The Life of the Author
Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1916, in San Francisco, California. The product of fairly affluent parents, Jackson and her brother were brought up in comfortability. She faced constant torment from her mother and grandmother, Geraldine for her appearance and unorthodox hobbies. Through her young adult life, Jackson developed into a strong-willed writer who marched to the beat of her own drum. During her time at Syracuse University, she met and married Stanley Edgar Hyman, against the wishes of her family.
During this time Jackson was also writing and publishing her work in campus magazines. After graduating, Shirley and her husband moved to New York City and had two of their four children. The family then finally moved to Bennington, Vermont where Stanley took a position there as a professor while Shirley stayed home with the children and wrote. The two had a tumultuous marriage full of unapologetic adultery by Hyman. Forced to take a backseat role in the marriage, Jackson struggled with finding individual fulfillment. In 1948, after her short story “The Lottery” was published in the New Yorker, Jackson gained critical and public acclaim. She also experienced success with her novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle which was included in the year’s “Ten Best Novels” by Time Magazine.
In the years to come, Jackson would go on to write numerous short stories and publish 6 novels. Six years after the publication of her novel The Haunting of Hill House, she developed agoraphobia and colitis. She came to rely heavily on alcohol and pills to help quell her fears of the outside world. Ultimately, Jackson passed away in 1965 from heart failure. She was 48 years old. She is remembered for her works of fiction which provide commentary on both gender roles and the concept of being an outsider. Her work favors the supernatural and gothic themes, something that Jackson had been interested in from a young age. Much of her material had gone unpublished until recently and compilations of her work have been published by her husband and her children.
Critical Discourse Surrounding the Work
Bonikowski, Wyatt. “‘Only One Antagonist’: The Demon Lover and the Feminine Experience in the Work of Shirley Jackson.” Gothic Studies, vol. 15, no. 2, 2013, p. 66+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A367421112/.
Bonikowski begins by discussing Jackson’s work and how she has made anxiety Gothic. This refers to “the psychological experience of insecurity that finds its objective correlatives in haunted houses, spectral presences, and demonic visitation, all of which suggest the violent eruption of the unknown into the known, the unconscious into consciousness.” The article speaks on how Jackson was driven by Freud’s idea of the ‘demonic’ nature of the repetition compulsion. To Jackson this passivity in the face of demonic repetition is a particularly feminine subjectivity; the subject is exposed to anxiety in relation to both the external structures of the patriarchal symbolic order and her internal drives.
One of the many themes in Jackson’s work is that of a ‘demon lover’ who seduces a woman from her home with promises of riches and ultimately destroys her. In We Have Always Lived in the Castle cousin Charles is the demon lover. He arrives to marry Constance and to bring the sisters into the ‘norms’ of the village. Jackson presents feminine passivity, not as a natural disposition but one conditioned by the restrictive gender norms of the time; the desire to escape from the roles of housewife and mother is tantamount to surrendering to a demon lover who arrives to enable her escape, a surrender that is inevitably destructive for the woman since there is no secure position for her outside of these roles. In Jackson’s stories, women are offered a choice to either conform to a passive position within gender roles or be exposed to a permanent state of anxiety, insecurities, and madness outside the symbolic order.
Carpenter, Lynette. “The Establishment and Preservation of Female Power in Shirley Jackson’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle.’” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 1984, pp. 32–38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3346088.
This journal article argues that Merricat and Constance are symbols of female self-sufficiency throughout We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Carpenter suggests that Merricat, Constance, and Uncle Julian could have lived “contentedly enough, had their neighbors allowed it.” However, she suggests that the town found the women’s “forceful establishment of power over their own lives” was too much of a threat to the society that normalized male leadership.
Carpenter’s argument partly relies on the novel’s portrayal of John Blackwood as a detrimental patriarch who was obsessive over money and status as a cause of the village’s hatred towards the Blackwood family. She claims women in the Blackwood family are often exploited if they can be, and if not, then they are ignored. A prime example of this is that Constance tends to do the cooking, while on the night of the poisoning, Merricat is sent to her room without supper due to her disobedience. As Constance was also a victim of the patriarchal family, she aided Merricat in the poisoning of the family by not calling a doctor until it was too late and washing the sugar bowl. The village’s means of destroying a woman-led household manifests in the form of Charles, who is constantly rejected by Merricat and Constance regardless of the village’s encouragement. Carpenter notes that the final stoning and burning of the house and the sisters’ survival is suggests the final victory over the patriarchy. Merricat and Constance become deity-like figures for the women of the village, two women who should be respected and feared.
Chirico, Miriam. Review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, adapted by Adam Bock, directed by Anne Kauffman. Theatre Journal, vol. 63, no. 3, 2011, pp. 466–468.
Miriam Chirico reviews a play adaptation and the changes it made to Jackson’s work, regarding Merricat as an example of child psychopaths as well as “the vindictiveness of small-town gossips.” The review focuses largely on the ending of the play/novel, in which the villagers ransack the house before allowing it to entirely burn to the ground. Chirico claims the townspeople’s guilt after committing such a violent act speaks towards the classism displayed in the story, with the “skeletal mansion” being the centerpiece of the set. The play adaptation gives a voice to the villagers, taking away the unreliable first-person narrator and expressing the “bloodlust” and “horror” that the townspeople felt as they eventually gave offerings of food to the sisters who continued to live in their “ruined fortress.”
Chronister, Kay. “‘On the Moon at Last’: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Female Gothic, and the Lacanian Imaginary.” Gothic Studies, vol. 22, no. 2, July 2020, pp. 131–147., doi:10.3366/gothic.2020.0045.
Kay Chronister delves into the Gothic nature of the novel in this article. She argues that Constance serves as the Gothic heroine who is victimized by her delusional sister. Also, there is evidence that Jackson’s writing not only serves to showcase the horror that exists in everyday domestic life but also that the novel “develops and complicates the Gothic pattern of the missing mother and confined daughter” (131). Interestingly, this article also explores Merricat’s idealism and refusal to accept reality. She is emotionally stunted because of the trauma she endured at twelve years old and lives in a cycle of safety rituals, violence, and controlling behavior.
González, Esther M. “Food Symbolism and Traumatic Confinement in ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle.’” Complutense Journal of English Studies, vol. 26, 2018, pp. 79–93., doi:https://doi.org/10.5209/CJES.56359.
This scholarly journal article focuses on the use of food as a recurring presence in the novel which represents both the Blackwood women’s gender role obligation and ability to control those around them. Muñoz-González begins her analysis of the book by breaking down the various meanings tied to food such as social class, power and belonging, and trust. Dividing this section into two parts, the author draws connections between food and the biological mother, including Jackson’s mother, and food and the surrogate mother, who in this case would be Constance.
The author’s final point is that food is used as a sort of voice for Constance since it is her consistency in the scary, ever-changing world around her and it is her way of being creative. The article concludes with the sisters living an isolated life in which creating meals is one of their sole outlets for creative expression. There are numerous examples throughout the narrative where food is symbolic for the entrapment of women. For example, the jars that fill the cellar each represent the Blackwood women who created them. They remain confined to the house for eternity and once left isolated there for too long, turn lethal. The central argument of the article is how “characters’ relationship with food marks their social class, power position, anxieties, fears and desires within and outside the family” (79).
Gregg, Savannah F. “Clawing For Power: Merricat and Constance’s Struggle Over Patriarchal Oppression,” The Macksey Journal: Vol. 1, Article 28, 2020.
Savannah Gregg focuses on how We Have Always Lived in the Castle isn’t praising matriarchal power as much as it is criticizing it. To begin, Gregg points out Shirley Jackson’s personal struggle with patriarchal oppression throughout her life and how it was a common occurrence for women in the 1960s. The author then points out that Merricat and Jackson have similar coping mechanisms when it comes to dealing with the oppression and abuse from the men around them. Getting more into the details of the novel, Gregg mentions how Shirley Jackson uses objects in the house to represent the two protagonists separating themselves from the monetary control the Blackwood men have over them. Gregg then claims that the use of these objects also represents gender. In the end, the destruction of objects that seem to help forward matriarchal power shows that this power is only an illusion feeding into the power of the patriarchy. Gregg concludes that a lot of the false sense of happiness at the end of the novel stems from Jackson’s agoraphobia and what she would have viewed as freedom and happiness without overcoming that fear.
Hall, Karen J. “Sisters in Collusion: Safety and Revolt in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, vol. 187, Gale, 2007. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1420078277.
This article takes a deeper look at Merricat and Constance’s behavior throughout the novel. Even though the exact dynamic of the Blackwood family is not entirely known, Hall claims that the girls most likely were sexually abused by their father. Hall dissects how each of the sisters handles their trauma. With Constance, we see that she internalizes her pain and anger by fulfilling the parental/caretaker role in the Blackwood home. Merricat, on the other hand, resorts to a deviant child who acts out based on the severity of her inconveniences. While Hall does point her main focus on Merricat, she does not exclude Constance from acting on her trauma. The sisters work together to erase all of their trauma that is enacted by their family home. Even when they do get rid of their surface problems involving the patriarchal order, they fail to address the actual problems which will always linger with them as long as they try to flee from reality.
Monteleone, Stephanie. Writing A Way Out of the Chamber: Re-Vocalization of Myth in the Works of Eudora Welty, Shirley Jackson, and Toni Morrison. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2016.
Monteleone focuses on mythology, providing detailed background of Demeter and Persephone as well as Bluebeard’s variants. She uses these mythological tales to connect Eudora Welty’s “The Robber Bridegroom,” Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. There are many postmodern adaptations of Bluebeard, which allows audiences access to a multi-voiced narrative regarding the roles of women, the dangers of trespassing against social norms, and the dangers of domestic trauma within a shifting power structure.
The stories of Welty, Jackson, and Morrison offer a way to write about the female narrative by adding pieces of older myths that have a female-centric slant. Monteleone focuses on re-voicing the myth of Persephone through the tale of Bluebeard, and the re-introduction of a mother figure. The lack of the mother’s fury in the literary fairy tale versions causes women to be passive and highlights what happens when they are disobedient. By revisioning “Bluebeard” in the works of Welty, Jackson, and Morrison, readers see women’s agency and empowerment, while having a light shine on the way women interpret their own agency through a patriarchal society.
Parks, John G. “Chambers of Yearning: Shirley Jackson’s Use of the Gothic.” Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 60, Gale, 1990. link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1100001376.
Parks briefly dissects a handful of Shirley Jackson’s works. Throughout the essay, hecombs through each piece and examines their gothic traits, which typically find a way to masterfully wield sinister human realities. When looking at We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Parks hammers in the fact that there is a persistent theme of violation throughout the novel. Constance is portrayed as a “virtual handmaiden of nature” who creates love and harmony in Merricat’s life. Love is also the underlying focus of the events that transpire with the sisters. Ultimately, the bond between Merricat and Constance is made stronger than ever, despite the horrors they elude.
Peck, Dale. “Shirley Jackson: ‘My Mother’s Grave Is Yellow.’” Conjunctions, no. 29, 1997, pp. 288-296.
Dale Peck’s article takes on a personalized view of Jackson’s novel, relating it to his childhood fantasies and mantras, such as his saying “My Mother’s Grave is Yellow.” He relates to how Merricat tends to live in a reality she believes to be better than the current one. This targets the unreliable first-person narration that We Have Always Lived in the Castle plays with. One of the lines of interest is the last line of the book, “’ Oh Constance,’ I said, ‘we are so happy.’” The nonchalant ending to the story suggests that though the novel focuses on issues such as the proletariat and the patriarchy, it thematically also focuses on regression and the coping mechanisms used by Merricat, comparing her to a child in terms of maturation.
Renner, Karen J. “Evil Children in Film and Literature: Notes Toward a Genealogy.” Literature, Interpretation, Theory, vol. 22, no. 2, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011, pp. 79–95, doi:10.1080/10436928.2011.572330.
Renner opens the article by going into the background of evil children in film and literature. She focuses on a brief history of this term in American and British literature. Particularly, she is alluding to the 1960s, when the novel We Have Always Lived in a Castle was written. Rather than in the 1950s when children were “born bad,” the 1960s focused on how children are inherently good and turn bad. Renner focuses on the idea that the psychological forces and familial dynamics produced an “evil child.” This took a turn further on into the 1970s and 1980’s when the thought that children could be born bad erupted with the film Rosemary’s Baby and continued with the making of more films. Evil children have become a major theme in literature and continue to spread. The question, “Who can kill a child?” was posed. The article discusses the judicial system in which death penalties and life sentences for minors are unconstitutional. This legal ideology moves away from punishment and heads toward rehabilitation. However, in film and literature, death, not rehabilitation, is the only option in ending an “evil child” or else they will stay evil. The author argues that the death of the evil child in films allows audiences to have a clean conscience.
Silver, Marisa. “Is It Real? On Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” The Southern Review, vol. 49, no. 4, 2013, p. 665+. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A350339178.
In Silver’s essay, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is viewed with awe and what seems like humor. The awe is in regards to Shirley Jackson’s ability to highlight human anxieties that lie in the underbelly of our reality. Silver’s critical essay comments on the agoraphobia experienced by the family as a result of their social rejection. This correlates to the same agoraphobia that Jackson experienced due to her mother’s heckling of her weight and image. The reader should be able to marvel at the simplicity and profound psychological tone that the novel carries throughout.
Silver also poses the novel as a type of social satire. Despite all of the dark events that occur, Jackson focuses on the background feelings of her main character and not really anybody else. In general, Silver depicts the novel as one that contextualizes obsessive behaviors, sinister family dynamics, and personal change. Silver also plays with the notion of the survivor’s disbelief of the events that have unfolded as Uncle Julian often questions if the night was real, Constance stays on the property to avoid society and the reality of how people perceive her, and Merricat traps herself in far-fetched rituals that paint a better reality for her that she finds more acceptable.
Simon, John K. Review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Books Abroad, vol. 38, no. 1, 1964, pp. 75–75. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40118494.
In this scholarly review of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Simon summarizes how Jackson intended for Charles to be a clear outside presence. He is often referred to as a “ghost” (88) or “demon” (120) by Merricat. She is immediately uncomfortable with Charles’ presence and repeatedly asks him to leave. Simon sheds a light on the fact that Merricat even uses the word nemesis when thinking about Charles. “To get rid of this nemesis, Merricat is provoked into setting the tainted house on fire (Simon 75). At the close of the novel, audiences see Merricat achieve her ultimate clasp on Constance’s freedom. The two intend on living together in their ruins, more isolated than ever.
Wallace, Honor McKitrick. “‘The Hero Is Married And Ascends the Throne’: The Economics of Narrative End in Shirley Jackson’s ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle.’” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 22, no. 1, 2003, pp. 173-191. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/200559137.
This article takes a look at what Wallace describes as “economic exchange and erotic desire.” First, Wallace explains how traditional novels focus on the hero’s reward. This formulation follows the hero receiving the princess and economic rewards from her father. When discussing We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Wallace provides many in-depth examples of Merricat and especially Constance rejecting this formula. Wallace delves into the fairy tale parallels and the centrality of economics to the novel.
She argues that the Blackwood’s fortune looms over the family like a dark cloud and prevents them from forming any genuine connection with anyone from the village. Wallace also explores the varying meaning of the treasure to Constance, Merricat, and Charles. Constance stockpiles food in the cellar as her treasure while Merricat buries objects in the dirt, and Charles seeks the Blackwood’s tangible fortune as his treasure. Another assertion of this article is of the gender roles within the Blackwood wealth. The women of the family have always brought in fine china, goods, and furniture. Whereas the men, specifically John Blackwood, are in control of the finances and reign over the house as King.