Home As Prison: Shirley Jackson's Writings
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Home as Prison: Shirley Jackson’s Writings Diplomarbeit Zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magister der Geisteswissenschaften an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Elizabeth LATTACHER, B.A. am Zentrum für Inter-Amerikanische Studien Begutachterin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. phil. Roberta Maierhofer M.A. Graz, 2019 8 Betreuerbestätigung Hiermit bestätige ich, die vorliegende Abschlussarbeit betreut zu haben, und ich befürworte damit die Abgabe der von mir insgesamt benoteten Arbeit. …………………………………………………………. Datum und Unterschrift des Betreuers ………………………………………………………….. (Name des Betreuers in Blockbuchstaben) Annahme durch das Zentrum für Inter-Amerikanische Studien am: ………………………………………………. von: ………………………………………………. 9 Ehrenwörtliche Erklärung Ich versichere hiermit, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig ohne fremde Hilfe verfast und keine anderen als die angegeben Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt habe. Graz, am __________________________ Unterschrift: __________________________ 10 Kurzzusammenfassung Shirley Jackson wird von vielen als Ikone der Schauerliteratur angesehen. Sie hat ihren ganz eigenen Stil von Schauerliteratur entwickelt und damit ihre Leser geschockt und in Terror versetzt. Neben der eben genannten Schauerliteratur hat sie auch eine fiktive Beschreibung ihres Lebens als junger Mutter im Buch ‚Life Among the Savages‘ verfasst. Diese Darstellung der kleinen Triumphe und großen Probleme des Elterndaseins wurde von Kritikern gefeiert. In dieser Arbeit werden neben dem Hintergrund von Shirley Jackson vor allem die literarischen Elemente ihrer Werke Spuk im Hill House, Wir haben schon immer im Schloss gelebt und Life Among the Savages näher beleuchtet. Das gewählte Leben in Gefangenschaft in ihrem eigenen Zuhause wird erklärt und die Rolle des Heims im Leben der weiblichen Charaktere wird genauer untersucht. Bekannte Schauerliteratur Schriftsteller werden verwendet um Jackson’s unterschiedliche Methoden zu veranschaulichen sowie Parallelen zwischen den dem Leben des Autors und den eingesperrten Charakteren gezogen. Mittragende Faktoren, die zur Gefangenschaft der Charaktere geführt haben werden genauestens analysiert. Abschließend werden die Leben der beliebtesten von Jackson’s Charakteren veranschaulicht und illustriert warum und wie sie in die Gefangenschaft ihres Heims gekommen sind. 11 Abstract Shirley Jackson has been considered by many to be a master of gothic fiction. She used her own specific type of gothic fiction to instill shock and terror within her readers. Along with her gothic fiction, she wrote a fictionalized account of her time as a young mother in the book Life Among the Savages which was well received for its portrayal of the perils and triumphs of raising children. In this thesis, the background information and the literary elements of The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Life Among the Savages will be explored. The means in which each character faces a life of captivity within their homes with be explained. This thesis will give an in-depth analysis of the role of the home in the lives the female characters in the literature of Shirley Jackson. Several well-known gothic authors’ will be used to illustrate the different methods Jackson used in her work. The thesis will also show the parallels between the life of the author and those imprisoned characters. Other important contributing factors to the captivity of the characters will be illustrated here. I will discuss the individual trials and tribulations of some of Jackson’s most beloved characters and also illustrate the “incarceration” of these characters within their homes. 12 Acknowledgments Firstly , I would like to thank Ao.Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Roberta Maierhofer, M.A, who was my mentor for this thesis. She supported me through what was an extremely and at times trying endeavor and I am very grateful she agreed to help me. Thank you to my family, my parents Michael and Jeanmarie Leist, my sister Catherine and my brother-in-law Shawn for their love and support in all things. My grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and all of my equally brilliant cousins. I am eternally grateful to the wonderful educators that inspired my drive to be the best teacher I could be myself. Thank you to Dr. Frances Spielhagen for seeing something in me, when at times I could not see it myself. Thank you to Mag. Sister Anna Kurz, who is not only a supportive boss, but also a wonderful friend. Thank you to my past and current students who have given me the gift and trust of being their teacher. Finally, I would like to thank my husband Hannes. Thank you for your encouragement and love throughout this process and in all things. There are not enough words to say how grateful I am that you are in my life. Thank you to my darling son Liam-Johannes, who has shown me that being a mother is one of the best jobs a woman can have. I would like to dedicate this thesis to the memory of my son Jack-Josef Lattacher and to the ever-bright spirit of my mother-in-law, Mag. Anna Lattacher, whose love of teaching and her family has helped me every day I worked on this thesis. Without Anni, I would not be where I am today. 13 Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………8 1. Entrapment and Enclosures in Family Settings in the Gothic tradition……….11 1.1 Retelling the Gothic……………………………………………………………..11 1.2 The Familiar is Strange …………………………………………………………16 1.3 Shirley Jackson as a Specific Gothic Writer ……………………………………22 2. Contributing Factors of Captivity in Jackson’s novels…………………………..32 2.1 Women and Society …………………………………………………………….35 2.2 Agoraphobia and Mental Illness ………………………………………………..40 2.3 The Supernatural ………………………………………………………………..44 3. Life Before Capture ……………………………………………………………….47 3.1 Eleanor Vance …………………………………………………………………..48 3.2 Mary Katherine “Merricat” and Constance Blackwood ………………………..49 3.3 Shirley Jackson, “the housewife” ………………………………………………50 4. Life After Capture ………………………………………………………………...50 4.1 “Eleanor is the house.” …………………………………………………………50 4.2 Oh Constance, we are so happy.” ………………………………………………60 4.3 “Our house is old, and noisy, and full” ………………………………………...67 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………72 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………….78 14 Introduction Shirley Jackson is an author that has for generations, captured the minds of all who have read her fiction. She has been emulated and exalted by writers since she first published on of her most famous pieces of fiction, The Lottery in 1948, and her popularity has grown again in the last year after an extremely popular and successful television mini-series has been created based on The Haunting of Hill House. When she was alive, she was a master story teller on both paper and in reality. She told stories about characters that were on the outside of their communities. The female characters in her books feel like they are real people because they go through real challenges, whether it be raising children or escaping an abusive family, but at the same time, the familiarity is changed into something strange and abnormal. Jackson was a master of using different elements of the Gothic genre and using them in her own specific way. Jackson also had a tendency to tell her own life story through her books and when going through each of her stories, it is easy to find pieces of her in almost everything she ever wrote. Her life experiences and her love for reading, helped her to weave stories using Gothic themes in more modern times. Her life was full of interesting characters, superstitions and heartbreak, much like a Gothic novel. This thesis will look at how the Gothic genre is present in her work and how even in her non-Gothic fiction, her writing style never changes. I hope to show how Shirley Jackson used a specific formula to show how characters can become trapped both in their own minds and within their homes, which normally is a place of safety. While she is now widely celebrated, when she was in her prime, she was still looked down upon as simply a housewife with a hobby. Jackson’s life revolved around her family and her writing. Her life began with her aristocratic and controlling mother and then her both neglectful and influential husband and her four loving children. This thesis will explore how Jackson used the Gothic genre as well as her own style of writing to create fiction centered around the process of captivity for the female characters in her books. First, the origins and characteristics of the Gothic genre will be explored, and we will look at the background information on Jackson’s life. I will discuss how her own family history laid the foundation for her obsession with houses and look at the specific people and events that influenced her life, specifically her mother, grandmother and her husband Stanley Hyman. Houses played an integral role in the fiction she wrote. In each of her books, we could even consider that the homes become their own characters. Her family has a rich history in the designing and building of houses for the 8 wealthy. Many of the families in the stories she wrote live in homes very similar to the ones her ancestors built. Jackson’s family influenced almost everything she did in her life. Her mother would remain a constant source of pain for Jackson for almost the entirety of her life. Jackson’s relationship with her religious fanatic grandmother and her aristocratic, distant mother will also be discussed. Many of the characters that Jackson created, including the ones discussed in this thesis have negative feelings towards their own mother because of this. Looking at Jackson’s life is important because it tells us why and where she came up with the ideas for the books she wrote. Jackson herself eventually became a prisoner in her own home after a life of anxiety caught up with her. Jackson seems to have written herself into her characters to show how she felt that she was being held captive for various reasons.