We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The trees and shrubs of the Blackwood estate grow wild and untended except for a few flower gardens. Returning home from shopping, Merricat is surprised to find Constance at the end of the garden, which is further away from the house than she’s ever traveled before. Due to Constance’s mental health condition, this makes Merricat nervous. She urges her sister to come inside. Together, Merricat, Constance, and Uncle Julian form an odd family unit, with Constance acting as a maternal figure and taking care of Uncle Julian. Constance carefully plans out simple meals for the group. They have lived this way for six years.

Odd visitors regularly come to the house and offer Constance company. These visits are extremely formal and pleasant, and nothing important is addressed. Merricat tolerates these visits because they give Constance a sense of normalcy; in some sense, they mirror the strict and formal habits of the sisters’ parents. They are meticulous in never asking for any favors from their visitors. On the day of the grocery store visit, a regular visitor named Helen Clarke comes to the house. To Merricat’s dismay, she brings an unexpected guest: a local woman named Lucile Wright.

The visit is awkward. Mrs. Wright is openly nervous, and an annoyed Merricat scowls at her in spite of Constance’s hope that she will become better practiced in socialization. Mrs. Clarke states that she is on a mission to get Constance to “come back into the world” (27). Nevertheless, when Merricat offers them sugar for their tea, they nervously decline and leave the family’s mass arsenic poisoning during a tea service going unmentioned. Uncle Julian, who has become a gleeful historian of the poisoning, mentions that he also survived poisoning on that fateful day, though he says it rendered him “an invalid” (34). Mrs. Wright shows a morbid fascination with Uncle Julian’s remembrances despite Mrs. Clarke’s objections. Julian gives her a tour of the table where the poisoning took place and meticulously recounts the details of the court case, particularly how suspicion first centered on Constance, who prepared the meal and then disposed of the evidence, and how she first admitted the poisoning was her fault before being judged not guilty for lack of motive.

Helen Clarke quickly ushers the curious Mrs. Wright out of the house, which is a relief to all. Constance comments on the poor breeding and bad manners of the visitors but admits she is thinking seriously of being more social in the future.

On the Saturday after the incident with Helen Clarke, Merricat senses that things are changing. Constance keeps looking toward the driveway, and Jonas the cat seems agitated. This makes the routine-minded Merricat uncomfortable. She recounts every week’s routine. On Wednesdays, she circles the fence to make sure it’s secure, and every Sunday she checks the yard to ensure the little talismans she’s buried still remain. She believes the silver dollars, marbles, and baby teeth she’s hidden around the yard magically protect them from the village and its evil gossip. She extends this sympathetic magic to days of the week, certain spoken words, and to daily routines. On Mondays, she cleans the house with Constance, and on Tuesdays and Fridays she goes into town for supplies. Constance maintains a regular schedule too where she obsessively jars and pickles foods and puts them in the cellar.

That Saturday they follow the usual routine, which involves a house visit from Dr. Levy at precisely 11:20am. During this visit, Constance stays hidden upstairs. The doctor efficiently checks on Uncle Julian’s health and then leaves. In the afternoon, Julian replays the afternoon of the Blackwood massacre out loud, paying special attention to the things everyone ate that day. Constance and Merricat quietly indulge him and then help him prepare for bed. In passing, Constance says that she will care for Merricat when she is old but only “if I’m still around” (50). Merricat does not like thinking of their arrangement as impermanent.

On Sunday, Merricat remembers three magical words to be avoided and never spoken aloud: MELODY, GLOUCESTER, and PEGASUS. As long as these words can be avoided, she thinks, the inevitable change can be held at bay. On this morning, Uncle Julian mistakes Constance for his dead wife and fades in and out of lucidity.

Per her usual routine, Merricat patrols the furthest perimeter of the Blackwood property checking on her buried treasures. With Jonas at her side, she walks across a long field toward a creek and checks for signs that her treasures have been disturbed. Near the creek, she finds that a book she’s nailed to a tree has fallen down and that a nest of baby snakes has hatched nearby. She takes both of these as bad omens. She kills the snakes and gathers the book and brings it back to the house. There, she has lunch with Constance.

Soon after, Charles Blackwood arrives, personifying the change Merricat has dreaded. She takes him for a souvenir hunter at first. He knocks on the door, oblivious to all custom and leaving Merricat no time to defend the house or properly hide Constance. She listens at the door as he calls to Constance, telling her he has something important to say. Constance is shivering, and in the time it takes Merricat to run upstairs to grab her sister a sweater Constance has let Charles Blackwood in. With delight, she identifies him as their long-lost cousin.

In a panic, Merricat, runs away from the house, past the field and back to the creek. There, she collapses and sleeps next to Jonas until the morning.