Virginia and Richard

"There was one that looked a bit like a black, electrified jellyfish. They were singing, just now, in a foreign language. I believe it may have been Greek. Archaic Greek." (pg 59)

"She might see it while walking with Leonard in the square . . . randomly spiked, fluid but whole, like a jellyfish . . . A flock of sparrows outside her window once sang, unmistakably, in Greek." (pg 70-71)

Over the course of ten pages or so, Cunningham chooses to give Virginia and Richard identical symptoms of illness. The common ailment aids in the comparison between these two characters-- they are both very creative, artistic people but are also the two characters in the novel that commit suicide. It speaks volumes about how sensitive they are and how deeply they feel, just like the way the church choir director of Thorton Wilder's famous play Our Town kills himself because he simply feels too much.