What Is The Effect Of We Have Always Lived In The Castle Superstition

Mary Katherine Blackwood, otherwise known as Merricat, uses her superstitious qualitiespersonality to devise a weekly routine after her brief stunt as a psychotic murderer. In Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Merricat’s life revolves around her superstition. It is evident that these actions stem from the murder of her family six years prior. When her cousin, Charles Blackwood, abruptly arrives and attempts to control not only Merricat, but also Constance Blackwood, her sister, Merricat’s superstitions worsen. One of Merricat’s superstitious behaviors is the placement of objects in her yard as protection from any opposing forces. She also says three powerful words as another form of protection. Merricat demonstrates her

The effect of Merricat placing objects that have significance to her dead family around the interior of her yard is protection of the Blackwood property. By doing so, Merricat can protect her property from any outside forces. Placing objects cannot actually protect her home, but her superstition leads her to believe that they can, ¨so long as they were where [Merricat] had put them nothing could harm [Merricat and Constance]¨ (Jackson 59). Merricat goes so far as to blame Charles’s arrival on her book that fell off of a tree, ¨[Merricat] found a very bad omen, one of the worst. [Her] book nailed to a tree in the pine woods had fallen down¨ (77). Shortly after Merricat finds her fathers book, Charles starts knocking on the kitchen door asking to come into not just the house, but their lives as well. His visit to Merricat and Constance’s house does not directly correlate with Merricat’s fathers book falling off of the tree. Merricat only thinks it does because she is superstitious about everything. Merricat’s peculiar obsession with hiding objects around her property, displays her superstitious

Since the death of her family six years prior, Merricat lives an incredibly stable life. Her schedule is unwavering, and she prefers it this way. Her three powerful words prevent any change from abruptly altering her life, ¨so long as these great words were never spoken aloud no change would come¨ (63). Uttering three words cannot protect Merricat from any danger, no matter how powerful she thinks they are. These three words periodically change because they lose their power when someone says them out loud. In order to prevent someone from saying them, Merricat makes sure to chose words that people are unlikely to say, “[Merricat] thought of using digitalis as my third magic word, but it was too easy for someone to say” (66). These three words create the illusion of security in her life when in reality, she is anything but safe. She murders her family at the age of twelve, which forever tarnishing her mental security. As shown through her actions, these words are a characteristic of Merricats superstitious