CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part analyzes the Lisbon’s
daughter and their parents’ characteristics because this thesis believes that Mr. Lisbon and Mrs. Lisbon have an impact related to their daughters’ decision
committing suicide. Then, the second part analyzes the cause why Lisbon’s
daughters commit suicide by analyzing their psychological condition.
A. The characteristics of Lisbon’s daughters and their parents
To answer the problem formulation in this part, this thesis applies Baldick’s theory of characterization to explore the five Lisbon’s daughters
and their parents’ characterization. The five Lisbon’s daughters in this story are Cecilia, Lux, Mary, Bonnie and Therese. Cecilia is the youngest. He is 13
years old, Lux 14, Bonnie 15, Marry 16, and Therese 17. Baldick says that there are three ways to characterized characterization in a
fiction. They are the explicit presentation, in which the author tells the readers about the character through direct exposition or analysis, which informs how
the character is; the presentation of the character in action, in which the author only uses a little comment, so that the readers are able to conclude the
attribute of the actor from action; and the representation from within a character without comments on the character by the author, in which the
author suggests that the reader will come to a clear understanding of the
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attribute of the character clearly through the impact of actions and emotions on the character’s inner self.
1. Cecilia
By applied Baldick’s first method to characterize by conclude from the character in action 1991: 81, Cecilia is described as a simple person. It can
be seen in the way she dresses. She never changes the way she dresses. She always wears the antique wedding dress. It is an explicit presentation because
when Cecilia’s dressing style is simple; the simplicity itself is the representation of her personality. Baldick’s second method by looking from
the character in action is applied when Cecilia is founded in the bathroom after trying to suicide, Cecilia holds the laminated Virgin Mary against her
budding chest Eugenides, 1993: 2. It shows that Cecilia is a religious person because Virgin Mary is the symbol of religiousness. In some
conversations and expressions, Cecilia shows her religious side. One of the conversations is done between her and Mrs. Scheer. It happened the day
before Cecilia commits suicide when she looks at fishflies. This part shows how religious she is and how she cares about little things around her or it is
called as sympathy. It can be see through this quotation. You better get a broom, honey, Mrs. Scheer advised. But Cecilia
fixed her with her spiritualist’s gaze. They’re dead, she said. They only live twenty-four hours. They hatch, they reproduce, and they
croac. They don’t even get to eat Eugenides, 1993: 2. The presentation character in action to conclude Cecilia’s characteristic is
also applied when looking at Cecilia as a person who lives in the “cage”. The
“cage” itself means that she is not allowed to have any interactions to the
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