Horror is a genre that seizes a reader and plunges them into a fictional world created by the author’s grotesque, dark imagination. The author forms this gripping world through layers of theme, literary structure, and other captivating elements and symbols. In We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, the author uses these elements in a profound and sophisticated manner, leaving the reader chilled to the bone without quite grasping how or why. Jackson creates an unsettling work of subtle suspense and horror through an unreliable narrator, witchcraft, and isolation. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is narrated by a troubled and mentally ill adolescent, Mary Katherine Blackwood. Merricat is an unreliable narrator, and there is
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All other sentences in the first paragraph contain the words “I” or “me” in them, but the last sentence does not and is stated as a fact. “Everyone else in the family is dead” (Jackson 1). Whether she killed them remains a mystery until the end of the book, creating suspense and suspicion for the reader all the while. This also shows a lack of guilt or remorse, a trait commonly linked to psychosis. On that same topic, it is clear that Merricat suffers from multiple mental disorders. The first paragraph hints at schizophrenia, because Merricat does not seem to distinguish fantasy from reality, even though she is eighteen years old and almost an adult. “I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had” (Jackson 1). This whimsical mindset can become confusing to the reader, and because Merricat doesn't seem to have a firm awareness of reality, it is hard for the reader to clearly interpret any given circumstance. In addition, Merricat is paranoid, constantly living in fear of change and the villagers. “And then the laughter, coming from all …show more content…
Physical isolation occurs by how the Blackwood mansion and property are remarkably closed off from the rest of the village. “Our mother disliked the sight of anyone who wanted to walking past our front door, and when our father brought her to live in the Blackwood house, one of the first things he had to do was close off the path and fence in the entire Blackwood property, from the highway to the creek” (Jackson 26). As in most horror films, seclusion helps separate the events taking place in a particular area from the rest of the normal world. This distances them from reality, making the situation seem more abnormal and creepy. Another reason they’re secluded is because the majority of the villagers hates them. This disconnects them from all other living people and makes it so that if they were in trouble, no one would be there to help them. In addition, they are isolated through mental illness. Constance is isolated through her agoraphobia, Merricat through her paranoid schizophrenia, and Uncle Julian through the damage that he sustained from the arsenic poisoning. This causes them to dislike other human contact and remain on their property for the majority of their time. One reason that Merricat in particular is isolated is because of her inability to form healthy and intimate relationships with other people. All of this seclusion causes the reader to really get to know the three main
All other sentences in the first paragraph contain the words “I” or “me” in them, but the last sentence does not and is stated as a fact. “Everyone else in the family is dead” (Jackson 1). Whether she killed them remains a mystery until the end of the book, creating suspense and suspicion for the reader all the while. This also shows a lack of guilt or remorse, a trait commonly linked to psychosis. On that same topic, it is clear that Merricat suffers from multiple mental disorders. The first paragraph hints at schizophrenia, because Merricat does not seem to distinguish fantasy from reality, even though she is eighteen years old and almost an adult. “I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had” (Jackson 1). This whimsical mindset can become confusing to the reader, and because Merricat doesn't seem to have a firm awareness of reality, it is hard for the reader to clearly interpret any given circumstance. In addition, Merricat is paranoid, constantly living in fear of change and the villagers. “And then the laughter, coming from all …show more content…
Physical isolation occurs by how the Blackwood mansion and property are remarkably closed off from the rest of the village. “Our mother disliked the sight of anyone who wanted to walking past our front door, and when our father brought her to live in the Blackwood house, one of the first things he had to do was close off the path and fence in the entire Blackwood property, from the highway to the creek” (Jackson 26). As in most horror films, seclusion helps separate the events taking place in a particular area from the rest of the normal world. This distances them from reality, making the situation seem more abnormal and creepy. Another reason they’re secluded is because the majority of the villagers hates them. This disconnects them from all other living people and makes it so that if they were in trouble, no one would be there to help them. In addition, they are isolated through mental illness. Constance is isolated through her agoraphobia, Merricat through her paranoid schizophrenia, and Uncle Julian through the damage that he sustained from the arsenic poisoning. This causes them to dislike other human contact and remain on their property for the majority of their time. One reason that Merricat in particular is isolated is because of her inability to form healthy and intimate relationships with other people. All of this seclusion causes the reader to really get to know the three main