20 pages • 40 minutes read
Crimes of the Heart
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Symbols & Motifs
Lenny’s Cake
Lenny loves to make wishes on her birthday cakes. When the play opens, the fact that only she remembers it’s her birthday implies that her wish might not come true—or that she might not even get a chance to make it. She is shown sticking a candle into a cookie, just to make sure that she’ll get a chance to make a wish. The comedy surrounding Meg’s and Babe’s furtive attempts to secure a cake also serves as a chance to show their generosity. Ultimately, the cake becomes the symbol of hope around which they gather, because it appears to lead to the granting of Lenny’s wish in the final pages.
Babe’s Saxophone
The saxophone is a symbol of misguided hope. Babe buys it hoping that it will turn her into a musician and allow her to attend music school. The Magrath sisters often take similar actions, hoping that they can make something true by taking a first, irrational step. Just as Babe doesn’t become a musician simply by owning a saxophone, Meg does not become strong simply by looking at pictures of skin diseases. Lenny decides that her deformed ovary means that no one will want her, so she then acts as if no one wants her. At each step, they hope that they are right about their actions, because the alternatives are too painful to contemplate.
Meg’s Music
Meg is a talented singer who quits singing when she is no longer able to do it for herself. Doc Porter tells her that she sang with an eerie vision, as if she could see and feel things that no one else could. It was a genuinely good thing for her. And yet, she allows it to become corrupted when she lies about her singing career and invents forthcoming albums. The shame of having lied leads her to quit singing altogether until her night with Doc Porter. She then literally regains her voice, symbolizing the end of the voicelessness and hopelessness that the sisters have experienced for so long. If Meg can sing again, there are possibilities for all of them to heal.
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