Crimes of the Heart

“I bet if Daddy hadn’t of left us, they’d still be alive”

Babe blames their father for their mother’s death. This is one more possible answer to the question of why she shot Zackery instead of herself.  

“She had a bad day. A real bad day. You know how it feels on a real bad day” 

This line acts as a reminder of how tenuous life is in the Magrath household, where having a bad enough day can end a life. Meg’s reminder to Babe that she knows how it feels to have “a real bad day” is another signal that they all share a similar mental malaise.  

“Old Granddaddy’s the one who’s made her feel so self-conscious. The old fool” 

It appears that Lenny may have developed her insecurity because of her grandfather. This is especially sad given how she sticks up for him and takes care of him.  

“She always loves to make those wishes on her birthday cake”

It’s poignant to learn, particularly in hindsight, at the end of the play, that Lenny loves to wish on her cakes. So little has gone right for her that it’s a reminder that her wishes have probably never come true.  

“You were very good. There was something sad and moving about how you sang those songs. It was like you had some sort of vision. Some special sort of vision”

Barnette compliments Meg on her singing. Even though she has lied about her career, it is obvious that she has real talent. And perhaps more than real talent; Barnette, at least, places her singing in a realm that’s almost otherworldly. Given her history of mental instability, his characterization raises the question of whether any aspect of her artistic ability is due to something like mania.  

 “It’s a human need. To talk about our lives. It’s an important human need”

Even though she has her own secrets that she’s unwilling to share, Meg recognizes the importance of people unburdening themselves to others. She sees this human need, even if she denies it to herself.  

“She probably didn’t want to kill herself. She wanted to kill him, and I wanted to kill him too. I wanted to kill Zackery, not myself. Cause I—I wanted to live!”

By shooting Zackery instead of herself, Babe tries to correct the mistake her mother made by taking her own life. It’s not rational, but it appears so to Babe, as a result of the trauma she has experienced.  

“Would you like a Coke instead?”

Minutes after shooting Zackery, Babe is asking him if he wants a lemonade or a Coke, rather than calling the hospital. Other than the shooting itself, there is perhaps no better indicator of her mental illness or disorientation.  

"I think it’s an important thing that a person could win a lifelong vendetta”

This is a fantastic example of the playwright’s deftness with humor and characterization. Babe is genuinely happy that Barnette might win his lifelong vendetta. It does not cross her mind that having a lifelong vendetta is unhealthy in the extreme, or that winning a lifelong vendetta could then leave the revenged person without purpose.  

“See. I can stand it. I can stand it. Just look how I’m gonna be able to stand it”

It’s unclear exactly why Meg needed to prove to herself that she wasn’t weak after finding her mother’s body, but the experience devastated her.  

“I hate myself when I lie for that old man. I do. I feel so weak! And then I have to go do at least three or four things I know he’d despise just to get even with that miserable, bossy ole man!” 

Meg is aware of some of the motivations for her self-destructive behavior. She is trying to take revenge against someone in a way that only hurts herself.  

“Babe, I don’t understand why you have to put in the articles that are about the unhappy things in your life”

Babe pastes the article about the shooting into her scrapbook. It is unclear whether the unhappy items in the book are balanced with an equal number of happy items, but accuracy is important to Babe when she keeps records of her life. A scrapbook with only joy would be dishonest.  

“I bet if she hadn’t of hung that old cat along with her, she wouldn’t have gotten all that national coverage” 

The readers learns that their mother’s suicide was national news, and that the cat was apparently a source of greater outrage than the loss of their mother’s life.  

 “The thing about Old Grandaddy is he keeps trying to make us happy and we end up getting stomachaches and turning green and throwing up in the flower arrangements” 

Their grandfather fed them banana splits after their mother’s funeral, and they got sick. Many of the actions in the play that appear positive actually lead to negative consequences.  

“But I have this underdeveloped ovary and I can’t have children and my hair is falling out in the comb! So what man can love me?”

Lenny has already decided that she can’t be loved. This frees her from the responsibility of trying to meet people or reconnecting with Charlie.  

“Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?” 

“Maybe it’s because you don’t want to” 

Meg wonders why she told Lenny’s secret. Doc Porter believes that a person’s actions reflect their desires and what they think they deserve from their lives. This is sobering, if true, when applied to the Magrath sisters. If they are creating the lives they actually think they deserve, then they believe that they don’t deserve happiness.  

“It’s like how I went out and bought that saxophone, just hoping I’d be able to attend music school and start up my own career. I just went out and did it. Just on hope” 

Babe bought her saxophone hoping that it would spur her on to buckle down and achieve something. But because she didn’t use it, it remained little more than an object, not a means of progress for her. Hope without action is little better than hopelessness.  

“I just wish we wouldn’t fight all the time. I hate it when we do”

Lenny seems confused by the sisters’ constant arguments. They seem to come from nowhere and to have no purpose. It is almost as if the power to avoid arguments is beyond their control, which may have some truth to it, given the potential mental illness in the family.  

“I’m happy. I realized I could care about someone. I could want someone”

Meg was prepared to run away with Doc Porter if he asked. She was willing to sacrifice the happiness of his family to achieve her own. But when he didn’t ask her to leave with him, she realized that she wasn’t devastated. She wanted him to be happy, and if happiness meant he should stay with him family, she could be glad for him.  

“I don’t know why we’re laughing like this. We’re just sick! We’re just awful!” 

Even if they are laughing at inappropriate things, they are doing it together. Solidarity and family are largely about having people who understand one’s unique brands of both humor and struggle.  

“All people in love feel like fools” 

There are relatively few rational acts in the play. But it is accepted that when it comes to romance, there’s no sense in even pretending that it leads to rational behavior. Romance is presented as a form of escapism that is both healthy and not.  

“Mama. Mama. So that’s why you done it”

With her head in the oven, Babe finally understands why her mother killed the cat at the same time as she took her own life: she had been alone in her life, and could not bear to be alone in death.  

“I’m not like Mama. I’m not so all alone”

Babe realizes that because she feels no need to take someone with her, she is not as alone as her mother was, and this places some distance between her death wish and her reality. She at least has her sisters.