Internalized Oppression and Gendered Expectations in The Virgin Suicides: A Feminist Interpretation.NPM:217010043

This study examines Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides (1993) through feminist literary criticism, focusing on the depiction of internalized repression and gendered expectations experienced by the Lisbon sisters. Drawing on Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of woman as “the Other” and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the research explores how patriarchal norms construct and constrain female subjectivity in the novel. Employing a qualitative descriptive method with close reading as the primary technique, this study analyzes selected passages that reflect themes of parental control, female silence, conformity, and internalized oppression. The findings demonstrate that the Lisbon sisters’ identities are shaped by restrictive domestic practices and societal expectations, which gradually diminish their agency and lead to self-repression. Furthermore, the collective male narration silences female subjectivity by transforming the sisters into objects of memory and desire rather than subjects of their own narratives. This study concludes that The Virgin Suicides critiques the mechanisms through which patriarchal culture produces constrained subjectivities, thereby underscoring the relevance of feminist literary criticism in analyzing gender oppression. Keywords: The Virgin Suicides, feminist literary criticism, Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler, repression, gender expectations.