Shirley Jackson’s final completed novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), builds on the Gothic conventions in her previous book, The Haunting of Hill House (1959). Like Hill House, Castle is a postwar variation on the Female Gothic, which is traditionally characterized by the following motifs: a woman's entrapment within domestic space; subjection to patriarchal authority; and the transgressive and dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction. As is common in Gothic texts, the home metaphorically represents the psychology of its inhabitants and the state of their relationships. Through such tropes as families haunted by past secrets, conflicts between (masculine) r…
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Citation: Torres Barth, Josie. "We Have Always Lived in the Castle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8707, accessed 21 November 2024.]
