We have always lived in the castle

ASSIGNMENT 1

' "I don't listen to their gossip, and I hope you don't. And, Mary Katherine, you know as well as I do that nine-tenths of that feeling is nothing but your imagination, and if you'd go halfway to be friendly there'd never be a word said against you. Good heavens. I grant you there might gave been a little feeling once, but on your side it's just been exaggerated out of all proportion"
"people will gossip" Mrs. Wright said reassuringly.
"I've been saying right along that I was a close friend of the Blackwoods and not the least bit ashamed of it, either. You want to come to people of your own kind, Constance. They don't talk about us.!" '

This passage shows Mrs. Clarke's true colours. She has this sense of superiority seeing as she has both connections in the village and to the rich people in town. She has the idea that she is the only one who has the power to convince Constance and even try to excuse the actions, even though she is being suspected for murdering the bigger part of her family. I think this is a really great depiction of how the rich (/ upper middle class) will go long ways to excuse actions of their own and kind of try to cover them up. The usage of 'they' and 'us' is also to be noted here, I think. It shows that she thinks of the common villagers as a separate, alien group. 'They' and 'us' really shows a sort of segregation almost and a barrier that she wants to keep. She also tries to blame everything on Mary Katherine and make the gossip out as an illusion and her own fault. At this point I am mainly wondering why Mrs. Clarke is victim blaming the seemingly innocent sister, and trying to get the suspected murderer out in society again. People seem to prefer the (suspected of) murdering sister to the one that actually does all the work and is brave enough to go out again.

A)

Merricat is a really interesting main character to follow. When I started reading I had really conflicting feelings towards her. On one hand there was this urge to villainize her, she dreamt of killing the town folk and doing morbid stuff, but on the other hand, you kind of sympathise with her because of the way she is treated and almost want to follow her morbid train of thought. I think the most interesting thing about her, is that she is some sort of a witch, but the author does not divulge too much about that subject, she does a couple of warding spells (burying talismans, etc.), but it is written of as something normal (or as normal as something can be in this book). This is also the thing I would like to know a little more about, as well as the relationship dynamic between her and her sister, Constance. Right now it almost seems like a sort of co-dependant relationship, but there is also a mother-daughter dynamic at the same time. It is really confusing and contradicting, but I hope to read more about it.

ASSIGNMENT 2

• A) "Mary Katherine should have anything she wants, my dear. Our most loved daughter must have anything she likes."
  "Constance, your sister lacks butter. Pass it to her at once, please."
  "Mary Katherine, we love you."
  "You must never be punished. Lucy, you are to see to it that our most loved daughter Mary Katherine is never punished."
  " Mary Katherine would never allow herself to do anything wrong; there is never any need to punish her."
  "I have heard, Lucy, of disobedient children being sent to their beds without dinner as a punishment. That must not be permitted with our Mary Katherine."
  "I quite agree, my dear. Mary Katherine must never be punished. Must never be sent to bed without her dinner. Mary Katherine will never allow herself to do anything inviting punishment."
  "Our beloved, our dearest Mary Katherine must be guarded and cherished. Thomas, give your sister your dinner; she would like more to eat."
  "Dorothy-Julian. Rise when our beloved daughter rises."
  "Bow all your heads to our adored Mary Katherine."

This reveals Mary Katherines deeprooted desire to be loved and cherished. She goes as far as imagining her dead parents favouring her. This definitely connects to the themes of isolation and cruelty. She is so isolated that imagining parental love and affection is the only way she can get it. It's  contradicting things mentioned earlier on in the book; her parents 'say' in this passage that she is never to be sent upstairs without dinner, but it was mentioned that she escaped certain death from the poisoned food, because she was sent upstairs without dinner. The last two lines also have a sort of cult-y tone. Between the rising when she rises and the bowed heads, it almost feels like a sort of wish to be worshipped and glorified.

B) 

There are definitely a couple of elements of gothic fiction. There is this sort of fascination with death, Mary Katherine often imagines people dying and walking over their bodies as almost a sort of death incarnate. The setting is also quite gothic, a mansion that almost seems haunted by the memory of the dead. The protagonist is also quite the morally grey anti-hero, even though she says and does questionable things, there is this need to sympathise with her because of the way she is treated. There is not really a mention of any supernatural creatures except Mary Katherine herself, who sometimes does spells that would insinuate she is a witch, but the book does not confirm nor deny that. So that is a bit of a grey area concerning whether it is perceived as gothic or not, in my opinion.

There are also things that don't particularly scream gothic. There isn't a romance so far and not really a fight between good and evil. The only we have seen so far are cousin Charles and the villagers, but Mary Katherine does not seem to want to fight them, she just wants the quiet life she had before. The only things she does (ruining Charles' room) are out of longing for things going back to normal.

The elements far outweigh the non-elements though, so I would definitely say this is a gothic novel.

ASSIGNMENT 3

'These things were always left on the front doorstep, always silently and in the evenings. We thought that the men came home from work and the women had the baskets ready for them to carry over; perhaps they came in darkness not to be recognized, as though each of them wanted to hide from the others, and bringing us food was somehow a shameful thing to do in public.'

This really shows the complexity of the human being. Those villagers did awful things, because others did them and they didn't seem to feel as guilty or as remorseful while doing it. They just did it without thinking about it, because others were egging them on and approving of each other's behaviour, by doing it themselves. The moment the villagers are alone, because they don't have that confirmation of others anymore, they start to doubt themselves and feel the full force of that guilt. Even then, when separate families somehow want to make up for it, they don't want others to know. Which reinforces the herd mentality that we talked about in class. They don't want to be the odd ones out by not apologising, but also want to appease their conscience by trying to do something good.

B) The relationship between Merricat and Constance is quite a complex one, I think. On one side there is this sort of dependence on one another, Merricat does the groceries, goes to the village and protects Constance whenever there are (unwanted) visitors, but Constance acts more like a mother figure in other ways. She cooks, cares for the elderly uncle Julian and also just overall takes the lead in household related tasks. It's a beautifully twisted mother-daughter relationship between two broken people, who forgive each other for everything, e.g. the poisoning of the rest of their family.