We Have Always Lived In The Castle Character Traits

Rough Draft 3

Shirley Jackson’s last novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, combines many of her most vital concerns-psychology, isolation, and evil-with a curiosity in black magic. Merricat, Jackson's main character, is a young girl with many psychopathic tendencies including obsessive behavior and murder. Merricat comes through with her dignity intact throughout the story; she plots an imaginative yet understandable revenge. The revenge that only psychosis victims, who have beliefs with no basis in reality, would understand. The villainizing and heroic Merricat, has a psychotic behavior that can be seen though her delusional habits, her almost childish mind, and the extermination of her family members.

The villainizing and heroic Merricat

She thinks the number three is evil, buries things in her back yard to blockade the world, and trusts no one except her sister Constance. She believes she can feel omens, "All the omens spoke of change. I woke up Saturday morning and thought I heard them calling me.” (Jackson 58). This superstition causes her to behave in mysterious ways. She burns down their house in order to rid herself of Charles whom she believed was evil. Examining Charles pipe rested on the counter top, then shoved into the basket of paper to destroy the history of the family was intentions from a mysterious shadowed creature that overcame Merricat. Throughout the story, Merricat had been shadowed by this negative figure that guided delusional habits into the young girl. In novel, “Gone Girl” written by Gillian Flynn,

Merricat’s mind became chaotic and somewhat unpredictable at all times. Often, in the story “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”, her judgement is agreeable childlike. Not knowing the reasons that led up to the poisoning of her family, Merricat seemed to carry on with life like no other. It’s the small things, like the nailing of the book to a tree, the burying of a box of coins, all the tiny protective magic’s she’s undertaken to keep the boundaries of the property safe. Wondering if persecution has made her unstable, or is it simply a function of managing a fear otherwise too great to contend with. In the novel, “Gone Girl”, when Amy was kidnapped by Desi Collings, her wealthy ex-boyfriend, and locked up in a castle like home, in which had a feeling of female imprisonment. Amy quickly began to feel trapped in a setting that didn’t fit, which led to the killing of Desi Collings. Merricat having a very similar setting inside the castle she has always lived in, led to the actions of poisoning the family members. Not knowing exactly why Merricat poisoned her family, its seen how her discomfort inside the castle was enough for her childish and delusional choices to take action. The actions of the novel, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” are clearly heroic and villainized due to Merricats delusional habits, her childish mind, and the