Comparing The Misconceptions Of Lisbon Sisters And Esther Greenwood

The Lisbon sisters and Esther Greenwood both endure familial struggles as they try to navigate their way through adolescence, and the girls seem to have an inability to communicate with their loved ones, resulting in misunderstandings and social isolation. These misconceptions disconnect the girls even further from society and despite their good intentions, the families foster a basic misunderstanding of the girls as humans. Instead of addressing their actual problems, Mrs. Lisbon thinks "the girls [need] time to themselves," and instead of actually dealing with the problem, she uses the guise of "a mother knows," to excuse her actions or lack thereof (Eugenides, 137). Their father, who also fails to understand the girls, is more aware of this fact, he even "had a feeling that he didn't know who

Whether they know the extent of what the girls are internally going through or not, they only make abysmal attempts to try and cover up the problems. Their father is "ineffectual" yet "vaguely sympathetic," while their mother is seen as both "domineering" and "tyrannical," and these descriptors are conducive to the argument that the parents cannot to deal with the struggling girls (Kakutani, 1). In turn, Esther Greenwood also had to deal with a parent who is simply incapable of being sympathetic with Esther's situation. Like the Lisbon girls, Esther's mother is one of the leading factors in her detachment from society. Instead of really addressing Esther's depression and feelings, her mother thinks the cure is "helping somebody who was worse off than you," and while this statement hints at some semblance and altruism and goodness, it does not help Esther and consequently increases the resentment that Esther feels towards her mother (Plath, 160). She does not feel understood and her mother seemingly does nothing to try and