Les Belles Soeurs

Linda is Germaine’s 20-year-old daughter. She still lives with her parents but is tired of dealing with her overbearing mother and years of verbal abuse: Germaine attacks Linda for the man she is dating, the friends she spends time with, and even for sitting in a restaurant. Though more progressive than her mother’s generation, Linda still buys into their notions of respectability enough that she is afraid to move in with Pierrette and risk social disapproval. Linda is also judgmental about Lise’s pregnancy and her subsequent decision to get an abortion, which demonstrates that she has absorbed some of the conservatism her mother preached. However, at the end of the play, Linda leaves her mother alone even after noticing that the apartment is a mess, showing that she has little affection for Germaine or concern for what the stamps represent to her.

Rose is Germaine’s sister, but she has a lot of disdain for her. The other women tell Rose that she’s funny, and her humor is a coping mechanism to avoid facing the suffering in her life. Rose hates her husband and his twice-daily demands for sex: In a monologue, she blames her husband’s sex drive for the fact that she is in her forties with a two-year-old child and another baby on the way. Rose is loud and irreverent, but she is truly angry about her life—something that spills over into her frequent nastiness to the other women and her use of “jokes” to spark conflict. Rose has little tolerance for her children (especially her sons) or her grandchildren, and she complains vocally about Olivine’s presence; she perhaps resents the burden of caring for family even more than the other women. Despite her dissatisfaction with traditional marriage, Rose is extremely judgmental about unwed mothers and sex before marriage, which is likely an extension of her own unhappiness with sex. Rose seems to have no qualms about stealing from her sister and deceiving her. Rose admits she spends $2 a week on stamps to enter contests, which suggests that she harbors a secret hope that she can change her situation.

Gabrielle is Germaine’s sister, but more tactful and less confrontational than Rose. Gabrielle credits this with Germaine’s greater willingness to confide in her. Like the other women, Gabrielle often complains about her children’s behavior, but her gripe is unique: She hates that her son went to college and came back with a taste for classical music and refined things, seeing his education as something that makes him pretentious and unrelatable. This suggests that, though unhappy with her life and social status, she takes some pride in her suffering and would rather see her children stagnate than succeed on other terms. Gabrielle catches Marie-Ange stealing and makes a decision to steal with her instead of turning her in. She also leverages her relationship with Germaine to distract her just as she is about to discover the stealing.

Lisette feels out of place with the women. Her husband has money—or, at least, they lead a lifestyle that suggests that they have money. Rose accuses Lisette of lying about their wealth, stating that they have racked up debt buying furs and vacations, but Lisette never confirms whether this is true. When they talk about the contests that they’ve entered, Lisette insists that she only does the puzzles and has no need to enter. She also endlessly brings up traveling to Europe, annoying the other women and implying that she sees herself as superior. Her monologues confirm this; she refers to the other women as animals, demonstrating that she genuinely believes that she is better and wealthier. Based on her presence in Germaine’s kitchen and as a neighbor, her financial status is likely not much higher than the others. However, she desperately wants to be better, and she is shocked and appalled (or pretends to be so) when the other women are crass.

Marie-Ange, a neighbor of Germaine’s, is the first guest to arrive. She immediately gives a monologue about how Germaine does not deserve the prize, asserting that she herself works harder and has a more difficult life. Marie-Ange's husband is unemployed, and she claims that she is so thin because she doesn’t eat enough, sacrificing to care for her children and household. Marie-Ange is the first woman to start stealing from Germaine. She is extremely angry about her status in life and sees any wealth or pretentiousness in the other women as an insult. Marie-Ange expresses at the beginning of the play that she is jealous of Germaine and has no expectation that her life will ever change or improve.

Yvette, another neighbor of Germaine, prizes the moments in her life that have felt glamorous or luxurious. She talks a lot about her daughter’s wedding and gives a monologue about the fancy cake that she and her husband bought for it. Her daughter gave her the top of the cake under a glass lid, and Yvette, worried that the cake would go stale, cut a hole in the lid so that air could circulate. The cake serves as a metaphor for the way Yvette relates to these events: She’s afraid that they will degrade or disappear, so she constantly airs them out and talks about them, not realizing that this will make them go stale faster as her friends get sick of hearing about them. Unlike many of the other women, Yvette seems to enjoy the vicarious thrill of being close to success rather than envying it outright. She talks at length about her new son-in-law winning a trip to the Canary Islands, and she asks each woman if they’ve ever won anything. The answer is always no, and Yvette has never won anything for herself either.

Des-Neiges is unmarried, and the other women tease her for having a suspected relationship with a traveling salesman, which she ardently denies. To the audience, however, she admits her loneliness and says that the salesman is the first man who ever paid attention to her. Although the salesman only visits her once a month—the most intimate touch they’ve shared was him reaching for her hand—Des-Neiges confesses that she has fallen in love with him and fantasizes about marrying him. She is terrified of being alone if he disappears, which is ironic since most of the married women want nothing more than to be alone. However, Des Neiges’s sense that she can’t survive without a man speaks to the force of societal gender norms.

Thérèse is Germaine’s sister-in-law (her husband’s sister) and lives in an upstairs apartment. Thérèse has taken in Olivine, her husband’s 93-year-old mother, who is in the advanced stages of dementia and requires a caretaker to spoon-feed, bathe, and clothe her. Thérèse has taken on these responsibilities, and she admits that the role is exhausting and all-consuming. When we first meet Thérèse and Olivine, Olivine has just fallen down three flights of stairs, but Thérèse is unconcerned, which implies that she resents her mother-in-law‘s dependence on her. At first the women lavish praise on Thérèse for her supposed devotion to Olivine, but they soon start to find Olivine to be a nuisance. Thérèse becomes offended when Rose complains that Thérèse ought to throw Olivine out of a window, but when Olivine misbehaves, Thérèse abuses her by hitting her hard in the head; like many of the women, Thérèse clings to ideas of duty and responsibility even when her actions flout them. Thérèse is the first woman whom Germaine catches stealing because she stashed the stamps inside Olivine’s clothes, using her mother-in-law as a prop. 

At 93, Olivine is the oldest character in the play. She is Thérèse’s mother-in-law, and Thérèse is her full-time caretaker. Olivine is in a wheelchair and appears to have advanced dementia: She bites people and often grabs things and makes messes. Olivine rarely speaks, but she repeats the word “Coke” when she wants one, and at the end, when Germaine finds the stamps that Thérèse has stashed in Olivine’s clothes, she repeats the word “stamps.” Olivine is perhaps a bit more aware of her surroundings than Thérèse assumes: At the beginning of the play, she might simply have fallen out of her chair, but she might have been attempting suicide. Thérèse abuses her with impunity, so it’s also possible that Thérèse pushed her down the stairs. At the end of the play, Olivine starts the singing of “O Canada,” which most of the other women join.

Angéline, who is in her late fifties, comes to Germaine’s party late with Rhéauna after attending the funeral of a friend’s son. Rhéauna, her best friend and implied roommate, is extremely pious; Angéline is religious as well and seems to be very innocent. She is, however, terrified of dying without the chance to confess. The twist at the end of Act I is that Pierrette recognizes Angéline, who comes to her nightclub every Friday. Upon this discovery, the women turn on Angéline, including Rhéauna. In a monologue, Angéline reveals that she had never laughed or been happy until she started visiting the club and making friends there. She attempts to defend herself, but the others won’t hear her. In the end, Angéline decides to give up happiness for the respect of her friend, seeing Rhéauna as worthier than Pierrette because she is more “respectable.” Angéline embodies the martyrdom of working-class women expected to devote themselves to fulfilling gender expectations even if it means never permitting themselves to feel happiness. Angéline says that one is never too old to sin, but she really shows that it is never too old to find happiness and pleasure (even as she ultimately gives them up).

Rhéauna, Angéline’s best friend and possible roommate, sees herself as pious and morally upright. She can’t imagine that Angéline would do something as scandalous as going to a nightclub and unceremoniously drops Angéline as a friend when she finds out. Rhéauna also doesn’t simply disapprove of Pierrette—she despises her. However, for all of Rhéauna’s moral posturing, she is hypocritical. When she catches Thérèse stealing and Thérèse urges her to do it too, Rhéauna insists that she isn’t a thief, only to later steal three booklets so she can buy a dustpan. Her view is rigidly Catholic with little room for questions about what it really means to be a kind person or to live a life that feels worth living.

Ginette is Linda and Lise’s friend and represents part of the younger generation. She joins the other two to defend nightclubs and seems to be more progressive than the older generation, but when the older women start insulting women who get pregnant before marriage, Ginette expresses agreement. Lise and Linda’s actions likewise imply that Ginette is more conservative, with Lise refusing to tell her about the pregnancy. Ginette’s model of traditional family life is an unhappy one, however. Her mother drinks heavily, which angers her father, so they fight often. Ginette’s younger sister is also the golden child, with her parents constantly reminding Ginette that her sister is smarter and prettier—a situation that mirrors that of Pierrette and her three older sisters and possibly foreshadows a similar outcome.

Lise, who is Linda and Ginette’s friend, represents part of the younger generation. She works a low-wage job and has recently discovered that she is pregnant. Her boyfriend lavished gifts and attention on her at first, but he has since disappeared. She confides in Linda and is surprised when Linda is judgmental and only offers traditional solutions. Pierrette steps in and helps Lise to make the decision to access an illegal abortion. Lise admires Pierrette for her financial independence and for rising above the judgements of her sisters, and she wants that agency for herself. She decides to risk ostracization in order to get an abortion so she can pursue financial independence.