We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Paranoia & Agoraphobia (Susana Ciuperciuc)

Shirley Jackson’s final novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, provides a fascinating outlook on the effects of mental illness within a home. At the time of writing WHALITC, Jackson’s wellbeing was at an all-time low. Her physical health had severely digressed, making it painful to move and limiting her to the confines of her home in North Bennington. Life within her home was also reaching its crux: for years, Jackson had maintained a failed marriage to fellow author Stanley Hyman. The town itself was no reprieve for Jackson, as it was a hostile, unfamiliar environment that left her feeling total animosity for its inhabitants. These factors amalgamated into one novel, a story about an 18-year-old girl named Mary Katherine Blackwood who lives with her sister and uncle in a large manor fenced off from the rest of the town.














The first description given of Blackwood Manor is a stark contrast to Jackson’s actual home.


Merricat mentions that her house is entirely surrounded by a road “and along every inch of Blackwood Road is a wire fence built by our father” (Jackson 2). To get home, Merricat must open a fence and cut through the woods that also surround the house before she is to finally arrive home.  Merricat then claims, “The people of the village have always hated us” which is why the family lived in total isolation, mutually hostile with the surrounding townspeople (Jackson 2). Jackson’s second and final house in North Bennington lacks the extreme measures of security and remoteness, though it seems that Blackwood Manor represents the ideal home for Jackson instead. A home filled with books, untouched treasures of past lives, and a mischievous cat running to and fro. Jackson finds comfort in the domestic routine maintained in the Blackwood family. Cooking meals, gardening, cleaning, and afternoon teas are all strictly scheduled for different dates and times within a week. To stray from routine is taboo, highlighting Jackson’s obsession with control, especially when so much of her life—such as her marriage or illnesses—was beyond her grasp.











As stated prior, the townspeople provide no comfort to Merricat, instead only fuelling her depraved mannerisms. The only way she manages to safely navigate her outings is by imagining it to be a game. Merricat recounts that the town only brought thoughts of “burning black painful rot that ate away from inside, hurting dreadfully” (Jackson 3). Because of the cold, unfeeling nature of those in the village, Merricat’s paranoia is enabled to an extreme, as she describes her outing to get groceries to be filled with stares, giggles, and snide remarks from the gossips within the town. Though she wishes to ignore them, she finds herself picturing morbidly walking upon their dead bodies instead. “I wish you were all dead, [Merricat] thought, and longed to say it out loud” (Jackson 4). To experience constant harassment every time she is in public is bound to drive Merricat mad, which prevents any opportunities of growth or mental recovery as she is reduced to a character, an abstract idea rather than a feeling human being. The adults antagonise her, and the children learn to do the same, chanting nasty rhymes about the Blackwood family, and more specifically the person she cares for most: Constance. Jackson also felt this deep disapproval from the locals in North Bennington, who were described as detestable people that attacked nearly every aspect of Jackson’s identity. She was often the centre of town gossip, which worsened when she began to encounter issues in the behaviours of central town members, such as a third-grade teacher whom she accused of abuse. It seems the only true solace Jackson could find was in herself, which is evident upon analysing the two central female figures in WHALITC.











Merricat and Constance are envisioned by Jackson to be “two halves of the same person.” One is adventurous, bold and confident in her wickedness. Unapologetic, yet at times still paranoid and fearful. The other is demure and domestic, the motherly figure and housewife personality. Two sides of Jackson: the witchy writer's social persona and the caretaker to her family. Both find solace in one another. Where one struggles, unable to move on, the other takes charge. Merricat often reads as what Jackson strives to be; despite the paranoid loner forefront, Merricat is never one to back down in the face of authority and abuse. She protects her sister and fights to maintain the peaceful aspects of domesticity the two find solace in. Similarly, Constance shrewdly navigates the social settings of life to a fine-tuned rhythm, allowing her to trick people into thinking she is demure and innocent when the reality is that she is anything but. Still, nothing good ever remains for long, and the household dynamic is inevitably shaken when an uninvited visitor comes knocking at their door, claiming to be their cousin. Here is where we witness the downfall of the house. 











The cousin, Charles Blackwood, comes to visit the girls under the claims that he wishes to help them find their footing again and re-enter society. While he does make attempts to socialise Constance, it quickly becomes clear that there is an ulterior motive to Charles’ actions as he soon begins to resemble Merricat’s late father in not only looks but mannerisms and behaviour too. Within the first few days of his stay, Charles cements himself as the up-and-coming master of the household as Merricat remarks, “He sat across from me at dinner, in our father's chair, with his big white face blotting out the silver on the sideboard behind him” (Jackson 29). Like Jackson’s husband, Charles is a controlling yet lazy figure, one who makes demands upon the household yet never quite makes any real attempts at taking charge around the house. Merricat makes many attempts to drive away Charles: creating charms, casting spells, breaking mirrors, and other similar superstitious habits. Unfortunately, none of this works, and Merricat soon realises that the only way she can reclaim her home is to destroy it, or to at least destroy the aspects of it that Charles wishes to retain. 

One still-burning smoke pipe is left undisturbed in Charles’ room. Until it isn’t. The house goes up in flames, consuming the riches of the home and taking the life of Uncle Julian. Charles laments the loss of all the money and abandons ship, leaving the sisters to their own devices. While Constance is shaken by the loss of the house’s grandeur familiarity, Merricat revels in the opportunity to take charge and recreate their safe and structured life of comfort in the rubble. The men are no more, there is no one to control them. Though undertaking overwhelming amounts of deconstruction and loss, the house is still standing, still serving as a home to the two girls. Their continued life within the home attests to the fact that a house is more than its structure or outward integrity; it also depends heavily upon its inhabitants to maintain its status. Regardless of the depravity they must endure, the Blackwood sisters continue to find shelter and freedom together inside the remains of a home they love so dear. And though untraditional, Merricat’s final lines ring as truth at the end of the book. “Oh Constance,” [Merricat] said, “We are so happy” (Jackson 61). To Jackson, this is the true happy end.





WORKS CITED


Fetsko Petrie, Kathye      September. “In Search of Shirley Jackson’s House.” Literary Hub, 28 Sept. 2016, lithub.com/in-search-of-shirley-jacksons-house/. 


Heller, Zoë. “The Haunted Mind of Shirley Jackson.” The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2016, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/the-haunted-mind-of-shirley-jackson#:~:text=Shortly%20after%20the%20publication%20of,outside%20for%20half%20a%20year. 


Frank, Elizabeth. “THE SORCERESS OF BENNINGTON.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Aug. 1988, www.nytimes.com/1988/08/07/books/the-sorceress-of-bennington.html. 


Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Penguin Books, 2024.