One characteristic of postmodern
literature is an unreliable narrator, which is when the opinions and actions of
the narrator reflect differing opinions and actions from the truth. Merricat,
the eighteen year old girl who narrates We
Have Always Lived in the Castle, perfectly embodies the unreliable narrator
that is often found in postmodernism. Merricat’s unreliability is mostly due to
her mental instability. Merricat seems to have several mental disorders,
including psychopathic tendencies (if not full blown psychopathy), autism, and
paranoid schizophrenia. These disorders distort Merricat’s view of the world,
and therefore distort our perception of the story.
The most obvious mental disorder that Merricat suffers
from is psychopathy. It is revealed to readers that Merricat killed her whole family
(except her Uncle Julian, whom she intended to murder anyways, and her sister)
by poisoning them with arsenic when she was only twelve years old. Besides the
fact that this is fairly young to commit a premeditated murder, Merricat shows
no remorse for her actions, feeling that they were perfectly justified. As we
can see through her thoughts and conversations, to Merricat, murdering her
whole family is a completely nonchalant event, and so is the idea of murdering
those around her. We can see these psychopathic tendencies throughout many of
Merricat’s thoughts and conversations, but especially during her conversation
with Constance after the fire: “I said aloud to Constance, ‘I am going to put
death in all their food and watch them die.’ Constance stirred, and the leaves
rustled. “The way you did before?’ she asked…’Yes,’ I said after a minute, ‘the
way I did before’” (Jackson 110).
This
conversation is a subtle example of Merricat’s lack of remorse towards killing,
however some more disturbing thoughts are displayed when Merricat is in the
town and describes how she imagines with delight the townspeople “lying there
crying with the pain and dying,” and how she would “(step) over their bodies,
taking whatever (she) fancied from the shelves, and go home, with perhaps a
kick for Mrs. Donnell while she lay there” (Jackson 9).
Psychopathy is not the only mental disorder that plagues her,
however. Merricat also most-likely suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. One
example occurs within the same grocery store scene mentioned previously. Merricat
is extremely paranoid that the villagers are out to get her, explaining that even
though she could not physically see them because her back was turned to them,
she knew that “the women in the store were watching… (she) could feel them standing
behind (her), holding a can or a half-filled bag of cookies or a head of
lettuce, not willing to move until (she) had gone through the door again and
the wave of talk began” (Jackson 7). In reality, it is very unlikely that the
whole store stopped dead in its tracks to hatefully watch Merricat buy her
groceries, only to begin talking about her as soon as she left.
Merricat
is also paranoid that her cousin Charles is out to get her. For all we know as
readers, Charles very well could have been an evil man. However, since Merricat
was usually the only one to notice his “evil,” it is much more likely that
Merricat was paranoid, and imagined many of Charles’ evil doings. One day in
the kitchen, for example, Charles says to Jonas (Merricat’s cat), “Where would
poor Cousin Mary go if her sister turned her out…what would poor Cousin Mary do
if Constance and Charles didn’t love her?” (Jackson 78). These questions came
out of the blue from Charles, and if they were actually spoken by Charles would
be very threatening and frightening. However, the more likely scenario is that
Merricat was scared that Charles would replace her, and Constance would begin to
love Charles more than her, which caused Merricat to wonder those questions
herself. Since Charles was the person she was afraid would replace her,
Merricat then projected those feelings onto Charles, imagining that he was
threatening her.
Merricat
also has wild delusions and fantasies, which can be a symptom of schizophrenia.
For example, Merricat is constantly talking about how different things happened
or didn’t happen because of supposedly magical items. Some of these items
include her box of silver dollars or her father’s book which she “nailed to the
tree in the pine woods,” which make Merricat feel safe, reasoning that “so long
as they were where (she) had put them nothing could get in to harm (them)” (Jackson
41). Merricat obviously does not feel safe where she is (maybe she doesn’t feel
safe in her own skin, or maybe she is scared that people will find out that she
is the real murderer) so she creates these items as a false sense of safety to
ease her mind.
Merricat
does not restrict these delusions to physical items, though; she is constantly
fantasizing about being somewhere else. Most of the time, Merricat fantasizes about
being on the moon, which she describes as having “lettuce, and pumpkin pie… and
horses dancing with their wings,” she dreams that “on the moon Uncle Julian
will be well and the sun will shine every day” (Jackson 75). When she is at the
summerhouse, Merricat also dreams that her family is alive again and is
praising her and loving her, something that (at least she felt) they never did
when they were alive. Both of these fantasies are Merricat’s coping mechanisms
to combat the loneliness and sadness that fills her life.
Another
mental illness that Merricat most-likely suffers from, causing her to be an
even less reliable narrator, is autism. Autistic children often have a
difficult time interpreting emotions, both their own, as well as those of
others. We can see in several situations that Merricat has a difficult time expressing
her own emotions. One of the ways that Merricat copes is by breaking things,
such as in her reaction to Helen Clarke’s suggestion that Constance should go
out into the world. Merricat panicked, “my head was huge and going to explode;
I ran to the back door and opened it to breathe. I wanted to run; if I could
have run to the end of our land and back I would have been alright,” and since she
was unable to handle her emotions, “(she) had to content (her)self with
smashing the milk pitcher” (Jackson 27). To most readers, breaking things seems
like an illogical way to deal with frustration, but to Merricat, it is her only
way to cope.
Merricat
has an even more difficult time interpreting the emotions of others. One
example of this occurs when Merricat realizes that Helen Clarke has brought
another guest to tea. Merricat immediately thinks that Constance will be scared
and keeps insisting to Constance that they should send the guests away so that
Constance won’t be frightened, despite the fact that Constance keeps replying
that she is not frightened at all. Merricat, probably frightened herself,
cannot understand how Constance could not be afraid, interpreting her sister’s insisting
that she is fine as trying to be brave. This lack of ability to properly
interpret emotions makes it hard as a reader to discern whether or not people
are really acting and reacting in the ways that are described to us.
All
in all, We Have Always Lived in the
Castle definitely includes many characteristics of postmodern literature, however
the unreliable narrator is the predominant characteristic. The narrator, an
eighteen year old murderer named Merricat, suffers from several mental
disorders including psychopathy, which causes fantasies of the deaths of those
around her; paranoid schizophrenia, which causes paranoia and delusions that
make us question the events described to us; and autism, which distorts
Merricat’s and therefore the reader’s perception of the emotions and intentions
of others. All of these mental disorders combined equal one very unreliable
narrator.
Works Cited: Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Lived In The Castle. London: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
Works Cited: Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Lived In The Castle. London: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.
