Crimes of the Heart

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.   

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