In We Have
Always Lived in the Castle, the reader is thrown into a world where an
eighteen year old lives with her sister and her uncle. Young Merricat is
portrayed as a girl who seems to only want to protect her sister from the
outside world. However, at the same time, the novel starts off with a description
of Mary Katherine’s life and what has occurred. The reader then immediately finds
out almost everyone in her family is dead from poison, Mary owns a cat named
Jonas, and that there seems to be a loose screw within Merricat. The reader,
not knowing any better, delves deeper into the novel, learning that Merricat is
actually a mass murderer who killed her family, not Constance despite popular
belief. It then becomes clear what two methods of Postmodernism Shirley Jackson uses in this novel; Irony and an
unreliable narrator.
Although it takes some time before it is clear,
Jackson uses a lot of irony in this novel. Many times throughout the book,
Merricat states “The poor old Uncle Julian was dying and I made a firm rule to
be kinder to him” (Jackson 12). Even though Merricat seems to have the intent
of actually being kinder to her Uncle, it is later revealed that Merricat is
actually the murderer who tried to kill Uncle Julian with the poisonous
mushroom. This is very ironic because she tried, and failed, to kill her uncle,
but then constantly states she will be nicer to him. Since the truth is
revealed at the end of the novel, it feels like during the rest of the story,
Merricat means well with her Uncle. But a deeper truth shows Merricat’s true
feelings towards her dying uncle.
Jackson also incorporates an unreliable narrator,
which in this case is Mary Katherine. During the plot, the reader is led to
believe Constance, her sister, is the murderer because her trial comes up so
often in the story. It also helps that Merricat seems to be protecting
Constance from the outside world, although her reasons are not specifically
stated. Inferences made about her decision is either to protect Constance from
the village since she is ridiculed by them on a daily basis or to make sure she
does not kill anyone else, however unlikely this is. However, in reality,
Merricat is the murderer which shows how unreliable Merricat is a narrator
since she keeps this information to herself for almost the entire book. Plus,
most of the novel is very one-sided. Whenever Merricat enters the village to
run errands, or when someone visits the house, Merricat only shows her side of
the story, which in this case is usually her wanting a person or many people
dead. Merricat also uses weird omens that are not natural to distinguish whether
or not it was going to be a good day. From having certain people talk to her to
books that were nailed to a tree for no reason falling off, it is quite obvious
Merricat is one of the least reliable narrators since she never really tells
the truth and apparently never really uses reason in her decisions.
Works
Cited
Jackson, Shirley. We
Have Always Lived in the Castle. New
York: The Penguin Group, 2006. Print.
(This is Casey)
ReplyDeleteGreat post Bryan. I thought that your point about the extensive use of irony was a well warranted and quality observation and that the arguments you make regarding Merricat being an unreliable narrator were supported well by the events in the book. However, I think that you should include more evidence directly from the book to support the unreliable nature of Merricat as a narrator. Although it is very clear that something is wrong with Merricat from the beginning of the novel, Jackson’s writing style adds to your argument by emphasizing the feelings and unique perspective of Merricat through her stream of consciousness. The scene with Mr. and Mrs. Elbert at the grocery store would have been perfect because the scene is filled with Merricat’s focused and continual reactions to the villagers. Also, including more text evidence to support the point about Merricat’s unreliable narration will help determine the meaning behind Jackson’s use of an unreliable narrator through her writing style. For instance, an unreliable narrator is one of the best tools to keep the book suspenseful until Constance reveals that Merricat killed her family, and Jackson emphasizes this through irony as well as foreshadowing when Merricat introduces herself, saying she likes the deathcup mushroom. Other than including more text evidence, I thought your response was a very accurate portrayal of the relationship between the novel and postmodernism.