Discuss anything that interested you in the first 4 chapters of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Some things you might specifically consider:
- Talk about the style of the book–what’s unique about it?
- Perhaps look specifically at the novel’s opening paragraph, which has received a great deal of critical attention. How does this paragraph strike you? Why are the particular items mentioned here included? What do we learn in the very beginning? What tone does this opening set up?
- Choose one of the three main characters we’ve met so far (Merricat, Constance, Uncle Julian) and talk about how they’re presented in the novel. Are they trustworthy?
- Discuss the relationship between the villagers and the Blackwood family.
I am intrigued by this book. It is different from any other book we have read in this class so far. Mary Katherine, is the narrator, and she tends to add in her opinion and thoughts during situations throughout the first 4 chapters. She tends to seem unreliable and unique. I am very interested to find out more about the story of how Constance poisoned her family, but isn’t in prison or anything, just cooped up in the house still cooking for the family. I have a feeling this story is gonna pick up, and get wild. I am interested to find out what is gonna happen to Uncle Julian if he is gonna die or hang on. Also excited for the character development of the sisters and more people from town.
I love the way this story is being told; the tone and choice of words makes me feel very uneasy and gives me the feeling the narrator is rather unreliable. I’m already almost finished with the book, so I’ll try to not use to much hindsight bias or give anything away about the coming chapters, but in this post I’d like to talk about Constance. I feel like I’m insulting everyone’s intelligence just by stating this, but names are important. So I try to break each major character’s name down early in the book to see what the author wants us to know about them, and Constance’s is interesting. If I have my facts straight, I believe Constance is an old Latin name, and of course it draws from the word “constant.” Constance herself seems like Merricat’s whole world–her source of consistency–and she is presented as a very pure and beautiful entity. She is dependable and domestic and pleasant; it feels like she is the image of the “perfect woman,” even with her mysterious fear of going outside (in fact, maybe it’s because of her fear of stepping too far away from her kitchen that she is the perfect woman; things only seem to go wrong once Constance gets curious about the outside world). Constance also thrives off of pattern and routine, and the definition of the world constant is “a situation or state of affairs that does not change.” Because of this, it’s interesting to watch her state of mind as things begin to fall out of routine.
This book is written in a style that we have not seen so far in this class. It is very modern and more informally written than the older books that we previously read. It is narrated by Mary Katherine and she often adds in her personal thoughts and feelings to the story. We especially get to see her character when she speaks of wishing that the villagers would die when they bother her. Mary Katherine displays some odd behaviors such as burying things in the yard and putting a “protective spell” on the house itself to keep others out. Also Uncle Julian is an interesting character because apparently he did not die from the poisoning but now suffers complications due to it. Mary Katherine always speaks of being nicer to Uncle Julian and I wonder what will unfold with that further into the novel.
The start of this book has a very ominous and mysterious tone which immediately drew me in. I thought it was interesting to read this after reading “The Lottery”, because the format is very similar. “The Lottery” has a very big twist at the end of the story, and while you are reading it you are practically confused all the way until the end, and this book seems like it will end in a similar way. The description of the layout of the town however, is also very unclear to me, and I am have a hard time visualizing the setting. After finishing chapter 4 it becomes apparent that constance must have poisoned her whole family, but it is unclear to me how she would not have been arrested yet.
The style of this book feels very unique to me compared to other books we have read in this class because it’s firstly more modern but also the narrator is quite interesting. She places in her own thoughts as well as what’s happening and to be honest she doesn’t seem very reliable. From the first four chapters (and honestly the art on the cover of the book) I get a very Tim Burton vibe. It’s spooky and fun. As for trustworthiness of the main 3 characters so far, (Mary Katherine, Uncle Julien, and Constance) I find Mary Katherine to be the least trustworthy. She’s the narrator but I feel as if she’s the character we know the least about. She’s described Constance a lot so we know quite a bit about her but there’s not all that much clear description of Mary Katherine. I think Uncle Julien is trustworthy, but not a good source for information because it seems like he may have dementia or memory loss. The way he talks strikes me as kind of strange too. I don’t think Constance is that trustworthy either. All the characters are really just quite odd. I do really enjoy this book though, and I think it’s my favorite one so far because of how odd it is. I’m excited to find out why the villagers hate the Blackwoods so much. I think perhaps they hate the Blackwoods not because they seem dangerous, but they may think something paranormal is going on? I’m just kinda throwing out a guess there but I draw this because people in that time really did not care for the supernatural whatsoever. The villagers may also hate the Blackwoods because the family dynamic there is so abnormal.
When we first see Mary Katherine venturing through the village, she compares her journey to completing a board game, suggesting Katherines fantastical outlook on her imagination vs. reality . Her apprehension towards the villagers is noticeable and prominently states how she would choose their fate; dead. Already, we can figure out the villagers have a more than personal bias against the Blackwoods. Because of that, Mary finds comfort in isolation from the real world. More specifically, she finds comfort in fantasy and dissociations from reality. There are clearly many aspects of their backstory left unsaid, due to an unreliable narrator, however we can still understand Mary’s feelings towards outside dwellers; they chill her. At the end of ch. 4, when cousin Charles arrives, Mary wont allow anyone to touch. Because Constance allowed integration of the outside world and Mary’s fantasy land, she no longer felt safe and comforted. The only thing she did allow to touch her is nature. When she ran away to find comfort in her special shaded spot, she awoke to early morning mist, wandering lightly and touching her body. I also think wandering lightly is a very interesting choice of words. Mary clearly has issues with outsiders wandering their house, this also chills and aggravates her. It’s interesting that she allows nature to happily wander but not man.
Chapter 1 is very visual. It talks about the main character such as Mary Katherine Blackwood and goes on to tell how the blackwood’s have been hated on for many years but why have they been hated on is the question. When Mary Katherine Blackwood makes her way to the grocery story, she knows people stare and she wonders why, and they are literally all staring and seem to hate her. I am very confused on what to imagine the town and people are like because the text and the front page give me different feelings. In chapter two Helen and Mrs. Wright are over having tea. The timing is confusing for the book and why Mary Katherine wants everyone dead and hates everyone, it partially makes sense because all they do is make fun of her. Julian says one of his nieces were acquitted of murder, I wonder who that is, and I feel Miss. Constance is ill. After finishing the chapters, it was Constance who was acquitted of murder by poisoning her whole family with poisoned sugar, which she said she was using to kill rats.