Reaction to the Film

I saw this movie for the first time when I was in grade eleven and had just recently become a fan of Sofia Coppola's films. I can honestly saw that the the title was what drew me to the movie. Anything with self-inflicted death and an implied sexual undertone is right up my alley, because it is guaranteed to create a good story, as questionable as that may sound. Anyways, when I first saw the movie I was really excited to see it.

I remember being drawn into the complex storyline. I watched intently, rewinding and replaying the interesting parts, or the parts I didn't really understand. I remember my stomach lurching when the smallest of the Lisbon boys bumps into the dangling feet of Bonnie Lisbon. I felt so let down and disappointed alongside the boys when they realized that their elaborate fantasy of running away in the family station wagon with the girl was just an elaborate fantasy. Seeing that scene played out in the movie was very moving for me. The picture is sunny and warm, the boys and the girls are packed in the car, smiling and laughing. Lux sticks her head out the window and smiles serenely as they drive away from their seemingly cursed neighbourhood; everyone is happy. Then the let down: the boys find the dead girls and sprint back to their houses. No dialogue is said, until the narrator bleakly repeats "We were never certain about the sequence of events. We argue about it still."

I think the casting of the movie was perfect. James Woods played the awkward, geeky almost shy Mr. Lisbon, while Kathleen Turner was the perfect mix of controlling christian mother and lost soul. A (very) young Josh Hartnett is now the only person I can envision as womanizer Trip Fontaine. Kirsten Dunst played the ideal Lux; she looks and acts so much like a young girl, yet has such a distinct femininity in her actions which is the perfect combination. I've heard a lot of complaints on forums about the movie that the girls who played the Lisbon sisters weren't attractive enough. Mary, Lux and Cecilia are considered attractive, while many thought that Bonnie and Therese weren't appealing at all. I say that the girls didn't need to be movie-star gorgeous, or the realism of the movie would have been compromised. It didn't matter how imperfect the girls' teeth, face shape or body type was, their imperfections were what set them apart from anyone else, and like most girls in their teens, they had lots of them. The boys didn't just love them because they found them beautiful, there was a deeper connection between them.

I loved this movie a lot, and it will continue to be one of my favourite films of all time. However, the book was much better, which is saying a lot. The film did an amazing job of capturing Eugenides' vision, but the story of the Lisbons is much more moving in print then on film.

The End

Like everyone must do when tragedy strikes, the boys start to move on from the Lisbon girls. They attend parties, find new girl interests and commence their summer, but can't seem to forget the foreboding house down the street. The Lisbon house is cleaned and everything that belonged to the girls is thrown out, with the exception of things that the boys managed to salvage: family pictures, make-up, Cecilia's converse, Bonnie's candles, Lux's bra. The remaining two Lisbons pack up their things and move out in the dead of night. The Lisbon house is sold to a young couple and remodelled; it is the Lisbon house no longer.

But still, even after all loose ends are tied up, the boys can't help but linger...

Finishing this book, I had to take a walk for a little while. The ending was so beautiful, and simple. I have no idea why it struck me so much, but that's just the power of this novel. I liken it to the Titanic: when you watch the movie, everyone knows the boat is going to sink, yet when it actually goes under the response is that of heartbreak and shock. The death of the Lisbon girls was inevitable; we knew if from page two. There were no surprises, no twist ending. Nobody rose from their grave, none of the boys even said more than a few sentences to each of the girls through the course of the novel. The girls themselves never did anything profound, barely moved from their bedroom window, barely glanced at us, the reader. And then their lives ended. Why then, does this novel, this story, generate so much emotion from the reader?

"It didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up in the tree house with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together" (Eugenides 325).


I am so glad I finally read this book.

This is one of the songs by the French instrumental band Air who did an instrumental soundtrack for Soffia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides. This is, in my opinion, the best song on the CD. It's melancholy and dreamy and captures the tone of the novel perfectly.

Jeffrey Eugenides

I'm one of those people that thinks it's a really good idea to research the author after I've finished reading the book. I'm also one of those perpetually lazy people that only do such a thing if the book I've read was really good. This can most definitely be argued as one of those times.

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in 1960 in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Brown University, and has his Masters degree in English and Creative Writing. The Virgin Suicides is his first novel, published in 1993. He has another book, Middlesex, which has received paramount amounts of critical acclaim, and which I plan on reading as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. His works have been translated into several different languages, though The Virgin Suicides is his only novel that has ever been made into a feature film. He has won a Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to literature with Middlesex.

I am intensely curious as to the inspiration behind The Virgin Suicides. My curiosity has grown even more, due to the fact that this novel takes place very close to where Eugenides grew up. The Lisbon sisters reside in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, while Eugenides lived as a teenager (almost in parallel) in Detroit.  Though many sources state that he has been reluctant to discuss his private life, it is certainly uncanny that he was a teenager boy at the same time and relatively the same place as the fictional Lisbon sisters. Eugenides hints in some interviews that the story of the Lisbons was written subconsciously about the decline of Detroit's auto industry, and therefore about the decline of a city. This is mentioned somewhat throughout the novel, in subtle details.

To be honest, after watching the movie (before I even opened the book), I was surprised that The Virgin Suicides was written by a male author. A lot of the qualities present in his writing seem almost distinctively female. The subject matter, choice of adjectives and (at times) gentle poetic tone lead to originally assume that this book was by a woman.

Possible Theories

Interestingly enough, the theories made about the Lisbon girls tend to reflect more on their theorists then the girls themselves:

"Platelet serotonin receptor indices in suicidal children" (Eugenides 286)
The doctor assigned to the Lisbon case determined that Mary had low serotonin levels. I find that often professional adults prefer to use science to explain phenomenons, instead of digging deeper to the root emotional cause. Often professional adults are uncomfortable with the idea of teenagers having real tangible emotions that can end in tragedy. I often feel as if they don't want to give young adults that power; the prefer to devalue their emotions, writing them off as being "just a teenager".

"The suicides  were an esoteric ritual of self sacrifice" (Eugenides 289)
"The girls planned the suicides in concert with an undetermined astrological event" (Eugenides 289)
This is theorized by the persistant local news reporter Lydia Perle. Like most adults, she wanted someone to blame, without pointing her finger at herself or people like her. It is highly unlikely that the Lisbon sisters were involved in any sort of ritual self-sacrifice. However, it does direct the blame somewhere else by distracting the community, and like any other reporter, Perle just wants to find a story that will sell to the community. It is sad how adults tend to write off things they can't understand, or events that might leave them with some degree of blame.

"They reacted to the suicides with a mild shock, as though they'd been expecting them, or something worse" (Eugenides 300).
The apathy of adults in this community is astonishing and borderline sickening.

"Something sick at the heart of the country infected the girls" (Eugenides 301)
"People saw their  clairvoyance in the wiped-out elms, the harsh sunlight, the continuing decline of our auto industry" (Eugenides 318)
This theory might have some weight to it. In a way, I think the girls were overwhelmed with the ways of the world they lived in. Eugenides mentions Detroit several times in his explanation of this theory. The way the country, more specifically the city was being run did not work for the girls, and they felt powerless, like many people did at the time to change it. In the society, not enough merit was placed on thoughts and feelings of young girls. They felt left behind and unneeded, in a world that was progressing too fast for them, but leaving so many holes behind.

"They killed themselves over our dying forests, over manatees maimed by propellers as they surfaced to drink from garden hoses; they had killed themselves at the sight of used tires stacked higher than pyramids; they had killed themselves over the failure to find a love none of us could ever be. In the end, the torture tearing the girls pointed to a simple reasoned refusal to accept the world as it was handed down to them, so full of flaws" (Eugenides 320)
I think this is the single most important explanation as to why the Lisbon girls decided to end their lives. They were too good for the world that they lived in, and they could not bear to go through with the long lives ahead of them knowing the type of evil and sadness that frequently occurs on Earth. Cecilia knew all about the unfairness; she wrote in her diary about the endangered species list. The rest of the girls got a taste for the unfairness of the world when their sister died, their parents ignored them and they were alienated at school and by society. Lux got a taste of the unfairness in the world when she met Trip. Isolated and treated as a museum exhibit, I can understand why they would want to be with their departed sister then inside their mother's house.

"So much has been written about the girls in the newspapers, so much has been said over back-yard fences, or related over the years in psychiatrists' offices, that we are certain only of the insufficiency of the explanations" (Eugenides 323)
Eugenides stresses that there is no definite answer. The boys don't know, the media doesn't know. The parents, teachers, former friends, family, doctors and even the girls themselves may not even know why the Lisbon girls all died within a year. There was no note left, no clues, no hidden diaries or telephone calls. The story revolves around the death of youth and beauty, and sometimes youth and beauty die without entrusting an explanation.

The Great Chain of Being

If the reader observes this story from the viewpoint of a Shakespearean audience (as our class discussed with Hamlet) the great chain of being could most definitely be applied. For instance, the Lisbon girls were dreamers, girls that wanted more out of life. They cast away several social expectations. Cecilia wore a wedding gown at all times, and quite literally flipped off the social hierarchy by ending her life. Lux wore revealing clothes and was highly promiscuous. They engaging in some smoking and drinking, and generally withdrew from the community. While in most situations, teenagers are expected to withdraw from their family and community, these girls took it to the extremes. To a Shakespearean audience, they would be breaking the Great Chain of Being, and therefore chaos ensues. The chaos that actually ensues is a neighbourhood falling apart. The Lisbon girls need to die, and the Lisbon parents have to move away for any sense of normalcy to return to the neighbourhood.

While I obviously don't think that this was the theme that Eugenides was aiming for when he wrote the novel, it is a different way of looking at the events that occurred. I do think he was making a point about community in general, that a society is only as strong as it's weakest creature. When members of society ignore the injured, sick or lonely they will eventually fall apart. The Lisbon girls were gossiped about, but never assisted. Everyone stared at their house, making speculations, but no one dared go over and give aid. This was the downfall of the neighbourhood.

Mrs. Lisbon & the Aftermath

As a reader, I would love to know more about Mrs. Lisbon and her history. To me, she is such an intriguing character because the reader never knows what motivates her and why she is so controlling, cold and emotionless. The subtle mentions of her throughout the course of the final four suicides show that she no longer cares about herself, her husband or her daughters. A key moment in this is when she first lets the paramedics into her house: "When the paramedics entered, she remained in the doorway tightening the belt of her robe. She straightened the welcome mat with her toe twice" (Eugenides 283). It is never clearly established if Mrs. Lisbon is aware that the entire neighbourhood has their eyes on her house and her family. As a mother, a role generally thought as one that keeps the family together, she must have been humiliated and upset at the loss of her first daughter. Mothers in general tend to get blamed and also blame themselves when a family falls apart, because they are the provider, the nurturer. Mrs. Lisbon tightened her robe and straightened the mat because she didn't know who might have been watching.

Mrs. Lisbon also follows the stretcher out to the ambulance, as the already-dead Therese is being wheeled away: "In the next second she was running, holding onto Therese's arm and murmuring what some people heard as 'Not you, too,' and Mrs. O'Connor who had acted in college as 'But too cruel.'" (Eugenides 284). Mrs. Lisbon tries as she runs after Therese to put Therese's dead hand out of sight underneath the sheets on the stretcher. This can be interpreted as her trying to perform a motherly act of protection, or as her

inflicting her controlling personality on her daughter even in death.

I like the fact that the same paramedics come to the house on Cecilia's attempted suicide, Cecilia's suicide, the triple suicide and Mary's final suicide. The neighbourhood almost knows them personally: "We still didn't know their real names but we were beginning to intuit the conditions of their paramedic lives" (Eugenides 282). This led me to thinking that a short story from the paramedics' point of view on the subject of the Lisbon sisters would be really compelling; it is interesting to think of the story from different points of views. Perhaps a fully picture could be pained if the boys knew the paramedics personally. Then again,, if they new the Lisbons personally, the picture would have been much clearer to begin with.

Later, Mrs. Lisbon is seen on her back porch, burning a stack of documents. No one knows what the stack of documents could be. This is another mystery of the Lisbon household that unfortunately, we may never know the answer to. Eugenides wants us to feel like the boys felt, still unable to put the pieces of the puzzle back together in an order that makes sense.

The Suicide of Mary Lisbon

Mary, the second oldest, is the second last girl to commit suicide, putting her head in the oven when she hears Bonnie kick her suitcase over.

"They found Mary in the kitchen, not dead but nearly so, her head and torso thrust into the oven as though she was scrubbing it" (Eugenides 284).
 In my opinion, this way of attempting suicide is a sad commentary on the role of women in this society. Perhaps Mary felt constricted by her roles as a woman, and the things that were expected of her as a female of conservative parents living in the seventies; however this is just speculation. Most likely she chose this method because, again, it was quick and relatively clean.

"Technically Mary survived for more than a month, though everyone felt otherwise" (Eugenides 285).
I feel the most empathy for Mary. Not only is she alive after a failed suicide attempt and has to answer to doctors, the community and her parents, but she no longer has her emotional life force, her sisters. She has to live on while they are dead. Though I don't condone suicide really, I feel awful that Mary survived the ordeal. Obviously, she has died inside, and might as well have died. In fact, Eugenides mentions that "everyone thought otherwise," as in they counted her as dead anyways.

"He ran Mary through the same battery of tests Cecilia had taken, but found no evidence of a psychiatric illness such as schizophrenia or manic depression" (Eugenides 302).
I very much applaud this notion in the book. Much of the community was under the impression that the girls, specifically Cecilia were "crazy" or had some sort of illness. They were not clinically ill and they were not insane. They were merely sad young girls, and society has a difficulty understanding or accepting that fact.

"She slept late, spoke little and took six showers a day" (Eugenides)
The relevancy of the six showers a day is peculiar to me. Perhaps Mary is so deep in grief that she feels almost like Lady Macbeth, washing and scrubbing to try to remove the memory of her sisters, the guilt she must feel for living while they died, and the sadness knowing that they have left this world without her. She may spend time in the shower because it is her time of isolation or her time of comfort.

"Mary went down the street and took her first voice lesson from Mr Jessup in a year" (Eugenides  304).
Right after her suicide, Mary takes a singular unpaid vocal lesson from the music teacher down the street that she used to visit regularly. I remember that she was at a vocal lesson in the beginning of the book, while Cecilia had tried to commit suicide for the first time. The vocal lesson almost symbolizes her wanting to reach out, to say something important to the people in her community. It's almost as if she wanted to tell the world about her sisters, to be heard instead of judged for once.

"Mary sang the Nazi song from Cabaret" (Eugenides 304).
The only "nazi" song that comes to mind from Cabaret is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," sung by the brigade of nazis at one point in the show. The lyrics describe a feeling of new faith, and of working together to create a better future in a new tomorrow. Obviously it has some very serious undertones, as it is sung by the nazis, whose tomorrow means death and destruction for the rest of Europe. Mary may be singing this song because of the outside it expresses feeling of positivity and happiness, but in the context of her singing it, she is referring to her darker purpose. Tomorrow belongs to her; she will finally get to die.


"The last Lisbon daughter, in a sleeping bag, and full of sleeping pills" (Eugenides 309).
Mary Lisbon chose to go like her eldest sister Therese, most likely because it was the most undetectable way of quietly ending her life.