We Have Always Lived In The Castle
Assignments
Chapters 1-3 (p.50)
"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita Phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."
This passage gives an immediate first impression of the main character. She introduces herself the way a child would introduce itself on the first day of school: Name, age, likes, and dislikes. By giving the main character childish traits, Shirley Jackson builds up a mysterious air around Merricat, leaving us wondering who she is and what her backstory is.
Within this first paragraph of the book, we get access to her mind and her thoughts, which she seems very protective of. Compared to other characters in the book, we thus get an actual front-row seat in the story.
Mary ends her introduction by mentioning that her whole family is dead. This isn't precisely the case because we find out that her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian are still alive, so I think that's an exaggeration to drop a bomb on the reader, leaving them with many questions. This last sentence also starts a lot of tension and it made me wonder immediately what would have happened to her family. It keeps the reader interested.
Shirley Jackson is very good at making
the reader feel uneasy. Her use of language and choice of words allowed me to
form a mental image of the setting as well as the character's appearance, and Mary's
actions and dialogue hinted at a rather morbid and dark personality. This is where
it got interesting. Although the story itself, the themes, and mainly Mary's twisted
thoughts represent a sinister vibe, the setting is quite beautiful. That contrast
of story and setting surprised me and kept me excited to read what other things
might not be what I think they are.
Mary sometimes gives away a preview, keeping us on the edge of our seats for what's coming. On page 21, Merricat says 'She set the library books on the shelf where they were going to stay forever.' Reading this, you wouldn't be bothered by this little sentence, but I certainly expect Shirley Jackson, master of the foreshadowing, to come back to those books later in the story in some way.
Another character I surely found intriguing was Uncle Julian. It confused me that he was so fascinated by the night his family got killed and I found it to be almost haunting that he explained it all so eagerly. The fact that he constantly asks Constance to confirm that what he is saying is right, and the fact that Constance giggles at some parts of the story, made me think that maybe Constance and Merricat are gaslighting their uncle into believing that Constance is innocent. Another possible prediction of what might be coming.
Chapters 4-7:
"So I'm taking little Cousin Mary's job away from her," Charles said, looking at me again. "You'll have to find something else for her to do, Connie." I had made sure of what to say to him before I came to the table. "The Amanita Phalloides," I said to him, "holds three different poisons. There is amanitin, which works slowly and is most potent. There is phalloidin, which acts at once, and there is phallin, which dissolves red corpuscles, although it is the least potent. The first symptoms do not appear until seven to twelve hours after eating, in some cases not before twenty-four or even forty hours. The symptoms begin with violent stomach pains, cold sweat, vomiting—" "Listen," Charles said. He put down his chicken. "You stop that," he said. Constance was laughing. "Oh Merricat," she said, laughing through the words, "you are silly. I taught her," she told Charles, "there are mushrooms by the creek and in the fields and I made her learn the deadly ones. Oh, Merricat." "Death occurs between five and ten days after eating," I said."I don't think that's very funny," Charles said.
This scene in the story is interesting because it's where Merricat finally snaps back at Charles, who has been treating her with nothing but disrespect. Saying things like these in a regular scenario would be weird or annoying at best, but in this situation, it is scary and eerie. That is because Charles has reasons to be scared of her. She is the sister of Constance, who is thought to have killed her whole family. In this explanation, what for Merricat (who does not speak that much) can be considered a monologue, she is saying what she knows about deadly mushrooms and the symptoms you get when you eat them. Basically she says that she knows how to kill a person using poisonous mushrooms, and that person wouldn't notice for at least seven hours that they're being poisoned.
Constance's reactions are also demonstrating this protective side of her, as she's continuously saying how silly Merricat is, trying to lighten the mood and avoid conflict between Charles and Merricat.
This passage connects to the cruel aspect of the book, since it establishes the cruel and sinister mind of the main character.
Its hard to decide whether this is a gothic novel or not. It falls under the category of gothic because of the many sinister aspects. I don't totally agree with the fact that it is typically gothic, because the setting is the exact opposite of what a gothic setting would be. A house in a big beautiful garden, and the sun shines in almost every scene that is described in the story. A traditional gothic novel would have most of the scenes when it's dark outside or it generally would be placed in a more fitting scenery for the story, which is not the case in this book.
When you look at the characters, you can establish that they do meet the gothic characteristics though. Merricat, whose mind we constantly have access to, is very sadistic and dark. Constance however, has a very soft personality and on top of that she is described as angel-like, the fact she might have killed her family compensates for the angel-like look. So to conclude, most of the aspects in the book can be considered part of the gothic category, but there are other elements in the novel that clearly state the opposite.
Chapters 8-10:
p.100:
"I smell smoke," Charles said.
Constance paused and lifted her head and turned to the kitchen door. "The stove?" she said and got up quickly to go into the kitchen.
"Young man—"
"There is certainly smoke." Charles went to look into the hall. "I smell it out here," he said. I wondered whom he thought he was talking to; Constance stood in the kitchen doorway and looked at Charles.
Charles turned and came closer to me. "If this is anything you have done…" he said.
I think this passage is a very important element in the story. It grabbed my attention immediately because something was finally happening . The first 100 pages weren't boring at all, but there wasn't happening much with Merricat and her family and I was waiting for a bit of action. Then there was the fire, which is the climax of the novel. It gave the reader finally something more exciting to read.
All of the characters in the book were in the same place when the fire started, which makes it even more interesting to see how each of them would react in a scene like this. Oddly, it took me by surprise how all of them acted whilst the house they were in was burning down. In my opinion, Constance was the most surprising character in that scene because she stayed calm and acted like she didn't care (according to Merricat's point of view ofcourse), which contradicts the caring and protective side of her. Then we had the reaction of Charles which was the absolute opposite of surprising, since he acted greedy for the money that was still in the house, and he did throughout the whole story.
In both
stories, there is a noticeable theme of community and group-thinking. In We
Have Always Lived In The Castle the villagers share hatred towards Merricat and her family and they decide to work together as a group to
destroy their house with stones. It felt like a wink to her previous story The
Lottery because the villagers of that town also throw stones at their victim,
as a consequence of herd behaviour and cultural blindness.
The stone throwing is a very similar act, but the reason behind both stone-throwings is pretty different though. In The Lottery, it is mostly because of the herd behaviour, and yearly tradition is used as an excuse, while in the novel it is mostly hate that's involved in this act of cruelty.
Another similarity is that the setting in both stories isn't gothic at all. In the beginning of The Lottery, there isn't any reason why the reader should expect something gothic like a murder to happen at the end of the short story. Jackson starts the short story by describing a beautiful summer morning in a peaceful village. That's because Jackson is very good at juxtaposing the storyline and the setting in two opposite ways. In We Have Always Lived In The Castle, something very similar happens when, for example, Merricat describes their beautiful garden.