Mirren Character Analysis in We Were Liars

One of the older Sinclair grandchildren, Mirren is Cady’s closest female cousin and her good friend. Cady describes Mirren as irritable and bossy. Mirren, in turn, is deeply jealous of Gat and Cady’s relationship, going so far as to invent a fake relationship to impress Cady. She is often the naysayer among the Liars, worrying about the consequences of their more outrageous adventures. Surprisingly, however, it is Mirren who first broaches the idea of setting fire to Clairmont, the main house on the island, noting that the house was “the symbol of everything that was wrong” with the Sinclair family. Mirren dies in the fire, along with Gat and Johnny.

Mirren Quotes in We Were Liars

The We Were Liars quotes below are all either spoken by Mirren or refer to Mirren. 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:

“Maybe land shouldn’t belong to people at all. Or maybe there should be limits on what they can own.” He leaned forward. “When I went to India this winter, on that volunteer trip, we were building toilets. Building them because people there, in this one village, didn’t have them.”

“We all know you went to India […] You told us like forty-seven times.”

Related Characters: Gatwick “Gat” Patil (speaker), Johnny (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman, Mirren

Page Number and Citation: 19-20

Explanation and Analysis:

“I have a boyfriend named Drake Loggerhead,” says Mirren. “He’s going to Pomona like I am. We have had sexual intercourse quite a number of times, but always with protection. He brings me yellow roses every week and has nice muscles.”

Related Characters: Mirren (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman

Page Number and Citation: 77

Explanation and Analysis:

I wish I had her life. A boyfriend, plans, college in California. Mirren is going off into her sunshine future, whereas I am going back to Dickenson Academy to another year of snow and suffocation.

Related Characters: Mirren (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman

Page Number and Citation: 128

Explanation and Analysis:

“I want to be an accepting person, but I am so full of leftover rage. I imagined I’d be saintly and wise, but instead I’ve been jealous of you, mad at the rest of my family.”

Related Characters: Mirren (speaker), Cadence “Cady” Eastman

Page Number and Citation: 240

Explanation and Analysis:

Mirren Character Timeline in We Were Liars

The timeline below shows where the character Mirren appears in We Were Liars. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Cady spends her summers on Beechwood with her three closest friends: Johnny, Mirren, and Gat. They are all about the same age, and the rest of the family... (full context)

Johnny and Mirren are not interested in what Gat is saying, however, and they tell him to stop... (full context)

...underpants, with no towel. She has no idea how she got there, or where Johnny, Mirren, and Gat are. Cady hit her head on a rock off the shore and went... (full context)

...to feel disabled any longer and tries to pull together her memories from that summer. Mirren’s hand holding a jug of gasoline for the motorboats, Johnny running down the stairs from... (full context)

...sleep with her when she is on the island. Cady tells him to sleep with Mirren instead, and he says okay and hangs up. (full context)

...of the family. Cady looks toward the shore from the boat and sees her friends, Mirren, Johnny, and Gat, waiting for her, welcoming her home. When Penny and Cady finally get... (full context)

...plans on going to college, and she has to tell them that she didn’t graduate. Mirren tells Cady about her new boyfriend, Drake Loggerhead, who will also be at Pomona in... (full context)

They go out to the beach, and Mirren and Johnny go into the water, leaving Cady and Gat alone to talk. They flirt... (full context)

...he prefers her as a blond Sinclair girl. Harris tells Penny that she should make Mirren change her hair back to the way it is, again confusing Cady for her cousin. (full context)

Cady is spending the morning with Mirren, and finally decides to ask her why she never wrote back to her when Cady... (full context)

Throughout her conversation with Mirren, Cady wants to tell her that she has no memories of the accident and beg... (full context)

...time, like a car, video games, watches, real art for his walls, and wooly clothing. Mirren chimes in that she would want to keep sentimental items, and Johnny calls her a... (full context)

...rearrange the furniture. She asks if Bess will be upset that they are redecorating, and Mirren tells Cady that Bess hates the house—she wishes that Harris would remodel it and feels... (full context)

...them that she spent most of her time vomiting in the bathrooms of tourist sites. Mirren asks how Cady can ask them not to feel sorry for her and then tell... (full context)

...motto is “drugs are not your friend,” likely from his drug education class at school. Mirren comments that Bonnie and Liberty are kleptomaniacs now, and that they seem beyond help. The... (full context)

...then decides that his would be “do not accept an evil you can change,” but Mirren does not like that one because she believes in accepting the world as it is.... (full context)

Cady has learned a lot about her family: Harris keeps confusing her with Mirren, the younger cousins are kleptomaniacs, the aunts argue over the house in Boston, Will regularly... (full context)

The following day, Cady and Mirren take a boat to Edgartown without the boys. Mirren talks about her boyfriend, Drake Loggerhead,... (full context)

Cady tells Mirren about her memory, and how she remembers arguing with Harris about ivory statues, and how... (full context)

...dies, she wants her ashes scattered in the water on the small beach. Johnny and Mirren like the idea, but Gat says that he doesn’t want to have his ashes there... (full context)

Mirren insists that it is too morbid to plan a funeral, so the Liars decide to... (full context)

...the following days are not as good—the Liars do not want to go anywhere, and Mirren feels sick. Johnny creates a game in which he throws used tea bags into a... (full context)

Mirren is getting sick all the time and refuses to do anything but listen to the... (full context)

...that moment, Penny calls for Cady to come and help make lunch, and Cady tells Mirren that she has to go. Penny hands Cady a tomato to slice and asks why... (full context)

...kayaks out to a secluded spot on the far side of the island. At first, Mirren doesn’t want Cady to go because she worries that she will hit her head again,... (full context)

...is so upset, or why she is wearing Johnny’s jacket; she ends up talking to Mirren about the memory and then asking her, again, what happened during summer fifteen. Mirren reminds... (full context)

...when she is younger. She recalls squeezing into the tire swing with Johnny, Gat, and Mirren during summer fifteen, and how they hardly fit. They yelled for a push and finally... (full context)

...and Woods Hole to try to put out the fire that she set. She, Johnny, Mirren, and Gat set fire to Clairmont—they burned down the castle of the king with the... (full context)

...she remembers, and she realizes that the snippets of memory that she has had all along—Mirren holding a gas can, Harris standing by a tree watching a bonfire—they are from that... (full context)

...how much she loves a certain set of tablecloths, and Bess did the same with Mirren. In the end, neither Cady nor Mirren asked Harris for the tablecloths, because they didn’t... (full context)

...told her that she and Penny would keep Windemere, but later Cady found out from Mirren that Harris had also promised Windemere to Bess. (full context)

...of the family, because Johnny and Cady weren’t smart enough to get into Harvard, but Mirren was. Mirren refused. (full context)

...she could change. She even thought of herself as a hero. She and Gat convinced Mirren and Johnny, and they all decided to do it together. They made their plan: they... (full context)

Johnny and Mirren told Cady that the fire departments from Martha’s Vineyard and Woods Hole took a long... (full context)

...a failure, but she still feels buoyed by the fact that they took action. However, Mirren notes some of the less exciting consequences of their actions: Carrie wanders the island at... (full context)

...committed the perfect crime—admittedly, there have been some negative outcomes, like her own migraines and Mirren’s constant illness—and have gotten what they wanted. But Mirren argues that Harris is now powerless... (full context)

Mirren comes to see Cady and asks to read the emails Cady sent to her in... (full context)

...it. The truth is that on a July evening two summers earlier, Gatwick Matthew Patil, Mirren Sinclair Sheffield, and Jonathan Sinclair Dennis died in a fire in Clairmont, caused by an... (full context)

Harris Sinclair declined formal investigation of the fire, and the family held funerals for Gat, Mirren, and Johnny in their hometowns. Cady did not attend, as she was still suffering from... (full context)

...call the fire departments. But that is the last time that Cady would see Gat, Mirren, and Johnny, as they went to their respective floors. They are all a bit drunk... (full context)

...wall of flames and she couldn’t get down there. She went to save Johnny and Mirren, but the stairwell caved in as she was going towards it, and she knew she... (full context)

...that she knows. Johnny tells her that he can’t stay much longer, and neither can Mirren or Gat. Cady asks him where they will go, and Johnny describes it as a... (full context)

Cady talks to Mirren, who tells her that she wants to accept her fate, but is still full of... (full context)

Mirren Character Analysis

Mirren Quotes in We Were Liars

Part 1: Welcome Quotes

Part 3: Summer Seventeen Quotes

Part 5: The Truth Quotes

Mirren Character Timeline in We Were Liars