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Terms
In ancient Greek theater, the chorus was a group of characters that narrated or commented on the events of the play. Novels narrated by a collective group of characters (using “we” instead of “I”) borrow from this ancient theatrical tradition. The neighborhood boys in The Virgin Suicides function as a Greek chorus.
Greek Chorus Quotes in The Virgin Suicides
The The Virgin Suicides quotes below are all either spoken by Greek Chorus or refer to Greek Chorus. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide—it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese—the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement form which it was possible to tie a rope. They got out of the EMS truck, as usual moving much too slowly in our opinion, and the fat one said under his breath, “This ain’t TV, folks, this is how fast we go.” He was carrying the heavy respirator and cardiac unit past the bushes that had grown monstrous and over the erupting lawn, tame and immaculate thirteen months earlier when the trouble began.
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The paneled walls gleamed, and for the first few seconds the Lisbon girls were only a patch of glare like a congregation of angels. Then, however, our eyes got used to the light and informed us of something we had never realized: the Lisbon girls were all different people. Instead of five replicas with the same blond hair and puffy cheeks we saw that they were distinct beings, their personalities beginning to transform their faces and reroute their expressions.
Get the entire The Virgin Suicides LitChart as a printable PDF.
Greek Chorus Term Timeline in The Virgin Suicides
The timeline below shows where the term Greek Chorus appears in The Virgin Suicides. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
A Greek chorus of neighborhood boys rehashes the details of Mary Lisbon’s suicide. She was, the boys clarify,...
(full context)
The Greek chorus of neighborhood boys interrupts itself to explain that they’ve tried to put all of the...
(full context)
