Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackon's final novel is a haunting tale of a wealthy family left to ruin. For as long as anyone knows, the Blackwood family have always lived in a large family estate that is walled off to the local village. But now there are only three of the Blackwoods left, sisters, the sensible and caring Constance and whimsical and childish Merricat, and their sickly Uncle Julian. Soon, it becomes apparent that things are a little well, off. The local villagers hate the family and it is only Merricat who ventures out to buy supplies and only on prescribed days, taking a very specific route, one that fits in with a game that she seems to be playing with herself. We see Merricat harassed by a couple of villagers and the reader is almost inclined to feel sorry for her, after all, it seems that the rest of the family died years before and Constance was charged, though later acquitted of trying to poison them. One could almost feel sorry for Merricat, except for the fact that she seems to rather enjoy the solitude, and having her older sister almost entirely to herself. At home, she is spoiled and indulged. And then leads to rather a problem when an unexpected guest turns up on their doorstep. Cousin Charles, who has his eye on Constance, or, more importantly, the family fortune. Soon, a battle of wills between he and Merricat develop. And it soon becomes clear that there can only be one winner ...

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a haunting, gothic tale about a family fractured by the most shocking of events. There is something almost darkly comical about how Merricat runs wild, a woman of about eighteen who acts more like a strong willed and imaginative eight year old who needs a little guidance and discipline, while her older sister Constance remains quietly complicit in all things, in spite of the dark events that have shaped her life, having survived not only the loss of her parents and her other family members, but the fact that she was charged with their murders. There's a little bit on witchcraft, though its difficult to tell if Merricat believes in any such thing, if she suffers from mental illness, or if she's a sociopath who likes to mess with everyone, including the reader.

I was able to work out who really was responsible for putting poison in the sugar bowl early on in the story, however, I doubt that was the central mystery. The real one is why Constance remains so steadfastly loyal to her sister and the answer lies with careful reading. Look closely at her relationship with Charles, and various mentions of other members of the Blackwood family. 

The ending itself is rather fitting, darkly comic with a hint of tragedy.

Recommended. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more