Schizophrenia In Mary Katherine Blackwood's We Have Always Lived In The Castle

Throughout the novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, we notice by Mary Katherine Blackwood’s thoughts, actions, and words that she is not completely mentally healthy and may have several mental illnesses, one of them being paranoid schizophrenia. This disorder makes it difficult for readers to understand what is real and what is a figment of Merricat’s imagination. Through other characters’ speech towards and about her, we can better understand Merricat’s thought process.
Some of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions that a major catastrophe is about to occur and hallucinations, seeing or hearing something that does not exist. These traits were repeatedly shown in the novel and aid the reader

in deciphering a true event from a distorted belief.
The first we see of her paranoid disorder is in the very beginning when Merricat went to the store to buy the groceries from the list her sister, Constance, set out for her to bring back to the house. Once inside the grocery, she observed that the “women in the store were watching… (she) could feel them standing behind (her), holding a can or a half-filled bag of cookies or a head of lettuce, not willing to move until (she) had gone through the door again and the wave of talk began” (Jackson 11). According to Merricat’s narration, the Blackwoods were disliked by the vast majority of the town; however, it is unlikely that everyone in the store stopped what they were doing immediately just to hatefully observe her carry out her weekly chore then return to their usual conversation the moment she left. She continuously mentioned that the town hates her family, but never provided a specific reason why they were hated. This further proves that her mental instability blurred the reader’s understanding.
Merricat mentioned her cat, Jonas, fondly and often; however, she seemed to have been the only one who visually notices him.

Constance, a selfless and tolerant sister, typically did not correct Merricat when she spoke of Jonas other than passively avoiding the topic. When Merricat was unable to find Jonas after the fire, Constance smiled and said, “He was annoyed too. He went out the back door when I took Uncle Julian in to get his papers” (Jackson 151). This shows that Constance was pleased in believing that Merricat’s hallucinations were at least temporarily subsided. An example of Constance’s passiveness is when she tells Merricat that the two of them“are all that is left” (Jackson 172). When Merricat reminds her, “Jonas” (Jackson 172), she replies with, “Jonas. We are going to locker ourselves in more securely than ever” (Jackson 172). Constance realizes that Merricat is incapable of knowing that Jonas is only real to her. Perhaps the most obvious evidence of all is when Constance tells Merricat that refusing to wear Uncle Julian’s clothes “may be all very well for the moon, Miss Foolishness. On the moon you may wear a suit of fur like Jonas, for all of me” (Jackson 198). By relating Jonas’ fur to the moon, she hints to the reader that his fur is as real as Merricat’s wish to live on the moon. In Merricat’s mind, the moon is a perfect reality. She often dreamed of living there to escape her imperfect, isolated life.
Merricat experienced delusions multiple times in the novel, the most common being her belief that her safeguards could prevent people from entering Blackwood property, noting that “so long as they were where I had put them nothing could get in to harm us” (Jackson

59).