The Virgin Suicides

Cecelia Lisbon

Cecelia Lisbon

• Cecelia is the youngest of the Lisbon girls at only thirteen years old.

• Just like them, she has fine blonde hair and is beautiful.

• As well as being the youngest, she is the first to commit suicide, with her first ‘attempt’ at the beginning of the novel. – ‘Cecelia… had gone first’

Her First Suicide Attempt

• Her first ‘attempt’ is when she cuts her wrists with Mr L’s razor before a bath, the warm water speeding up her bleeding.

• She is found by Paul Baldino, who calls 911.• Her mother is practical about it (pulls her out of

the bath; takes the dressing gown to the ambulance.)

• Her father is also restrained, shown by his ‘observing the speed limit.’

Was It a Real Attempt?

• There is a possibility that this was not a suicidal act, but rather an act of self-harm gone wrong. The possibility is supported later in the novel – ‘She said… “It was a mistake.”’ ‘I do not think (she) truly meant to end her life. Her act was a cry for help.’

The Aftermath of Attempt #1

• The attempt at the very beginning throws the theme of death and adolescence at the reader from the start. The other characters struggle to see youth and death associated with each other, shown by the fact they have no coffins in her size and by her exchange with Dr Armonson – ‘ “You’re not even old enough to know how bad life gets.”… “Obviously… you’ve never been a thirteen year old girl.”’

Her Second Suicide Attempt

• A party is thrown for her, as recommended by the doctor, as an opportunity for her and her sisters to be around boys outside of school. She isolates herself throughout, until she asks her mother if she can leave. Mrs Lisbon tells her that they’ll ‘have fun without her’, before she heads upstairs. Shortly, the party goers hear her fall from the first floor window before she is impaled through the chest on the garden fence. She dies before anyone reaches her.

Why Did Cecelia Kill Herself?

Was it because of Dominic Pallazollo? She loved

him, but he loved another girl wand moved away.

He may have inspired her when he threw himself

off his roof to prove his love.

It’s unlikely that it was, as in her journal she barely

mentions him where most girls talk about their

crushes. Maybe she only pretended to be

obsessed with him to appear ‘normal’?

Why Did Cecelia Kill Herself?

Did she do it to escape life?

Some people think that she ‘just wanted to

out of that house’. She may just have been

sick of living in such a repressive

environment (‘Her suicide was an act of

aggression inspired by the repression of

adolescent libidinal urges’)

Why Did Cecelia Kill Herself?

• Was it inspired by some kind of ritual?• From the beginning of the book, Cecelia is

associated with the occult, with references to Stoicism, a ‘drugged virgin’ and a ‘spiritualist’s gaze’.

• It is suspected that she got the ideas of self-harm and suicide from the Ancient Romans who ‘did it when life became unbearable’.

• She also has a morbid facination with dead, like when she speaks to Mrs Buell about the fish flies (p4) and because she tries to contact the dead (P222)

Her effect on the rest of the novel

Cecelia’s presence is felt throughout the book despitedying in the first chapter. Her suicide casts a shadow overher home and family members, and to an extent on the restof the neighbourhood.The neighbours come to view her as the ‘First Cause’ ofthe suicides after her sisters also kill themselves, but giveup on trying to learn why she committed suicide. ‘Even ifCecelia’s suicide lead to copycatting, that didn’t explainwhyshe killed herself in the first place.’They see her as carrying sadness like a disease thatspreads to her family. `