Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived In The Castle
Shirley Jackson’s Alter Egos: A Psychoanalytic Criticism of Castle With the advent of psychoanalytic criticism in the late 20th century, the critic was given a new assortment of tools to interpret literature. A critic could now pose the question of what the literature means in context with the authors psyche; was the chair just a chair, or perhaps did it represent a deeper meaning of the authors repressed feelings in life. In Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the two main characters Merricat and Constance Blackwood are two halves of a single identity representing Jackson’s repressed mental identity. Jackson created a Yin and Yang of sorts with the two sisters, both being a dark reflection of Jackson’s own personal private
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But yet it is known that in Jackson’s own early life she had a tumultuous relationship with her mother Geraldine, who was a remarkably tactless and self-possessed woman. She married Jackson’s father at the age of 20 and immediately became pregnant with Jackson shortly after, but Geraldine never wanted Jackson for “she had looked forward to having time alone with her dashing husband, unencumbered, and to the parties and social engagements she loved.” (Oppenheimer-12). Geraldine was also never very approving of her daughter, with Jackson’s brother stating “A goldfish giving birth to a porpoise...” as a way to describe the relationship, with Geraldine often trying to conform Jackson into her “goldfish” like ways of the feminine societal norms of the time. Jackson growing up was also noted as having a very special gift of “clairvoyance”, as she put it she could see deep down into the core of people and read them for what they truly were, creating more of a distance between her and her mother as she would often bluntly comment on the nature of the people of the suburban neighborhood where she grew up. In many ways Jackson shares characteristics with Merricat, I believe that the 18 year-old is the personified embodiment of Jackson’s free spirit and rage for her mother. Merricat can be read as Jackson’s memories of her growing up in a house with Geraldine, she represents everything Jackson never was, but always wished to be in a carefree little girl who never has to grow up and remains in her castle unbothered by
But yet it is known that in Jackson’s own early life she had a tumultuous relationship with her mother Geraldine, who was a remarkably tactless and self-possessed woman. She married Jackson’s father at the age of 20 and immediately became pregnant with Jackson shortly after, but Geraldine never wanted Jackson for “she had looked forward to having time alone with her dashing husband, unencumbered, and to the parties and social engagements she loved.” (Oppenheimer-12). Geraldine was also never very approving of her daughter, with Jackson’s brother stating “A goldfish giving birth to a porpoise...” as a way to describe the relationship, with Geraldine often trying to conform Jackson into her “goldfish” like ways of the feminine societal norms of the time. Jackson growing up was also noted as having a very special gift of “clairvoyance”, as she put it she could see deep down into the core of people and read them for what they truly were, creating more of a distance between her and her mother as she would often bluntly comment on the nature of the people of the suburban neighborhood where she grew up. In many ways Jackson shares characteristics with Merricat, I believe that the 18 year-old is the personified embodiment of Jackson’s free spirit and rage for her mother. Merricat can be read as Jackson’s memories of her growing up in a house with Geraldine, she represents everything Jackson never was, but always wished to be in a carefree little girl who never has to grow up and remains in her castle unbothered by