Merricat is a frightening character in Shirley Jackson’s novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle. She is not the typical eighteen year old. Although her actions throughout the novel may seem childish and immature, at the same time she is quite intelligent. She is someone frequently thinks of hurting and murdering the villagers. At her age, she already plotted the murder of more than half of her family. She is highly obsessive with her surroundings and conscious of other people’s thoughts of her. She is not a witch herself or does she have any actual power over the people of the town but the way she behaves and the things she does fit the practice of magic. She is drawn to nature, poisons, magic words, and safeguards.. Her cat Jonas is like …show more content…
She has her own way for explaining things for the way they are especially with sudden changes. Not only did she believed in objects for safeguards, but also “magic” words. Shirley Jackson writes, “I was resolute about not thinking my three magic words and would not let them into my mind, but the air of change was so strong that there was no avoiding it; change was so strong that there was no avoiding it; change lay over the stairs and the kitchen and the garden like fog. I would not forget my magic words; they were MELODY GLOUCESTER PEGASUS, but I refused to let them into my mind” (51). Her “magic words” doesn’t prove any of the changes that was brought upon or did it bring any discomfort to Charles. It was purely Merricat’s doings that started chaos. Charles only left the house involuntarily when Merricat deliberately set her father’s room in fire. However, Merricat proved her ability to detect unforeseen circumstances and changes like the arrival of Charles. Only she was able to sense danger ahead of time, but in the end she was the one who was the biggest factor that instigated the bigger change. Merricant brings her “magic” alive with the last attempt to kick Charles out. Eventually Merricat got the ending she wanted, but at the same time she burned down the house that protected Constance and her from the outside …show more content…
Joyce Carol Oates writes, “Like other similarly isolated and estranged hypersensitive young-woman protagonists of Shirley Jackson’s fiction...Merricat is socially maladroit, highly self-conscious, and disdainful of others. She is “special”--her witchery appears to be self-invented, an expression of desperation and yearning to stop time with no connection to satanic practices”. Oates compares her to other female protagonists in isolation. Because her actions and explanations are unscientific, she seemed insane sometimes. The outside world becomes difficult for the small family to handle. Throughout the stay of Uncle Charles in her home, Merricat attempted to scare away her uncle with multiple times that seem only torturous to him. Although the Blackwood family is a hot topic among the villagers, Merricat didn’t play a major role in the family. She became an important person to the Blackwood family since she was in charge of buying the food. If she didn’t buy the food, no one else was really able to. The only thing we know of her six years ago before the death of her family is that she was sent to bed without her dinner. By poisoning her family, she creates her own importance by getting rid of her family and Charles. Charles was the threatening patriarchal figure to Merricat since she has been carefully building and protecting her role for the past six years. Ever