women gave up their sense of independence “It may be said that she has learned by the use of her independence to surrender it without a struggle” (Faludi, 1991, p. 48). Another theme in the book is the tamping down of nascent sexuality. De Beauvoir contends that adolescent girls cope with the changes that are bestowed upon them by becoming the coquette, as they were in childhood. They accomplish this by doing their makeup and hair, massaging her breasts to make them grow, and studying her smile in the mirror. This awakens an eroticism in the young girl and the young adolescent boy. However, for the adolescent boy, this awakening eroticism is a badge of honor – of “transcendence and power” (De Beauvoir, 1949, p. 349). For the adolescent girl, this awakening causes the girl to “retain a cast of shame” (De Beauvoir, 1949, p. 349). In other words, it is perfectly normal for a girl to want to become feminine and use her feminine wiles as she reaches puberty, and this was something that was denied by Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon, especially Mrs. Lisbon. At the same time, acting upon the newfound eroticism is a cause for censure. This is in line with the Lisbon’s parents’ beliefs about their daughters, for any hint of sexuality was extinguished before it could even come into fruition. The Lisbon parents made sure of this by not allowing the girls to go out with boys. There is every indication that the parents in The Virgin Suicides had these antiquated beliefs, that the girls should not have independence and should not realize their sexuality, despite the fact that the novel takes place during the early to mid 1970s. This was an era that was marked by change in the female situation – women were helping to forge anti-discrimination policies and policies regarding equal employment during this time, birth control and reproductive rights were at the fore, and women were increasingly entering traditionally male-dominated professions (Faludi, 1991, p. 55). In short, the girls were coming of age at a time when the feminist movement was also coming of age, and this probably threatened the ultra-religious and ultra-strict Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon. Indeed, the Lisbon parents seemed to believe that the Victorian-age strict beliefs about the roles of women should be the paradigm that controlled the girls’ lives, not the prevailing belief of the times that women should be independent, self-sufficient and be allowed to express their budding sexuality. The Lisbon parents attempted a version of the clitorectomy that was practiced during the Victorian age for “unbridled and unseemly sexual appetites” (Barker-Benfield, 2000, p. xvii). Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon were not only threatened by the girls’ budding sexuality, but were also afraid of the girls’ sense of independence. This was shown throughout the novel, not only in the extreme measures that the Lisbons took in keeping their daughters under their control, but also because of the way that the girls, themselves, became an amorphous amalgamation of one another - so much so that, at least at the beginning of the novel, they were virtually indistinguishable from one another. That the girls became a kind of amorphous mass to the boys shows the extent to which their parents are controlling their independence. None of the girls became distinct from any of the other girls because none of the girls had their own voice. Of course, this changed towards the middle of the novel, in which Lux became the only one of the girls to break out of the amorphous mold and become a distinct character. However, even then, the rest of the sisters remained in the mold of the amorphous mass, none of them having enough presence or voice to break out. This amorphousness of the girls was a recurrent theme throughout the book. For instance, towards the beginning of the book, the narrators (the novel was written in first person plural (Miller, 2004)) attended a party at the Lisbon house and were astonished to see that the girls were individuals, after all – “Then, however, our eyes got used to the light and informed us of something we had never realized: the Lisbon girls were all different people. Instead of five replicas with the same blond hair and puffy cheeks, we saw that they were distinct beings, their personalities to beginning to transform their faces and reroute their expressions” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 26). In other words, prior to the party, the girls were all the same person, at least in the eyes of the narrators. This image was reinforced when reading Cecilia’s diary – the narrators found it difficult to tell which sister Cecilia was talking about at any given time and “many strange sentences conjure in the reader’s mind an image of a mythical creature with ten legs and five heads, lying in bed eating junk food, or suffering visits from affectionate aunts” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 42). To be fair, it is possible that the girls were independent creature from one another, and it was simply that they were made into the amalgamation by the memories of the narrators. Still, it was device and theme that was used so often throughout the book that the reality that the girls lacked independence from one another cannot be discounted. That Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon were terrified that their daughter might use their feminine wiles to snatch up a boy was another prevalent theme in the novel. Their beliefs are in line with the beliefs that a woman should be “imprisoned, maimed, mutilated, flogged, raped, or even killed as punishment for losing her virginity…” (Blank, 2007, p. 9). Although their beliefs are not quite this extreme, the Lisbons’ evidently did believe that imprisonment was adequate punishment for just the threat that their daughters might lose their virginity, or, at least, the reality that Lux had lost her virginity. It was Lux’ actions in coming home late that caused the final imprisonment of the girls within the Lisbon house. The Lisbons had the same kind of beliefs of those who would imprison, maim or kill a woman for losing her virginity, in that both sets of beliefs are based upon the extreme subjugation of women and girls, and the taking of extreme measures in making sure that the girls are either too afraid to lose their virginity or do not have the opportunity to. In the end, this kind of extreme imprisonment and beliefs are no doubt contributing factors in the girls’ suicides. Although the narrator did not know what caused the suicides, and there was much speculation about it, it is pretty clear that the isolation and the way that the parents tried to control their lives by imprisoning them were at least contributing factors to the suicides. Throughout the novel, it was clear that the parents were controlling the girls’ sexuality by controlling their social lives. The girls themselves seemed like they would be somewhat normal but-for their parents’ extreme beliefs. For instance, when the boys took the girls to the homecoming dance, the girls had a good time – Mary stated that she was “having the best time of my life” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 132). Meanwhile, the narrators stated that “never before had the Lisbon girls looked so cheerful, mixed so much, or talked so freely” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 132). Perhaps the saddest line is the line where Therese, after wondering if the boys thought that they, the Lisbon girls, were crazy, stated that “Cecilia was weird, but we’re not…We just want to live. If anyone would let us” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 132). The parents, especially Mrs. Lisbon, also tried to control the girls by making sure that they never went out in public in makeup or revealing clothes - “clutching her good purse, she checked each daughter for signs of makeup before allowing her to get into the car, and it was not unusual for her to send lux back inside to put on a less revealing top” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 8). This was also shown by the fact that Mary, at the age of sixteen, had to hide her makeup in a sock beneath the sink (Eugenides, 1993, p. 9). The parents apparently were not always that strict with the girls. There was some indication that the family was normal at one point. They had cookouts. They went to a tourist attraction where the girls took a picture of a totem pole, with each girls face substituting that of a sacred animal (Eugenides, 1993, p. 229). They went camping and went whale watching (Eugenides, 1993, pp. 42-43). However, there is also evidence that the normal family together times ended right when Therese, the oldest of the Lisbon girls, hit puberty – “But despite all this new evidence of the girls’ lives, and of the sudden drop­-off of family togetherness (the photos virtually cease about the time Therese turned twelve), we learned little more about the girls than we knew already” (Eugenides, 1993, p. 229). This is proof that the strictness that the parents displayed was a reaction to the girls’ budding sexuality, and was an effort to tamp down any kind of sexuality before it could even get started. The parents were permissive and did things with the girls only when they were children and not liable to explore any kind of eroticism. What is interesting about the theme of controlling the girls’ sexuality with extreme measures is the fact that Lux had sex with many men on the parents’ roof. This occurred after the big lockdown. Lux was able to get the men and boys into the house and on the roof with her. This shows not just the rebelliousness of Lux, but also the curiousness of how free the girls really were. It seems that the parents, for all the controlling that they attempted with the girls, did not have as much control as they might have thought. The girls could, and did, get out of the house while their parents were apparently sleeping. They left notes on the boys’ cars, and in the boys’ mailboxes, instructing the boys to watch for their lights and inquiring if the boys remembered them (Eugenides, 1993, p. 192). The girls also left laminated pictures of the Virgin Mary around town – under the windshield wipers of cars, in ashtrays, among rose bushes, in the spokes of a bicycle tire, etc. (Eugenides, 1993, pp. 188-189). What this shows is that, if the girls so chose, they could have left, en masse. That they did not choose to do so, rather, take their own lives, is a curious aspect of the book. It also shows the general lack of independence that the girls had in their lives. Perhaps the reason why they did not choose to leave the house is because they did not feel that they could live outside in the world. This is another way that the motif of lack of independence was displayed in the novel. Conclusion The Virgin Suicides is a book that has many lessons. However, one of the biggest lessons that can be learned is that parents cannot control their children. Parents may want to make sure that their daughters do not date, do not have a social life, and are not independent. However, adolescents need to have the power to explore and have a life. When the parents essentially take this away from their adolescents, to the point where the adolescents really have no life, then the result may be that the adolescent literally has no life. Although the narrators did not understand what motivated the girls to commit suicide, it is a safe assumption that the parents desire to take away the lives of their children resulted in the children taking their lives. Sources Used Barker-Benfield, G.J. (2000) The Horrors of the Half-Known Life. New York: Routledge. Blank, H. (2007) Virgin: The Untouched History. New York: Bloomsbury. De Beauvoir, S. (1952) The Second Sex. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Eugenides, J. (1993) The Virgin Suicides. New York: Warner Books. Faludi, S. (1991) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Crown Publishers. Miller, L. (2004) “We the Characters.” New York Times. 18 April 2004. Read More