Great lecture and breakdown of the novel! I have some additional ideas about the novel for anyone interested: A lot of the commentary on the aristocracy in this book comes from Jackson's own experiences with her family. Jackson was from a fairly rich family and was always considered a bit of black sheep because she wasn't a socialite like her mother, she was maybe a bit of a tomboy and not at all a proper young lady (as her family wanted her to be). I think Merricat comes out of Jackson's own feelings about her family and anger at how they acted and treated others. I also think a lot of the "witchcraft" that Merricat does throughout the novel has it's roots in a book that Jackson read in university: "The Golden Bough" by James George Frazer. Its a book of comparative mythology and introduces the concept of "sympathetic magic". Merricat conducts "sympathetic magic" when she places objects which have significance around the Blackwood house to ward off any intruders. I think the book is ultimately a book about the power struggle between genders in a family though. Merricat kills the family patriarch and then successfully fights off an attempt from a male relative to become the head of the family. Finally the women, Constance and Merricat, are all that is left in the family, along with the massive stores of food that the other Blackwood women have stored in the basement of the Blackwood manor (the only part of the manor left after the fire). The women win the power struggle, but ultimately its a pyrrhic victory.
I want to be you when I grow up...but I lack the IQ and working memory to recount all the pertinent information in such a knowledgeable and eloquent manner. Thank you for all you do as a professor - your hard work has clearly paid off. I've enjoyed this entire lecture series very much.
The movie makes it more explicit - or possibly even changes the motive through a clever use of in-novel dialogue. I don't quite remember if this was subtext or just background energy in the novel, but the reason Julian can't tell the Blackwood men apart and doesn't think his wife was beautiful is because of how incestuous the old Aristocracy was. So they were marrying to keep the titles in hand and breeding to keep the bloodline pure. It wasn't like one of those old 20s or 30s novels like Gatsby and it's like "I'm your cousin and I have a running joke about wanting to marry you" to be cute or whatever, Charles was literally attempting to reconnect to the family tradition by courting Constance. That would explain MC's heavy OCD, standoffish treatment of everyone she doesn't deeply trust, arrested emotional development, and catastrophizing/inevitable extreme revenge fantasies as a consequence of sexual abuse. Constance's refusal to punish MC becomes something not just of fear, but of gratitude and a lifetime of constraint. Charles comes back to the incest because he most resembles John, MC's abuser. His appearance could also represent why his mother wanted to keep him away from the main line, because she's the only one who wouldn't resemble the other Blackwood women.
I did an English class review of this work in the 60s, fell in love with it. Jackson reminds me a little of Anne Bronte, never fully appreciated, the same more subtle yet uniquely bizarre and quirky writing. Unlike Emily, Anne - and Shirley, don't clobber you over the head, and yet leave just as profound an impact on the attentive reader.
Thank you d e austin, that is exactly what I love about Jackson's writing but I have not yet read anything by Bronte. I will be sure to check her out, thanks!
Great lecture and breakdown of the novel! I have some additional ideas about the novel for anyone interested: A lot of the commentary on the aristocracy in this book comes from Jackson's own experiences with her family. Jackson was from a fairly rich family and was always considered a bit of black sheep because she wasn't a socialite like her mother, she was maybe a bit of a tomboy and not at all a proper young lady (as her family wanted her to be). I think Merricat comes out of Jackson's own feelings about her family and anger at how they acted and treated others.
I also think a lot of the "witchcraft" that Merricat does throughout the novel has it's roots in a book that Jackson read in university: "The Golden Bough" by James George Frazer. Its a book of comparative mythology and introduces the concept of "sympathetic magic". Merricat conducts "sympathetic magic" when she places objects which have significance around the Blackwood house to ward off any intruders.
I think the book is ultimately a book about the power struggle between genders in a family though. Merricat kills the family patriarch and then successfully fights off an attempt from a male relative to become the head of the family. Finally the women, Constance and Merricat, are all that is left in the family, along with the massive stores of food that the other Blackwood women have stored in the basement of the Blackwood manor (the only part of the manor left after the fire). The women win the power struggle, but ultimately its a pyrrhic victory.
I want to be you when I grow up...but I lack the IQ and working memory to recount all the pertinent information in such a knowledgeable and eloquent manner. Thank you for all you do as a professor - your hard work has clearly paid off. I've enjoyed this entire lecture series very much.
The movie makes it more explicit - or possibly even changes the motive through a clever use of in-novel dialogue. I don't quite remember if this was subtext or just background energy in the novel, but the reason Julian can't tell the Blackwood men apart and doesn't think his wife was beautiful is because of how incestuous the old Aristocracy was. So they were marrying to keep the titles in hand and breeding to keep the bloodline pure. It wasn't like one of those old 20s or 30s novels like Gatsby and it's like "I'm your cousin and I have a running joke about wanting to marry you" to be cute or whatever, Charles was literally attempting to reconnect to the family tradition by courting Constance.
That would explain MC's heavy OCD, standoffish treatment of everyone she doesn't deeply trust, arrested emotional development, and catastrophizing/inevitable extreme revenge fantasies as a consequence of sexual abuse. Constance's refusal to punish MC becomes something not just of fear, but of gratitude and a lifetime of constraint. Charles comes back to the incest because he most resembles John, MC's abuser. His appearance could also represent why his mother wanted to keep him away from the main line, because she's the only one who wouldn't resemble the other Blackwood women.
I did an English class review of this work in the 60s, fell in love with it. Jackson reminds me a little of Anne Bronte, never fully appreciated, the same more subtle yet uniquely bizarre and quirky writing. Unlike Emily, Anne - and Shirley, don't clobber you over the head, and yet leave just as profound an impact on the attentive reader.
Thank you d e austin, that is exactly what I love about Jackson's writing but I have not yet read anything by Bronte. I will be sure to check her out, thanks!
Just finished this book for the first time. Great lecture.
love these lectures. please keep them up
Great lecture!! i finished reading the book yesterday, and it was very interesting to tie the loose knots, thanks!
Thank you.. Emma
Big Shirley fan.
Very nice! I need to do an illustration based on this book with no time to read it and this was very informative.