So, I recently visited Lizzie Borden’s house in Fall River Massachusetts. My son is a history and true crime buff and my daughter loves horror. Consequently, the tour was a must see stop for us during our New England vacation. Prior to visiting the infamous bed & breakfast and museum, I’d seen the film, Lizzie, staring Kristin Stewart. The Stewart movie insinuates that Lizzie had an affair with her maid and that their romance ultimately led to her stabbing spree. But during our tour, our guide, Jack, stated that Lizzie was actually having an affair with a local doctor/ neighbor, and that her crime was motivated by money. When her stepmother and father died, Lizzie inherited seven million dollars in today’s money. I suppose Lizzie, is an example of Hollywood taking dramatic license and pushing a trendy topic. But that’s a post for another day.
Anyhow, Lizzie’s home wasn’t what I expected. The home in the film seemed isolated, but in reality, Lizzie’s moss green house sits on busy 2nd Street in a densely populated neighborhood of Fall River, a once thriving mill town. Back in 1892 when the crime occurred, the neighborhood was just as busy and visible to passersby as it is today.
I love architecture and am fascinated by city demographics. Specifically, why neighborhoods flourish and why their populations diminish. The week we visited the Borden home, we also visited two of John Quincy Adam’s homes, Robert Frost’s house, and Franklin Pierces’ home. Of the all the home tours we took, the Borden tour was by far the most compelling. One might think that it was the gory subject matter that caused our tour group to hang onto our guide’s words. But I contend that our guide was an amazing storyteller, who knew what details to emphasize and how to elicit his audiences’ emotions and fears. Below are some storytelling lessons I learned from our tour.
- Right away, our guide, Jack, got inside Lizzie’s head and he gave us a sense of what she might have been thinking and feeling prior to the crime. He stated that she was desperate and hopeless. Jack said that Lizzie was a thirty-two-year-old English Protestant spinster living in an Irish immigrant neighborhood during the Victorian era. That because of her controlling father and the demographics of her neighborhood, that marriage and a different kind of life was exceedingly unlikely for her. These details about Lizzie’s situation and mental/emotional state helped me to connect and empathize with her, and made me what to know more about her story.
- Like all great story tellers, Jack used setting to make the Borden story more vivid. Not only did we walk through the rooms, still decorated with period furnishing, but Jack spoke about the lack of electricity in the house and the stifling heat. When we toured the house, it was ninety-five degrees and super humid. It was easy to imagine how uncomfortable Lizzy must have been and how this discomfort likely impacted her state of mind, and led to her being angry with her father. Wealthy Mr. Borden refused to add amenities to his home despite his family members’ obvious discomfort.
- Though the events occurred more than a century ago, Jack made Lizzie’s story feel relevant to today’s word and to his listeners. He told us that the Irish immigrants in the neighborhood were looked down upon, like many Hispanic immigrants are today. He also mentioned that the jury that acquitted Lizzie was comprised of older Protestant men and one Irishmen, and that jury selection impacted Lizzie’s trial outcome, just like it does in modern trials, such as the OJ Simpson’s trial. These similarities resonated with me, and deepened my interest in Lizzie’s story.
- Like a good defense attorney, Jack also kept the mystery alive by proposing numerous theories. He implied that Lizzie’s doctor friend, her maid, and her stepmother’s brother could have teamed up to kill Lizzie’s parents. According to Jack, after the murders, the family’s impoverished maid obtained a deed to a ranch in Montana. He also said that the doctor likely overmedicated Lizzie so she couldn’t be interviewed immediately after the murders. And he implied that the Lizzie’s uncle’s alibi was flimsy. Good story tellers like Jack keep you guessing until the very end, and sometimes even after the end.
- Further, Jack made sure that his audience understood what was at stake for Lizzie. If her father and stepmother hadn’t both died, her stepmother would have inherited the Borden fortune and Lizzie and her sister would have been tossed into the street. Like Jack, our tour guide, make sure your readers know what’s at stake for your protagonist.
- Write tension-filled scenes and dialogue filled with conflict to keep your readers’ interest. At one point in the tour, Jack took us into the dining room and he basically reenacted a family dinner. Lizzie despised her stepmother and refused to sit near her. The two women openly traded nasty barbs. Jack’s reenacted tension-filled dining room scene brought Lizzie’s story alive.
- After the home tour, my son and I visited the Borden gravesite at the local cemetery. Ironically, Lizzie was buried with her father and stepmother. We also drove by Maplecroft, the home Lizzie lived in after the murders. These additional visits made Lizzie’s story feel complete. Don’t forget the importance of endings when writing your story.
- Give your unlikeable characters some positive and surprising traits. When she inherited her father’s money, Lizzie gave generously to her local animal rescue league, she paid to maintain her father’s grave, and she gifted money to her friends and supported the local theater. After the crime, Lizzie was ostracized by the members of her church. No one would sit in the pews surrounding hers’. Consequently, she shoplifted to cope with her pain. Consider making your villain/protagonist complex and layered, not simply evil.
- Our tour guide, Jack, spoke in a conversational tone. Listening to him was easy and enjoyable. He dressed in jeans and graphic T-shirt, drank soda while giving the tour, and spoke with a Boston accent. Don’t overlook tone and voice when writing your story. Put your readers at ease, make them comfortable, and cultivate a unique voice, so they’ll want to follow your story.
- Most of the other home tours we took that week lasted for forty-five minutes. Though the Borden house tour lasted much longer, for a solid two hours, I was never bored. My takeaway is this. Take the time you need to tell your story. Sure, genres have recommended word counts. But they are merely guides. If a story is good, even if it’s longer than the norm, people will read it.
The Lizzie Borden home tour is entertaining, informative, and memorable if you’re into that kind of thing. You’re allowed to explore the creepy basement, you can sit on the couch (a reproduction) where Lizzie’s father died, and afterwards you can even reserve a room and stay overnight in Lizzie’s bedroom. But more than anything else, the tour will give you an accurate understanding of Lizzie’s situation, character, and motives in a way that most Hollywood depictions fail to do. Who knows? The tour might even inspire you to write the next great horror novel or murder mystery. If you’re in Fall River, check it out and ask for Jack.
