The Virgin Suicides

by

Jeffrey Eugenides

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Virgin Suicides makes teaching easy.

Dr. Hornicker Character Analysis

Dr. Hornicker is the resident psychiatrist at the local hospital. He meets with Cecilia after her first suicide attempt and determines that she would benefit from independence, freedom, and a more active social life. Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon are reluctant to listen to him, but they relax some of their rules and allow their daughters to have a party, which is ultimately when Cecilia succeeds in taking her own life. After Cecilia’s death, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon refuse to meet with Dr. Hornicker, though he has a brief chance to examine Lux when she fakes abdominal pain in order to go to the hospital for a secret pregnancy test. Based on his conversation with her, he postulates that the remaining Lisbon sisters have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Throughout the rest of his career, he often writes about the Lisbon girls.

Dr. Hornicker Quotes in The Virgin Suicides

The The Virgin Suicides quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Hornicker or refer to Dr. Hornicker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Obsession, Gossip, and Scandal Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Peter Sissen acted as our leader, and even looked slightly bored, saying again and again, “Wait’ll you see this.” The door opened. Above us, the face of Mrs. Lisbon took form in the dimness. She told us to come in, we bumped against each other getting through the doorway, and as soon as we set foot on the hooked rug in the foyer we saw that Peter Sissen’s descriptions of the house had been all wrong. Instead of a heady atmosphere of feminine chaos, we found the house to be a tidy, dry-looking place that smelled faintly of popcorn.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Peter Sissen (speaker), Mr. Lisbon, Mrs. Lisbon, Dr. Hornicker
Related Symbols: Elm Trees and the Lisbon House
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

As it circulated in the next few months, this theory convinced many people because it simplified things. Already Cecilia’s suicide had assumed in retrospect the stature of a long-prophesied event. Nobody thought it shocking anymore, and accepting it as First Cause removed any need for further explanation. […] Her suicide, from this perspective, was seen as a kind of disease infecting those close at hand.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Cecilia Lisbon, Lux Lisbon, Dr. Hornicker
Page Number: 153
Explanation and Analysis:
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Dr. Hornicker Quotes in The Virgin Suicides

The The Virgin Suicides quotes below are all either spoken by Dr. Hornicker or refer to Dr. Hornicker. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Obsession, Gossip, and Scandal Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Peter Sissen acted as our leader, and even looked slightly bored, saying again and again, “Wait’ll you see this.” The door opened. Above us, the face of Mrs. Lisbon took form in the dimness. She told us to come in, we bumped against each other getting through the doorway, and as soon as we set foot on the hooked rug in the foyer we saw that Peter Sissen’s descriptions of the house had been all wrong. Instead of a heady atmosphere of feminine chaos, we found the house to be a tidy, dry-looking place that smelled faintly of popcorn.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Peter Sissen (speaker), Mr. Lisbon, Mrs. Lisbon, Dr. Hornicker
Related Symbols: Elm Trees and the Lisbon House
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

As it circulated in the next few months, this theory convinced many people because it simplified things. Already Cecilia’s suicide had assumed in retrospect the stature of a long-prophesied event. Nobody thought it shocking anymore, and accepting it as First Cause removed any need for further explanation. […] Her suicide, from this perspective, was seen as a kind of disease infecting those close at hand.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Cecilia Lisbon, Lux Lisbon, Dr. Hornicker
Page Number: 153
Explanation and Analysis: