20 pages • 40 minutes read
Beth HenleyCrimes of the Heart
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Loneliness
Although the Magrath sisters have each other, each still feels alone. Before they experience their moments of self-awareness and change, they are largely unable to comfort each other. Each thinks that her own pain is unique and cannot be understood by the others, simply because it manifests in different ways for each of them. They allow themselves to be isolated. Meg takes refuge in men, alcohol, and lies. Babe has the affair with Willie Jay. Lenny takes care of their Granddaddy and abandons her budding relationship with Charlie in favor of her own continued insecurity.
Their mother committed suicide because she was lonely. Babe almost does the same. Each woman in the Magrath family feels alienated and set apart from the others. But when the final events of the play cause them to cling to each other, they see that none of them are—or have ever been—as alone as they thought.
Mental Illness
The cruelties of mental illness are on full display in Crimes of the Heart. The women make poor decisions at times, but it is never entirely clear if they are to be held fully accountable for them. Mental illness tends to run in families. Their mother obviously had it, and some of it occurs in her daughters, compounded by the tragedy of suicide. It is painful to see that the sisters may be doing the best they can, given the hands they have been dealt. The thinking of the Magrath sisters is highly distorted, and this is one of the reasons why they need each other: each has the capacity to mirror a specific sort of sanity that the others lack. The play’s greatest cause for optimism is that the sisters are aware of their distorted thinking at the end of the play. Then, at least, they have a way to strategize for their futures.
Family
The Magrath sisters were abandoned by their father, and then by their mother. Zackery pushes Babe away. Chick reveals herself to be spiteful and degrading towards them. Granddaddy plays favorites and exploits Lenny’s time. They are all related by blood, but it is unclear that they get anything positive from each other until they start sharing their secrets in the aftermath of the shooting. The sisters learn what family really is when they begin to understand that only they will always be there for each other, and that no one else could understand them as well, because no one else is truly family.
