Sisterhood Of Night Theme Essay
The main theme of the story is parent-child relationships, or more specifically parent-daughter relationships. We see how the parents in the town are so desperate to understand the strange actions of their young daughters that they might be driving them even further away. While searching for the reason behind the existence of the Sisterhood, the narrator realizes that maybe he is not meant to understand the secret world surrounding girls. In this problem we also see other themes, such as adolescence and girlhood.
"The Sisterhood of Night" sets itself apart from most other short stories by being divided into 11 small chapters. The first two chapters serve as an introduction to the story itself and in this part the narrator is trying to state the facts as they are known to him. He begins the story by saying: "...it may be useful to adopt a calmer tone and to state what it is we …show more content…
actually know" (lines 1-3.) These chapters seem almost like case files and the narrator doesn't reveal any information about himself yet. When he uses the first person it is always in the plural, as if he is trying to be more objective by hiding his personal connection to the events. Up until the third chapter, THE CONFESSION OF EMILY GEHRING, both the narrator and the girls he is worried about are anonymous. Between this chapter and the THE TESTIMONY OF DR. ROBERT MEYER the actual story is told. We hear about the events in their chronological order but the narrator still doesn't seem to be personally involved. In the next chapter, THE TOWN, the narrator's identity is partially revealed to us, but it becomes even clearer in the final chapter, IN THE NIGHT. In lines 216-218 it says: "...even the wives of our town seem to us restless, evasive. We long to confront our daughters with arguments, with violence..." This indicates that the narrator must be a father and a husband. In these last chapters he also stops saying "we" and starts to use the singular form instead. The narrator is no longer just part of a group, he has become an individual, thinking for himself. It is interesting to see that it is not until the narrator stops writing in his case file style that he actually becomes objective enough to understand the girls.
Even though the narrator has reached a conclusion, saying that he believes that the Sisterhood is "an association of adolescent girls dedicated to the mysteries of solitude and silence." (Lines 203-204.) this has not been proved to the reader. The reader is presented with two different versions of what the Sisterhood is about and gets to make up his or her own mind along with the narrator. When we hear the rumours of the Sisterhood as a sexual cult, followed by the first confession of Emily Gehring, we tend to believe it, just like the girl's parents do. The second confession confuses the reader as well as the narrator. Perhaps the men of the town were so ready to accept the first version because they simply don't understand their daughters. In lines 198-199 it says: "Tell us everything! Then we will forgive you." To assume that they need to be forgiven is very arrogant, since no one really knows what exactly it is that they have done. This is probably not just the narrator's attitude, but also the general attitude among the fathers. It could be that they prefer seeing the Sisterhood as a sexual cult because of their ingrained fear of women and even girls, because of their fear of the Other. The stories of orgies and painted snakes are typical of stories of witchcraft because they show the things that men have always feared in women. The nudity and the physical contact show the sexuality of women and it seems as though the fathers in the town have difficulties accepting this aspect of their daughter's lives. We see this in the end when the narrator longs for a time when the girls were younger and more innocent. The snakes, which they are said to paint on their breasts, also point back to the Fall and support the idea of women as something dangerous and mysterious. Even though these stories are disturbing to the parents, they are not as surprising as the idea of the girls meeting to do nothing.
If the parents accept the second confession as the truth they have a more serious problem to deal with.
It was easy for everyone to believe the first version of the story because it would be a problem that could be solved, a sin that could be forgiven. Sexual cults and orgies are tangible problems, unlike silence. Stopping the Sisterhood might be relatively simple, but the reasons for the silence could very easily be extremely complex. This is why the narrator says: "Fearful of mystery, suspicious of silence, we accuse the members of dark crimes that secretly soothe us - for then, will we not know them? For we prefer witchcraft to silence, naked orgies to night stillness" (lines 209-212.) If the girls have such a need for silence it is an almost automatic critique of their parents since it might be a symptom of a deeper and more serious problem. To begin with, the silence, secrecy and isolation of the Sisterhood are contrasts to the values of their parents and the community of the town. If the girls are not meeting for the purpose of some activity, they must be meeting to escape
something.
In the end, the narrator believes that he has discovered the truth and that the girls just meet in silence. It is the reason for their behaviour which troubles him, as we see in lines 183-186: "Is it possible that our loathing of the unknown, our need to dispel it, to destroy it, to violate it through sharp, glittering acts of understanding, makes the unknown swell with dark power, as if it were some beast feeding on our swords?" He has realized that he might not need to understand the daughters and that it might be the parents need to know their secrets, their need to analyze the Other, which drives the girls further away. This realization, however, doesn't mean that he knows what to do. In the end, all he can do is long for better times: "We think of the long years of childhood, the party frocks and lollipops, the shimmer of trembling bubbles in blue summer air." By listing these ordinary objects he creates the image of a perfect childhood, as if it were a dream. He longs for a time when the girls didn't have the need to form a secret sisterhood and when he didn't have to worry so much about them.
"The Sisterhood of Night" sets itself apart from most other short stories by being divided into 11 small chapters. The first two chapters serve as an introduction to the story itself and in this part the narrator is trying to state the facts as they are known to him. He begins the story by saying: "...it may be useful to adopt a calmer tone and to state what it is we …show more content…
actually know" (lines 1-3.) These chapters seem almost like case files and the narrator doesn't reveal any information about himself yet. When he uses the first person it is always in the plural, as if he is trying to be more objective by hiding his personal connection to the events. Up until the third chapter, THE CONFESSION OF EMILY GEHRING, both the narrator and the girls he is worried about are anonymous. Between this chapter and the THE TESTIMONY OF DR. ROBERT MEYER the actual story is told. We hear about the events in their chronological order but the narrator still doesn't seem to be personally involved. In the next chapter, THE TOWN, the narrator's identity is partially revealed to us, but it becomes even clearer in the final chapter, IN THE NIGHT. In lines 216-218 it says: "...even the wives of our town seem to us restless, evasive. We long to confront our daughters with arguments, with violence..." This indicates that the narrator must be a father and a husband. In these last chapters he also stops saying "we" and starts to use the singular form instead. The narrator is no longer just part of a group, he has become an individual, thinking for himself. It is interesting to see that it is not until the narrator stops writing in his case file style that he actually becomes objective enough to understand the girls.
Even though the narrator has reached a conclusion, saying that he believes that the Sisterhood is "an association of adolescent girls dedicated to the mysteries of solitude and silence." (Lines 203-204.) this has not been proved to the reader. The reader is presented with two different versions of what the Sisterhood is about and gets to make up his or her own mind along with the narrator. When we hear the rumours of the Sisterhood as a sexual cult, followed by the first confession of Emily Gehring, we tend to believe it, just like the girl's parents do. The second confession confuses the reader as well as the narrator. Perhaps the men of the town were so ready to accept the first version because they simply don't understand their daughters. In lines 198-199 it says: "Tell us everything! Then we will forgive you." To assume that they need to be forgiven is very arrogant, since no one really knows what exactly it is that they have done. This is probably not just the narrator's attitude, but also the general attitude among the fathers. It could be that they prefer seeing the Sisterhood as a sexual cult because of their ingrained fear of women and even girls, because of their fear of the Other. The stories of orgies and painted snakes are typical of stories of witchcraft because they show the things that men have always feared in women. The nudity and the physical contact show the sexuality of women and it seems as though the fathers in the town have difficulties accepting this aspect of their daughter's lives. We see this in the end when the narrator longs for a time when the girls were younger and more innocent. The snakes, which they are said to paint on their breasts, also point back to the Fall and support the idea of women as something dangerous and mysterious. Even though these stories are disturbing to the parents, they are not as surprising as the idea of the girls meeting to do nothing.
If the parents accept the second confession as the truth they have a more serious problem to deal with.
It was easy for everyone to believe the first version of the story because it would be a problem that could be solved, a sin that could be forgiven. Sexual cults and orgies are tangible problems, unlike silence. Stopping the Sisterhood might be relatively simple, but the reasons for the silence could very easily be extremely complex. This is why the narrator says: "Fearful of mystery, suspicious of silence, we accuse the members of dark crimes that secretly soothe us - for then, will we not know them? For we prefer witchcraft to silence, naked orgies to night stillness" (lines 209-212.) If the girls have such a need for silence it is an almost automatic critique of their parents since it might be a symptom of a deeper and more serious problem. To begin with, the silence, secrecy and isolation of the Sisterhood are contrasts to the values of their parents and the community of the town. If the girls are not meeting for the purpose of some activity, they must be meeting to escape
something.
In the end, the narrator believes that he has discovered the truth and that the girls just meet in silence. It is the reason for their behaviour which troubles him, as we see in lines 183-186: "Is it possible that our loathing of the unknown, our need to dispel it, to destroy it, to violate it through sharp, glittering acts of understanding, makes the unknown swell with dark power, as if it were some beast feeding on our swords?" He has realized that he might not need to understand the daughters and that it might be the parents need to know their secrets, their need to analyze the Other, which drives the girls further away. This realization, however, doesn't mean that he knows what to do. In the end, all he can do is long for better times: "We think of the long years of childhood, the party frocks and lollipops, the shimmer of trembling bubbles in blue summer air." By listing these ordinary objects he creates the image of a perfect childhood, as if it were a dream. He longs for a time when the girls didn't have the need to form a secret sisterhood and when he didn't have to worry so much about them.