The Psychological World of Shirley Jackson

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The Psychological World of Shirley Jackson Although Shirley Jackson had many psychological problems, she contributed greatly to society through her works. Shirley Jackson was a profound and ambivalent writer. She did not write to please the world but she wrote to convey how she felt about societies in the world. Her psychological problems did have an affect on her writing and it greatly connects with her life. Shirley Jackson was a very unwelcomed writer in her time and that is because many readers did not want to believe that what she wrote was true. Jackson wrote on the horrors that the human being is capable of. Furthermore, Jackson’s mental state only strengthened her work, giving her the advantage of a new perspective; one that most individuals in society lacked. Shirley Jackson grew up in a home like any other normal middle-class family. She lived with both of her parents in Burlington, California. Growing up, Shirley had a lot of tense relations with her parents, but mostly with her mother. Leslie Jackson, Shirley’s mother, set high standards for Shirley by the ways she was perceived by society and social norms. Shirley always seemed to disappoint her mother. The emotionally tearing and psychologically damaging relationship with her mother escalated to the point where her mother even told her she wished she had aborted Shirley. Roberta Rubenstein makes a great point in her work: House Mothers and Haunted Daughters: Shirley Jackson and Female Gothic, of the mental stress her mother put on her as a child that carried on throughout her life. Rubenstein says, “Throughout her life, Shirley was distressed by her mother’s profound insensitivity to her actual personality, combined with persistent attempts to control her unconven... ... middle of paper ... ...Nov. 2013. . Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. New Yorker. The New Yorker. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. . Rubenstein, Roberta. "House Mothers and Haunted Daughters: Shirley Jackson and Female Gothic." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. . "Shirley Jackson." Squidoo. Squido, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. . "Unabridged Chick." Blog Spot. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013. . "Shirley Hardie Jackson." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981. Biography in Context. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

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