The Theme Isolation in the Story, “We Have Always Lived In the Castle”

In the story “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” Merricat Blackwood, her sister Constance and their sick Uncle Julian reside in a massive house on a large area in isolation from a village that is close by. Constance has stayed in their home for over six years without leaving and has never gone beyond the large garden. Uncle Julian, who is confined to a wheelchair, is always writing notes for his memoirs while under Constance’s care. The Blackwood parents, alongside their younger brother Thomas as well as Julian’s wife, were murdered in the past through arsenic poisoning. The murder is later revealed to be orchestrated by Merricat through her confession to her sister while they were hiding in the woods away from the angry mob of villagers who had attacked their house. Ever since the poisoning and murder events, the villagers have been ostracizing the family and feel that Constance, who was initially a suspect to the crime, is responsible for the ordeal (Jackson, 2018).  It is for similar reasons that the remaining Blackwood’s choose to live in isolation from the villagers.

Merricat is the only family member among .

the three who seldom comes into contact with the outside world. She visits the village twice a week for groceries and books. During these trips, Merricat experiences hostilities from the community and is always taunted by children who follow her while singing an accusing rhyme. The children and villagers who are rude and harsh to Merricat, make it obvious to her that the village’s folk hate her family. The arrival of Charles, Merricat’s and Constance’s cousin, marks a significant turning point for the sisters as life-changing events take place after his arrival. Charles becomes a close friend to Constance and alludes himself into her confidence. He encourages her to visit the outside world more and tries to build her confidence to do so.  Merricat, on the other hand, sees Charles as a threat and refers to him as a ghost and demon. Prior to his arrival, Merricat had forecast a dangerous change approaching through her sympathetic magic practices. According to Merricat, Charles is the foreseen danger, and she tries different ways to have him leave the house. In her efforts to have Constance unfriend Charles, as well as have Charles leaving the house, Merricat ends up setting their house on fire after pushing Charles’s pipe into a basket filled with papers (Jackson, 2018). Villagers who then come to the family’s aid by trying to put out the fire, later on, begin destroying the house as an expression of their hidden hatred for the Blackwoods.  Merricat and Constance find a chance to escape, and they run into the woods, but their uncle Julian perishes to a heart attack as the story reveals. Charles, on the other hand, tries to take the Blackwoods family safe that he claims the parents had left behind but fails to find it. His efforts to reunite and befriend Constance after the fire and destruction of the Blackwoods home do not bear fruit as Constance ignores him after realizing his greedy purpose for visiting them in the first place. Constance and Merricat stick together and remain alone and in isolation from the villagers and the outside world.

Isolation is clearly among the key themes in the story. The three Blackwoods, Merricat, Constance, and Julian, experience different forms of isolation, including physical, psychological, and emotional. From the onset of the story, the author portrays the Blackwoods to be in physical isolation from the village’s fork as they reside in a house that is surrounded by the woods far from others (Hardin, 2016). The description of Merricat’s journey to and from the village while getting groceries and books supplies, not only signifies the long-distance separating the Blackwoods home from the town, but also shows how deserted the family house is as Merricat scarcely meets anyone on her way during these trips. The murder accusations against Constance make her afraid of the outside world, which leads her to confine herself within the surroundings of the family house.  Although Charles seems to convince her to return to the world by building her confidence, the story does not reveal if she does so.  The story also concludes by revealing Constance and Merricat have successfully cut themselves off from the outside world as they live by themselves in their haunted house.

Merricat seems to seek to remain isolated and is happy to isolate herself from the outside world. She is afraid and dislikes the village people who express similar feelings towards the Blackwoods in equal measure.  Merricat’s overprotective nature towards Constance makes her and Constance more physically isolated from the villagers and the rest of the world. Merricat is determined to persuade Constance to stay in isolation with her. After driving away the townsfolk and Charles as well, Merricat is successful in her schemes to live in isolation with her sister Constance.  In addition, Merricat’s plot of murdering all of her family members except for Constance shows her long- thought intentions to physically isolate Constance and herself from the family. Uncle Julian was the only survivor of Merricat’s plan, which left him with the condition that bounds him to a wheelchair. Uncle Julian’s survival was not part of Merricat’s plan and only represents a failure in her plot and is perhaps is the reason Constance is the only one who cares for him.  Merricat isolates herself from Uncle Julian, both physically and emotionally (Begonja, 2017). Seen as Merricat relishes her isolation from everybody else, Constance’s new thought on changing to start facing society again worries Merricat. Merricat wants to completely possess and control Constance, and their continued isolation is core to realizing that. Merricat often gets ideas about living on the moon alongside Constance. The moon shows Merricat’s ideal life, which is characterized by isolation from the world.  The moon represents a safe place far away from anyone who would bother Merricat as well as her sister. Merricat would do as she pleased, including keeping Constance’s attention to herself.

Psychological isolation is seen in the story through Uncle Julian.  Following the poisoning incident that saw him lose his wife alongside other family members, Uncle Julian has always been writing about the incident repeatedly for his memoirs. Uncle Julian’s description, according to other characters, is that of an individual who is eccentric and obsessed. The loss seems to traumatize him and place his mind on the thoughts of the same incident since it occurred. Uncle Julian’s mind is isolated from all other thoughts apart from the poisoning incident. Merricat also seems to be in a psychologically isolated state. Her sympathetic magical practices represent her isolated mindset. She nails items such as books to trees as well as puts relics in the ground as a means of keeping her and Constance out of harm’s way.  She believes that the magic provides divine protection and even derives signs from them as warnings of danger. Merricat’s plan to murder her family members also shows her psychologically isolated state (Begonja, 2017).  Her plot is well-calculated, and she is well aware of all family members’ habits and practices. Merricat shows a unique strategic, comprehensive mental capacity through her murder scheme, which goes as planned as her sister is not affected, and Merricat drives away any suspicions towards her.

The three remaining Blackwood family members, Merricat, Uncle Julian, as well as Constance, all show emotional isolation. Uncle Julian and Constance have never left the family’s estate for over five years and have lived without spouses or friends for the entire period. Constance is even pushed and encouraged by Helen Clarke and Charles to socialize with others more to find a suitable spouse (Jackson, 2018). Julian’s and Constance’s years’ long lifestyle without being in relationships, as well as lacking friends, places them under emotional isolation. Merricat emotionally disconnects herself from everyone except Constance. Merricat only displays affection for her sister and is willing to do anything to remain only with her (Hardin, 2016). Merricat’s dislike and hatred for everybody show she is emotionally isolated from the world. Merricat is also happy to be living alone, and her feelings for an even wider, more isolated environment is reflective of the emotional isolation she relishes.

The story concludes by showing Merricat and Constance successfully manage to isolate themselves from the world generally (Jackson, 2018). Despite seeing the people lingering outside their house, the village members cannot see what is inside the sisters’ house.  Merricat and Constance watch the activities and habits of the society, but they do not abide by them and instead choose to live a lifestyle based on the rules made by Merricat.

 

 

References

Begonja, L. (2017). Female Characters and Setting in Shirley Jackson’s” We Have Always Lived in the Castle” (Doctoral dissertation, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Department of English Language and Literature.).

Hardin, A. (2016). “Listening to what she had almost said”: Containment and duality in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. In Shirley Jackson, Influences and Confluences (pp. 123-134). Routledge.

Jackson, S. (2018). We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Viking Press.