Please talk about anything that interested you in the last few chapters of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Here are some prompts to get you started thinking:
- Talk about the fire scene and what happens. How do the villagers behave? Why does it seem important that Jim Donell is the fire chief? Why does he take up a rock and throw it (p. 105)? How does the crowd react to news of Julian Blackwood’s death? How do Constance and Merricat react?
- What do you think of Merricat’s statement on p. 116 that “time and the orderly pattern of our old days had ended”? Has time itself ended? How so?
- Why do all the villagers start bringing food at the end? Are they sorry or afraid?
- Discuss Charles’s return at the end
- The final sentence reads, “Oh, Constance . . . we are so happy.” Is this a “happily ever after” ending, just as in conventional fairy tales? Or is it a parody of such an ending? Have Merricat and Constance freed themselves from oppressive social norms or are they trapped by them?
- Do you read this as a feminist novel? Why or why not?
Finishing We Have Always Lived in the Castle I was left with such an eerie feeling. As the ending plays out and it is clarified that Merricat did in fact kill her family, and Constance was aware and accepts she was so twisted. I went back and for between the two sisters, and who really had the power. But in the end, it is extremely obvious that it is Merricat. It almost felt like the novel portrayed Merricat as a God-like figure. You have the villagers repenting for trashing their house through food (which is extremely ironic), Merricat decides the fate of the people around her even if it is not premeditated, and with the house being burned down she acknowledges that her rules would have to change. Merricat’s word/ rule is so final that she doesn’t even exceed them, for example, she still refuses her Uncles clothes even though he is dead and Constance said she could. So in the end when Merricat says “Oh, Constance . . . we are so happy.”, it felt so assertive instead of lovely to me. It felt like it was a statement. Even though I do think Constance is happy with just Merricat, I don’t believe she would have much of a choice regardless. I think Constance enjoys the motherly figure she has with Merricat and disregards Merricats action due to her love for her. Merricat gives Constance a life that she could have never had without her, she lets Constance live how she wants. This contributes to the Female power in the novel. The female rule is so dominant in this novel, even in the ending with their Uncle dying, and the sisters laughing at Charles’s pleas to be let in. This house is completely under the woman’s rule. This feminine divination is symbolized within the house too. For example, I found it interesting that even with the looting of the home, the kitchen was still recoverable. Their mother’s Dresden figurines also survive, alluding to the female rule and power. The ending of the book was by far my favorite, just because everything came together so well, and things became clear on who plays what role. I also appreciate that the novel keeps a twisted end, instead of the girls leaving the house or being killed. It leaves that same mysterious and eerie feeling that the novel started with.
In the fire scene, the villagers express their happiness for the fire happening, stating it should have happened a long time ago. They seem to like that there is chaos happening to the family. The fire chief even throws a rock at the house, signifying the hatred towards the family and the start of the riots. This moment of throwing the rock is important because someone in power is showing that it is “okay” to hurt the house therefore hurting the family, allowing the crowd to turn to mob mentality and riot on the house. The crowd does not react well to the news of Julian’s death. They are hesitant to stop chanting and causing mayhem. The fire chief tells them to stop because Julian is dead, and they eventually stop. The girls respond to the horror by going into the woods and hiding away from the chaos that just unfolded.
I personally liked the ending of this book because it wasnt your stereotypical happy ending, but it was still a somewhat happy end. It was somewhat bittersweet. The sisters made their own choices to pursue what made them happy, and they stood up against the men who were controlling and manipulating their lives. Merricat did what she believed needed to be done in order to get rid of Charles. Although Constance and Merricat dont have the most picture perfect ending, I think the way the ended off is exactly how it needed to be. They both dont need a lot to truly be happy in life, they just need to be with eachother. This can relate back to all the times Merricat would talk about going to the moon with Constance. Constance eventually knows what Merricat has done, but the bond the sisters have is strong enough to look past that, especially when it comes to Constance wanting to live a happy but abnormal life. I liked this ending because it wasnt something youd expect, but it does fit the themes of the book pretty well.
I do read this novel as a feminist one. We talked in class about how the town shuns them because of how self-sufficient Constance and Merricat are and how before the town tolerated the Blackwood’s because there was a man acting as head of the house. I also noticed that whenever Constance and Merricat were cleaning up the house and putting everything back in its place there was a big emphasis on all of the things that the women of the house had formerly brought with them. The women of the past had built this house up to what it was and Constance and Merricat are continuing to take care of it. The sisters alone are going to take care of themselves and are completely fulfilled with that. To me, it seemed very patronizing how desperate the Clarke’s were to take care of the sisters or save them. They don’t need saving. Even after all the brutality that the town showed them during their make-shift witch hunt, they are still able to recover alone.
In the last few chapters of the book, Merricat and Constance somehow create a happy ending from themselves by isolating themselves from the world. Merricat is certainly happy, claiming that they are finally safe together on the Moon just as she had imagined throughout the novel. Because Merricat is no longer allowed to bury things or wonder to far from the house, her usually magical and ritualistic safeguards for protection are replaced by things that are more practical, like building a barricade and making sure the front door is locked.
It was surprising to see the villagers bring food to the Blackwoods’ front door as an apologize for wrecking their house, but I am unsure if it is done out of genuine remorse or fear. The fact that the villagers usually leave food late in the evening, afraid to be seen by the other villagers, means that the Blackwoods are still social pariah in the village, but it’s interesting that privately families try to make amends. It is also interesting to see the villagers respect the girls’ isolation, no longer wanting to or allowing their children to disturb them as they did in the past, or how tourists still do. The end of the book actually shows a lot of symbolism in regards to feminism, for examples, Constance wearing Uncle Julian’s clothes symbolizes a break in social gender norms, or when Merricat considers taking on a masculine role by fixing the same door step that Charles and Joe Dunham failed to repair. When the village husbands sneakily leave food at their doorstep, fearful that they may be seen, it is as if they are unwillingly relinquishing some of their patriarchal power. Despite the villagers accepting the girls’ new life, the tourists or strangers still see them as monsters. They tell their kids that the two women in the haunted house eat little children, casting them as witches, a feminist abomination to patriarchal society. When Charles leaves the manor one last time after failing to get to the safe, it is as if the girls are finally released from patriarchal control, and Constance especially is no longer threatened by Blackwood men. However, the fact that his greedy goals did not change and that he chose to left on his own accord does not make it clear if the sisters had quite “conquered” him. And yes I hate Charles even more after his last visit when he tries to convince Constance to trust him, and especially when he acts like he had held any sort of respect for Uncle Julian when he was so demeaning and insulted him to his face! I will not tolerate Uncle Julian slander.
I am not sure how I feel about the ending of this book. On one hand, I wanted an ending where the girls end up in a place where they are living healthy lives. On the other, I admire the twist on a ‘happy ending’. I like it when books sometimes don’t have happy endings, I think it’s a little more realistic. However, Constance and Mary Katherine consider this their own happy ending, because for them, they are happy. Still, to me, I don’t consider this a happy ending. Honestly, I think it’s depressing. While I don’t necessarily think that they need to conform to all of society’s rules, their relationship dynamic and the life they are living is not healthy. Mary Katherine is obsessive and codependent on Constance. Both of them just ignore the fact that Mary Katherine murdered their entire family, including a 10-year-old child. I really don’t like Mary Katherine, but I enjoyed seeing the story from her point of view.
I really liked the ending of this book! I was particularly interested by the way the passing of time was conveyed; Merricat narrates the last few chapters as if they happen over a manner of weeks, but I have a feeling it is actually a lot longer. It feels as though time has completely stopped for the Blackwoods and life moves on around without them, and this is specifically seen through growth of nature surrounding their microcosm (ie the vines that grow over their house and decimated roof). It also is interesting to me how the pair of them become legends in the village and cautionary tales told to children–this is not something that just happens overnight. In addition to this potentially conveying a long passage of time, it also nods towards the continuation of the “fairy tale” arc the two sisters were living in throughout the novel (I believe their lives are a dark parody of this trope, but a reflection of it nonetheless). I do think they got their happily ever after–the ending line undeniably nods to “and they lived happily ever after,” and I truly believe any other way the events could have played out would not have been as ideal for the two of them.
I think the “happily ever after” ending serves as kind of an acknowledgement that Constance and Merricat will never live normal lives, but that they will have each other. Their lives were never going to be normal after Merricat poisoned the sugar six years prior, but they were constantly reminded of what happened either from Uncle Julian or from the townspeople every time they went into town to get groceries or whatever they needed. Though things seemed to all just kind of collapse at once, especially with Julians passing, the townspeople eventually left them alone (and took pity on their situation) which is all they wanted from them. Of course ideally, the townspeople would leave them alone and they could come out of isolation, but I think they know it’s either one or the other. So now they are both able to sort of break free from that past in a way. It also seems significant enough to add that Constance is the only one that truly gets Merricat and understands what her intentions are and what she’s thinking. I do think that Constance let her get away with some things (like tearing up her fathers room that Charles was staying in) that are unacceptable, but even then she knows why she’s doing it. Everyone else sort of looks down on Merricat. I think Merricat is just happy that it is finally the two of them.
I really enjoyed the ending of this book. After the Blackwood’s house is burnt down due to Mary Katherine’s hatred for Charles and the villagers stone their house instead of running away like the townspeople would have liked, they took refuge in the destroyed home. They made a whole new routine within their day. Constance washed the kitchen and Merricat made sure the door was locked. The villagers eventually started bringing gift baskets with food to their door in what we assume to be a fearful apology. By staying they were stating their power and freedom which in term made the townspeople afraid of what they might do. This fear and freedom made the Blackwood sisters finally happy. They were clearly meant to end up just the two of them in their house.
The fire at the Blackwood home was caused by Merricat who sought to get ride of her cousin Charles Blackwood. During the fire scene Charles calls for the rest of the family to get the safe in the study. During this time he is with a crowd of villagers who have gathered outside. Most of the villagers are hopeful that the home burns to the ground. After the firemen who were at the scene put the fire out Jim Donell, the fire chief who seems to hate the Blackwoods the most, throws a rock causing the rest of the villagers to storm the home and destroy it. After the fact the villagers feel remorse and begin to give the rest of the family with food and gifts. I believe they also fear what would happen to them because the Blackwoods represent power and wealth. I think Constance and Merricat feel relieved as they have finally escaped the patriarchal structure with in there family that has controlled their lives.
After the fire, Merricat tells Constance she was the one who killed their whole family with the sugar, and she said she did it with sugar knowing Constance would never have any. It seems that Merricat runs the house and tells Constance what do to and how to do it, it also seems that Constance might be a little scared of what her now 18-year-old sister could do if when she was 12, she poisoned the whole family. I think Constance has agoraphobia which means she has anxiety about situations where she feels unsafe, and it could result in not going outside and meeting new or other people. For Constance, she does not meet other people, but Helen and she does not go further than the garden. I also am amazed that Uncle Julian died but, from what I wonder unless he was poisoned or did, he just die from a heart attack or something else.
After the house burns down and the villagers destroy it, Constance and Merricat begin receiving gifts and apologies from the villagers. I do not believe that the villagers are sorry for what they did, but they are afraid of the wrath of the Blackwoods. The villagers bring them food as a peace offering in hopes that the Blackwoods will not seek revenge on them. By the end of the novel I believe that Merricat and Constance have freed themselves from oppressive social norms. The oppressive villagers had the chance to destroy their home and belongings, yet in a weird way the Blackwoods prevailed. The villagers may have hoped to run Constance and Merricat out of town, but by staying, they proved that their oppressors did not win. Now, the whole village is even more scared of the Blackwoods because their destructive attempts did not work, now the Blackwoods may target the villagers. Constance and Merricat won and are now in a way haunting the village, because they may never be seen again, but everyone knows they are still there.
The ending of this novel was particularly chilling as the two sisters shut themselves inside their burned down and disheveled home while the rest of the townspeople were left to wonder if they were inside the house or even alive. But while it was disarming and off-kilter, it also felt like a feministic defiance, particularly when various men visit the house – notably Charles Blackwood but also other men like Dr. Levy and Jim Clarke. Constance and Merricat have toppled the patriarchy of the Blackwood family and refuse to give in to the “whims” of the men who visit them – but what is disarming here is the unconventionality of their defiance. While reading, I considered what might have been a better and more healthy option for the two sisters: finding solace in the kindness of Mrs. Clarke and embracing the love that their supposed friends have for them, but to the Blackwood sisters, true comfort–though delusional–was freedom from the patriarch and warmth in each other’s arms.