The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-74

Pages 74-141

Pages 141-192

Pages 192-277

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The History of the Mistreatment of Women and their Mental Health

History is rife with examples of societies disposing of women for not conforming to social norms. In Ireland, Magdalena Laundries exploited unwed, pregnant girls for free labor; America is infamous for its Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s, which put over 20 women to death for perceived witchcraft and nonconformity to Puritan standards. In O’Farrell’s novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Iris tells Esme a story about women who were tortured and killed in a Scottish abbey for disagreeable behavior. However, few people know about the sinister practice of mass incarceration of women for perceived mental illness during the Victorian era, which lasted until the mid-20th century. In the tradition of female writers from the 18th and 19th centuries like Charlotte Brontë, O’Farrell incorporates Gothic elements into her story to highlight women’s physical, sexual, and emotional subjugation by various powers, and the deleterious effects they had on their mental health. Throughout the story, O’Farrell reveals how society misunderstood or ignored female mental health at the cost of thousands of women being forcefully incarcerated without hope of proper treatment or release.

The historical abuse of women’s mental health stems from a fundamental ignorance of the female body and brain. The term “hysteria” comes from the Greek word for “uterus” (“hystera”)—linking women’s mental health to their anatomy. In her research, O’Farrell discovered that women in the 19th and early 20th centuries were incarcerated for being too sexual or not sexual enough and even doing something as harmless as taking a long walk. In the novel, Esme’s family misunderstands her unique temperament as a sign of “neurosis.” In researching Esme’s case, Iris learns that until 1950, a man could have any female relative incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, without a medical or psychological exam (as only a general practitioner’s signature is required). As the reader watches young Esme grow into an ambitious woman, Gothic darkness descends on the narrative, materializing not as a spectral presence, but as growing animosity and resentment toward her assertions of independence—framing them as signs of mental instability.

O’Farrell establishes a pattern of ignorance of female mental health early in the novel, after baby Hugo’s death. Esme and Kitty’s parents ignore Esme’s cries for help (obvious or otherwise), despite her having been the only survivor of a sudden typhoid outbreak. Ishbel, a grieving mother, is also ignored, as she herself suppresses her grief at losing Hugo. Before being assaulted by Jamie, Esme exhibits behavior that her parents see as absurd and frustrating but not necessarily dangerous to herself or others. Even Kitty diagnoses her sister as a child, saying “She was funny like that, always too ridiculously oversensitive” (144). However, the Lennoxes build a case against Esme, seeing her as strange and irrational, and when she suffers another traumatic event (her assault), it pushes her over the edge—and her screaming, depression, and withdrawal give them the evidence they need to send her away. While in Cauldstone, instead of receiving treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, Esme is abused physically and emotionally, as she is tied to a bed and given tranquilizers to force her into submission—all while a Gothic figure ominously warns her to behave. The cryptic warning is symbolic of what Esme already knows: If she doesn’t conform, she’ll be punished.

When Esme emerges from Cauldstone 60 years later, her mental stability has been deeply affected. Decades of incarceration in Cauldstone have left their mark, and Iris is uncertain how to proceed with Esme’s care: “How mad is she? Iris wonders. How do you measure these things?” (126). At the same time, Kitty languishes in a nursing home as her mental state declines from Alzheimer's disease, a condition that affects women far more than men. Though mental healthcare has come a long way, Kitty is still relegated to sitting in a chair most of the day. O’Farrell’s depiction of Kitty’s residence in the nursing home illustrates the ongoing need for advancement in mental healthcare. Taking the Victorian trope of the “mad woman in the attic” and bringing it to the forefront of her modern novel, O’Farrell exposes the tragic reality of the neglect, abuse, and torture of women for generations—giving voice to women who were told they didn’t deserve to exist in “civilized” society. She also probes the question of what it means to be “sane” and the consequences of failing to view mental well-being as a spectrum with many complexities and nuances.

The Generational Impact of Family Secrets

In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, O’Farrell explores how the concealment of family secrets can lead to damaging consequences in the present and decades into the future. The Lennox family chooses to leave their tragedy behind in India, even leaving Hugo’s body behind, and forge a new life in Scotland. However, their concealment of a lost son, and other lost children, haunts them through Esme’s memories. When Esme refuses to keep the family’s secret, they silence her, threatening punishment if she doesn’t stop speaking of her dead brother. After Jamie assaults her, Esme hides the truth out of confusion and fear. The details of Jamie’s attack remain locked away, with Esme’s pregnancy being the only evidence of the truth. As a young adult, Kitty learns the importance of keeping family secrets and conspires with her father to conceal the truth of Esme’s son’s birth, raising the baby as her own. She even hides the truth from her husband, lying to everyone around her. She did so assuming Esme would forget about her baby and never leave Cauldstone, but when Esme is freed, so is the truth.

With one phone call, Iris’s life is changed, and the lasting impact of the Lennox family secrets emerges as she meets Esme for the first time. The submerging of the truth robbed Esme of her son. Furthermore, as a result of this pattern of family secrets, Iris misses the opportunity to know her true grandmother. Iris’s life is not without its own secrets. She hides her previous sexual encounters with Alex, a secret Kitty keeps as well. Iris’s secret prevents her from committing to Luke and will likely affect her romantic relationships in the future. The Lennoxes’ decisions temporarily protect their status, but leave those still alive with the consequences.

The Importance of Healthy Relationships Between Women

In her Epigraph, O’Farrell quotes Edith Wharton’s 1920 novel The Age of Innocence, which focuses on the lives of wealthy upper-class people and their ambitions to marry well and maintain their reputations; however, the novel exposes the extent of some people’s corruption in securing their position. In O’Farrell’s novel, she explores the complications that arise in female relationships when marriage is involved. The past timeline (that focuses on Esme and Kitty) illustrates how certain practices make having healthy relationships with other women difficult, yet the present timeline (that focuses on Iris) frames modern relationships between women as equally difficult. Like anyone, women desire loyal friendships, but when complications arise from romantic entanglements with men (in the context of the novel), some women won’t hesitate to hurt other women to get what they want. Through her portrayal of Esme and Kitty’s relationship and Iris’s modern perspective, O’Farrell exposes how society’s expectations for women can damage camaraderie between them.

Esme’s childhood leaves her feeling isolated, as her parents are emotionally distant. As a result, her earliest experience of female companionship is with her nanny Jamila. However, as someone of lower social class, Jamila can’t be more than a caregiver to Esme and when she dies, Esme loses the one kind woman in her life. When the family leaves India, Esme and Kitty cling to each other for support and their relationship grows. Despite their different personalities, Esme sees Kitty as her best friend. Esme is blissfully unaware of society’s expectation for her to marry, while Kitty is well aware and genuinely desires a husband. As the girls come of age, Kitty embraces the social expectations for female grooming and behavior, while Esme rejects them; the sisters grow further apart as Esme attends school and Kitty stays home to learn how to be a proper lady (according to their grandmother). At school, Esme gains a broader view of the world; however, because Kitty mostly spends her days with her mother and grandmother, her worldview narrows, and her ambitions turn selfish. Kitty immediately falls for Jamie, but as Jamie sets his sights on Esme, Kitty exchanges sibling love for sibling rivalry. Blinded by her attraction to Jamie and her belief that Esme is somehow betraying her, Kitty chooses to forsake her sister when she is most vulnerable—a decision that destroys Esme’s life.

As Kitty’s carefully curated life unravels and she realizes marriage is not the dream she thought it’d be, she reconsiders her betrayal of Esme. She ignores her parents’ decision to forget Esme and takes the first step to reconciliation by visiting her at Cauldstone. However, when Kitty arrives, she is faced with another opportunity to secure her happiness at the expense of her sister’s joy. Fearing she will never have children of her own, Kitty accepts the doctor’s offer to adopt Esme’s baby and even colludes with her father to keep the situation a secret. Kitty’s second betrayal reveals a woman willing to put her desires above those of her fellow woman and sister, the pain of which will echo through future generations of the Lennox family.

In the present, Iris lives in a world where women enjoy a more liberated existence—so when she learns of Esme’s plight, she eventually takes her in. Iris is not fully comfortable with Esme’s presence, but her compassion demonstrates solidarity with a fellow woman. However, Iris’s romantic relationships interfere with this solidarity: She’s having an affair with a married man and wrestling with complicated feelings for her married stepbrother Alex. Furthermore, Iris harshly judges Alex’s wife Fran for what she sees as her adherence to social norms and thinks little about Luke’s wife Gina. Like the novel’s Epigraph, Iris tells Luke that she doesn’t want him to leave his wife for her, not desiring her happiness to come at the expense of another woman. However, it isn’t until Iris sees Gina in person, and is confronted with her humanity and pregnant belly, that she realizes her duplicity: “[S]he cannot look at this person, she cannot take in an image of the woman she is betraying, the woman who shares his house, his bed, his life” (265). After this encounter, Iris knows her relationship with Luke is over and later refuses Alex’s final plea to be with him; it appears that Iris sees the error of her ways in sacrificing female loyalty for sexual desire. The novel ends with Iris grasping Esme’s hand, not Alex’s, in a poignant moment of female solidarity. Through female characters of both past and present, O’Farrell explores the complications that arise in relationships between women, perpetuated by gender norms and societal expectations.