Examples Of We Have Always Lived In A Castle Hollywood

The Troubling Dynamics of The Blackwoods Family “We Have Always Lived In A Castle” by Shirley Jackson is an excitingly unsettling novel that follows the lives of two girls and their Uncle Julian after their family died in a mass food poisoning. The narrator throughout the story is the youngest daughter of the now deceased family, Mary ‘Merricat’ Blackwood. It is learned towards the end of the novel that it was actually Merricat who poisoned her entire family, with the exception of her sister, Constance, and her Uncle Julian, who didn’t eat enough to die. The question is: why would Merricat want to kill her entire family? While Merricat’s exact reason for poisoning her family remained unclear in the novel, clues were dropped throughout the

A very kind gesture John and Ellen showed was allowing John’s brother and his wife to stay at their house for free. In the sense of money, they did not have to pay, but they gladly did chores around the house, or at least Aunt Dorthoy did. She and Constance would do all the cooking and cleaning. “We live here with my brother and his wife, after all, and we must remember to show them that we are friendly and eager to help out wherever we can,” (Jackson, 19). Aunt Dorthy was a very kind lady, from what can be read. Uncle Julian stated, “‘I think my wife was civil to your mother, Constance.’” and “‘She entertained my sister-in-law, and she saw to our clothes, and she helped with the dishes in the morning.’” (Jackson, 20). Not much was said about Aunt Dorthy except that she liked to eat and that she would help around the house. Another positive trait passed down by the Blackwoods is polite manners. Merricat said, “We had been brought up to believe that it was discourteous to keep guests talking outside.” (Jackson, 9). The Blackwoods may have hated poor people, but they nonetheless had manners, but probably only towards other rich people. It’s also shown that the family did have friends that genuinely cared about the two remaining daughters, so the dead Blackwood family must have had several good qualities to create such friendships with other families. Uncle Julian did state that “John Blackwood took pride in his table, his family, his position in the world.” (Jackson, 14). John did genuinely care about his family, but sometimes he would make mistakes, as would