Early in December, the week before I went back to America after a three-month holiday in Australia (my homeland), I went into a bookshop and grabbed something small for the plane(s) home. It ended up being We Have Always Lived in a Castle by Shirley Jackson, one of the little orange and white Penguin editions. I didn’t read on the plane because I was crying too hard and then I watched Psycho to cheer myself up and forgot about the book. Finally, yesterday, I read it. It turned out to be American Gothic literature.
I have never read anything so unapologetically macabre and mystical. As I cracked the spine the first time, I was determined to become invested in the main character, Merricat, who is writing the story from her perspective. She lives alone with her sister Constance – and six years prior all their family members were poisoned. Early on in the story, it becomes very clear to the reader who the murderer is. It is Merricat. And Constance knew about it. So the story is not a mystery, nor about a murderer being brought to justice, as I supposed at first.
Throughout the story, Merricat continually practices rustic witchcraft to protect her and her sister from outside perils. Although eighteen years old, Merricat sees the future as if only six years old, a golden continuation of her present paradise, replete with delicious food and days in the garden. She never looks back to the dark time six years prior, when everyone died. She dreams of destroying the people that mistreat her and her sister. Violence makes her content. Food makes her feel secure. Her sister makes her feel love. Her family….makes her feel nothing at all. And that made me wonder, did she and her sister actually plan the death of the family? The two of them, together? To what end? Paradise. Food. Life exactly as Merricat wants it, with the family member she did not want dead. And finally, after certain hurdles and catastrophes, Merricat gets her happy ending. And I was relieved. And disgusted. I noticed that, even as I became more and more alarmed at her characteristics as the story unfolded, I felt a sadness at Merricat’s woes and contentment at her joys. Here was a story about a sociopath who sacrified her parents so she could live happily ever after, and she never felt a twinge of guilt. And here was I almost relieved that she lived happily ever after.
I dislike American Gothic literature. It makes me sympathetic to all the things that people get sent to prison for, like poisoning your parents.
by 20thCenturyCobweb
43 Comments
I have this on my list. I skimmed the first bit and didn’t read the rest because I’d never read it if too much got spoiled. I’ll hopefully check in when I finish reading.
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It was so interesting to read your perspective on this because I got something completely different out of it than you did.
I guess a question I would ask to lend you a different perspective would be – What do you think a person might have experienced to lead them to poison their family, to have her older sister cover up for her, for said sister to have such severe anxiety that she completely withdraws from their town and almost everyone they know, and, when pushed, to only scream, “They deserved it!” – Just hedonism?
I’ve known about this book for a while and it’s basic premise, but I’ll admit that I didn’t care about reading it until I read one of the Dark Tower books (Stephen King) where it is referenced briefly.
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>And they died in *aaaagooooony.*
i read this recently too and i absolutely loved it. it’s jackson’s best novel in my opinion
It’s one of those thought-provoking books that you simultaneously wish you never read. Also, Haunting of Hill House was way better.
Fantastic book. I also read it without knowing anything about it and I was hooked right away. It took me a long time to believe what I was reading, I didn’t expect Merricat to be such an unapologetic psychopath!
Interesting perspective about the sisters! It’s been awhile since I read this, but I remember reading it as Constance being spared, not as being in on the plan. And then having to accept what had happened and move on, continuing to act as a caregiver for her younger sister. At parts I could feel her living this solemn existence where she knows that her sister is a dangerous sociopath, yet the only thing she can do is continue to love and care for her. Such a great book!
The film version of this is available on Amazon Prime Video and its great.
Skipping reading this for the time being because I haven’t read this one myself yet (though I love Shirley Jackson and it’s on my List™️), but came to say that I love reading books and watching movies this way. I’ve been pleasantly surprised time and time again by avoiding any expectations or preconceived notions of the story I’m about to take in.
If you haven’t tried this yet, I encourage you to. It will be well worth your while.
There was a forward in a Shirley Jackson boom of short stories I read sometime ago that talked about the themes she always returned to. I guess she spent her life as an at-home writer that relocated a lot for her husband’s work and always to different chunks of small town America. That’s why so many of her books include the macabre behavior within those communities.
I read that forward right before I read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and I mostly villanized the town folk because of it. I never even thought of her as a straight sociopath, I thought maybe a schizo? Totally an interesting analysis.
Hello, Jonas. You are a leaf, I think.
There are theories that one or both girls were being molested and that’s the motive for the poisonings.
I kept wondering about how Constance as a character felt throughout the story. Obviously she loved her sister enough to not indict her for the murder. She has resigned herself to a life trapped with a crazy sister, and by the end, she seems to descend into the same kind of madness as Merricat.
I went in the same as you, knowing nothing, abs it immediately jumped to my favourite book. From the opening line about how she should have been a werewolf, the idea of the sidewalk as one big boardgame she in on, to whispering words into a cup then drinking them to keep herself safe, it was incredible.
well i guess i can’t say the same if i ever read it
I was so taken by this story. After I read it, I listened to the audio book (very well narrated) and also watched the movie which is available on Amazon Prime currently. Each time I had a different take on the overarching situation. Was Merricat a “naive monster” being protected from herself by her sister? Was Constance so afraid of Merricat’s mercurial wrath she was willing to forgo a normal life? Did Constance continue the charade of normalcy out of guilt? The irony of the name Constance is hard to overlook.
I will even go there and wonder if Merricat is actually living alone in the house.
I like how OP watched Psycho to cheer up, I’m right there with you!
I LOVE this novel, and also read it knowing 0% of what it was about. It was so much better that way.
I read this the other day without knowing a thing about it.
Glad I didn’t.
I knew nothing about the book myself before reading it and I loved it. Haunting. Disturbing, yes. That’s why I read, why I experience art and life. To be made to feel something, maybe something new to me, maybe something uncomfortable.
The cover caught my eye, and I had remembered hearing about it, so I too borrowed it and read it this year. During the pandemic actually. Well, the quarantine.
I didn’t know anything about it, and ended up finding it quite good
I’m literally taking a break from reading her book the Haunting of Hill House by scrolling reddit & this popped up. Haven’t read this one yet but I may have to after reading Hill House!
I’m not reading the post in case of spoilers…but I am going to read this!
I watched the movie, and I wondered how awful her father must have been for the townspeople to hate them so much. You get the feeling that her father repeatedly cheated people as much as he could.
I highly recommend rereading this every so often you discover something new every time.
I always hated the cousin not Merricat. I felt bad for Constance because she just sounded tired from keeping the family together and trying to keep some semblance of normalcy.
Shirley Jackson is my favorite horror writer. She sets a mood and creeps you out in the most unusual ways.
There was an essay at the end of the version I read by Jonathan Letham; Arguing that Shirley Jackson split herself in two when writing Merricat and Constance. Constance was the passive, domestic self that Shirley had often to play, while Merricat was the hateful, hedonistic, naturalistic self that often drove Shirley and her writing.
The other thing that stood out to me from the essay was the trope, which doesn’t seem so common in contemporary literature, of the child who is so spoiled that they never develop a sense of morality. The first time she faces a consequence, being sent to her room without dinner, she perceives it as such an injustice that murder is righteous.
An odd book.
I haven’t fully read this comment, but have decided to go and pick this book up!
I didn’t know this was a book! It was a movie on Netflix that I watched. I’ll have to read it!
I haven’t read this (but from your post, I now want to!) but it sounds like a similar idea to Florence and Giles if anyone has read that. It is written from the point of view of a little girl who very sweetly describes her dastardly deeds (all the while very well justified) whilst living in an isolated manor at the start of the 20th century.
This book sounds interesting! I looked for it on Libby and only the audio book is available. I’ll try it out.
“I dislike American Gothic literature. It makes me sympathetic to all the things that people get sent to prison for, like poisoning your parents.”
This is the true power of literature, possibly of all art. To give you insights into the minds of people who are different from yourself. There are certainly worse things than to be made to sympathize with Merricat–who almost certainly poisoned her family out of some combination of mental illness, trauma, and childish ignorance of the consequences of her actions. None of which are entirely her fault.
I read a book once that argued that it is dangerous to decide people are “evil,” even serial killers, pedophiles, and genocidal dictators, because once we do that we no longer look at the causes and circumstances that underlie it–whether they’re rooted in childhood trauma, mental illness, or political circumstance. By failing to empathize with evil, we lose some of our ability to prevent evil.
Wait, we lived in a Castle?
Always has been.
There is an excellent audio book reading by Bernadette Dunne. Worth checking out.
Just finish this book 20 minutes ago and yea…whew. Quite unsettling. I loved it 🙂
It’s worth remembering that the book is very much a product of Shirley Jackson’s difficult life. She struggled all her life with what we’d probably today call extreme social anxiety and the stultifying small town she lived in and felt didn’t fit in with. Allegedly, she had a strained relationship with her parents, and her biographers report her husband cheated on her.
In some ways, she *is* Merricat, or an older version of her. Girlish, filled with a bright enthusiasm, but also seized with a deep anxiety about the world around her and resorting to arbitrary rituals to keep the world in order. Merricat’s foibles are presented as irrational to the point of being murderous, but then Jackson was also a very self-critical person with a grim sense of humour.
She’s famous for this, and more famous for *The Lottery* and *The Haunting of Hill House*, both of which are very morbid, macabre tales.
I adored this book. I read it shortly after Haunting of Hill House (which was also great, but Castle was better imo) and was immediately in love with Merricat as a character. Her voice was so strong. It’s hard not to root for her.
My immediate interpretation of the book was a Marxist one- that the family that made its money by exploiting and oppressing the working-class people of the village around it kind of did deserve to be murdered by their spoiled daughter the one time they didn’t give her everything they wanted. Like they were literally killed by their own privilege.
What’s interesting to me is the question of if the villagers were hateful and resentful of the daughters for killing the family, or because of what the family did to them?
I guess it’s just really hard for me to ever sympathize with rich people.
>I dislike American Gothic literature. It makes me sympathetic to all the things that people get sent to prison for, like poisoning your parents.
That’s like saying you dislike truth. There’s a very thin line between what can be considered normal versus what is psychopathic behavior. The putting out of the fire by the villagers is communal, anti-sociopath, one might say. But then what is the chanting and further destruction? What is the communal ostracism that the villagers, as a unified whole, have exposed the family to all this time? What would you think about their treatment had they not been guilty? Do you think the villagers would have acted differently if Constance had been convicted? Why does it make a difference?
In America we treat convicts as branded for life, even though many aren’t “sociopaths” to the level of detrimental to society but people who made a bad decision under specific circumstances with the outcome that others were hurt. We give hardly a thought to the bulk of bad deeds and doers that never get punished. However, at the slightest implication or evidence somebody has committed a “wrong” but not been punished we often are quick to condemn.
I think the story can be read as one about persecution, often rooted in the false sense of moral superiority. Very applicable today. Heck, if you look at the way most people carry on with their lives knowing the damage we do to ourselves as a whole, the same as ingesting literal poison, and what lies ahead, most people are psychopaths, right?
>I didn’t read on the plane because I was crying too hard and then I watched Psycho to cheer myself up and forgot about the book
I never read this book, but this sentence stood out to me. I hope you found some peace of mind (or some kind of temporary sanity) around whatever caused you to cry that hard on a plane.
I didn’t see anybody else say it, so I thought I would. Positive vibes.
Long days and pleasant nights, stranger.
Just read the title of this and will not read anymore
Will revisit after I read this book, I have never heard of this book before so hope it goes well
> I didn’t read on the plane because I was crying too hard
aww..
> and then I watched Psycho to cheer myself up
…oh
the title makes me think of that nicole kidman movie “The Others”
same story?
I got this book as a blind-buy “take a book on a date.” It just used adjectives to describe what type of book it is. I loved Shirley Jackson’s short stories, so this was a nice surprise.
After reading it I agree with your whole description. The characters of the townsfolk, and the cousin who comes to stay with them, is a great parallel to the evils of the main character and Jackson is incredible at capturing the corrupt banality of humankind in such a relatable way.
The witchcraft she practices is so fascinating too, you get sucked into her beliefs about it and I found myself even hoping her spells would be successful in warding off the unwanted events.