The Myth of the Lisbon Girls

Shostak talks extensively about the mysticism that surrounds the Lisbon girls for the boys who watch them. She says that, to the boys, the girls “remain impenetrable, but that is what fascinates the boys, making the sisters a suitable subject for the mythic imagination" (9). She goes on to mention that the reality of the girls and their situation comes into stark contrast with the romanticized image the boys have of them—notably shown at Cecilia’s party, when the boys’ expectations of the home do not match its reality.

These ruminations led me to find an interesting irony in the life-long search of the boys to find an explanation for the Lisbon girls—their lives and their suicides. It is as if the very inability of an answer to be found makes the boys search all the harder. It is as if the Lisbon girls’ “impenetrability,” make the boys want to penetrate them all the more. It seems that if the boys were able to come to some sort of conclusion regarding the Lisbon girls, the mystery would be lost and the story would become altogether irrelevant to them. Rather, the boys seem almost content teasing themselves with bits of a puzzle they will never be able to put together.

Maybe, then, while the boys yearn to be near the Lisbon girls—both when they were alive and after they die—they are also sure to keep a safe distance that allows them to keep the Lisbon girls mythical and not real. This is a distance they keep through reliance on second-hand accounts and interpretations of “exhibits” and instances that suit a story they have created in their minds.

--Francesca