frances the mute interpretation whole album

Frances the Mute:

Frances is a prostitute in a small town that is influenced by the Catholic Church. One day a preist hires her, and gets Frances pregnant. The church doesn't want anyone to find out, so to clean up the mess, they give Frances an abortion. However, the baby survives and Frances is thought to be dead. L'via had seen the whole thing and did nothing about it.

The church didn't want Frances, her sister (L'via) or mother (Miranda) to tell anyone, so they threatened to kill them if they told, so there was always someone watching their every move.

Cygnus (the almighty fetus) was raised in the orphanage, where he was frowned upon and abused or possibly molested by the priests. As he grows up, he constantly wonders about his origin, which the priests wont tell him about. Cygnus grows up to hate the nature of males, the way they rape peple and etc, and he is sortof ashamed to be a male. He develops a female split personality, Cassandra, who "talks" to him in his mind. Cygnus has a bad drug habit, and possibly one day Cassandra encourages him to go find the origins of his family. His friends tell him not to, but he wont listen.

Cygnus sells drugs because he has no money, so he becomes notorius as a drug dealer. One of his main customers is The Widow, who is actually Frances. Neither the widow or Cygnus know this. Frances might have gotten married and her husband died, which is where she got the name "the widow". But the widow develops a heroin addiction and joins cygnus on his journey to get her drugs, and possibly sleep with cygnus. (the line "ill never sleep alone" could refer to her never sleeping without medication, or never sleeping withour Cygnus). The Widow eventually dies from her drug addiction, and Cygnus goes on, not realizing he killed his mother.

Cygnus finds out about L'via nad Miranda, and finds them in hopes of finding out more about his origins.. He finds them, and talks to them, and Miranda tells Cygnus about his mother being "killed" by the catholic church. Miranda has been trying to tell the public about how corrupt the Catholic Church is, but noone believes her. Cygnus's other personality, Cassandra, takes over and she kills L'via and miranda while he is on heroin because he is enraged that they did nothing to stop the priests from killing his mother. Cygnus spends little or no time sober and lets Cassandra get the best of him. By now there are wanted signs on the streets for him, but he doesnt realise it because he is always on heroin.

Cassandra influences Cygnus to get revenge on the Church, so he goes and rapes 25 priests (because apparently there had been 25 other women raped and killed ("25 wives in the lake tonight")). By now he is dying of aids, and one night when he is sober Cassandra is talking to him , and reveals her "plan". She tells cygnus about how the whole thing with Frances and the priests had never happened, that the priests and the people at the church had tried to tell him that his parents had abandoned him when he was a baby. L'Via and Miranda were people he had dreamed up and the whole story is something he had made in his mind when he was high. Cygnus had murdered two random people who he thought were L'via and Miranda. He doesnt believe Cassandra, so he plays the story out in his mind and realises that it wasnt true, and he had done all this for nothing. Then he realises that The Widow was his mother(his father had died), and he realises he was the one responsible for her death, and many others who bought heroin from him and ODed, and the 25 men who he had raped and killed. He is no better then the men who are rapists, killers, etc with a violent nature. He decides he will start a new life, but Cassandra reminds him he is dying of AIDs, so basically hes screwed. He then dies, and in his mind he hears cassandra taunting him, saying " No theres no time, No theres no light, You aint got nothin, your life was just a lie."

The reason i think that that acoustic riff (Sarcophagi) was played aty the end and the beginning of the cd is because this will probobly happen in a similar way again, with diffrent people and different stories, children of rape. This starts the cd over, which is also why i think there are no real giant details, but just a similar basic plotline, to show that this will happen again and again, but different stories every time...

that was all i could do but if u want to read the lyrics just search the album:

France the Mute

Artist: The Mars Volta

setlist

1."Cygnus....Vismund Cygnus"

• I. "Sarcophagi"
• II. "Umbilical Syllables"
• III. "Facilis Descenus Averni"
• IV. "Con Safo""

13:022."The Widow" 5:503."L'Via L'Viaquez" 12:214."Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"

• I. "Vade Mecum"
• II. "Pour Another Icepick"
• III. "Pisacis (Phra-Men-Ma)"
• IV. "Con Safo""

13:095."Cassandra Gemini"

• I. "Tarantism"
• II. "Plant a Nail in the Naval Stream"
• III. "Faminepulse"
• IV. "Multiple Spouse Wounds"
• V. "Sarcophagi""

32:32