#merricat is a ghost?

[ladyswartzrot]

“My niece Mary Katherine has been a long time dead, young man. She did not survive the loss of her family; I supposed you knew that.”

- Uncle Julian

We have always lived in the castle - Shirley Jackson

This would explain everything honestly...

[anchorhcld]

finished we have always lived in the castle

[barnbridges]

the real castle/tsh discourse in my head is always, is it camilla or marion who is a stand in for constance

[algolagniaa]

1 and 4?

I don’t know if I really understand the concept of a “comfort character” tbh I have several characters I relate to/project on but I don’t really think of it as a comfort thing or a coping mechanism?? but I might be overthinking it idk I googled comfort character over this tbh. short list of characters who are me: Phedre no Delaunay (obviously), Merricat Blackwood, Maeve Fly, Kaye Fierch, Daria Morgendorfer, basically every Disney Princess, Rebecca Bunch (actually might be the closest to an actual comfort character now that I think of it), Lady Amalthea

cryptids are another thing where I’m like. how much do we want to quibble over definitions?? bc I don’t really believe in Bigfoot or Mothman or chupacabras or anything like that (although I wish I did). I do however have a very strong belief in faeries, and ghosts, and spirits, and mermaids and all kinds of magical/ethereal beings (although I don’t think there are any dragons or unicorns left tbh I think they all died long ago). some of these I have experience with firsthand. I also believe that pretty much every living thing (I am not sure about human men) has a spirit and so do many inanimate things, and it’s pretty easy to talk to any of them if you try at all. I’m not sure if that counts as a cryptid creature at all but I think to a lot of people it would

[resident-rats]

Top ten favourite female characters!

Thanks for the tag @goodpointsandbadpoints !!

Tagging: @b0n3d0g @ghostdice @vizishereig @courtofparrots @welcome-leon and literally anyone who wants to do it, consider yourself tagged 🫡

[theiliad]

Tagged by @asmeninas ty!

Rules: Make a poll of your favorite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most

tagging @tallahasseemp3 @sumquiasum @lesbojughead @taylorswiftserialkillergene @livvyofthelake @wetwibuwution and anyone else who wants to do this, just say i tagged you <3

[monstraduplicia]

daddy's little girl he broke in thirty: a dean winchester mix

1. abuse me - silverchair 2. adam raised a cain - bruce springsteen 3. alcohol - sisyphus 4. alibis - marianas trench 5. animals - nickelback 6. anyone who knows what love is (will understand) - irma thomas 7. black-eyed - placebo 8. blown wide open - big wreck 9. blunt force concussion - the dirty nil 10. break me - mcfly 11. burn & shine - the posies 12. call of the playground - shudder to think 13. carry that weight - the beatles 14. christian brothers - heatmiser, elliott smith 15. colossus - idles 16. coward's son - the ballroom thieves 17. daddy - korn 18. daddy's daughter - merricat crellin 19. damage control - the dirty nil 20. degenerate - the jesus and the mary chain 21. the devil you know (god is a man) - face to face 22. discipline - nine inch nails 23. don't let the sun catch you cryin' - jeff buckley 24. the drowners - suede 25. father - the front bottoms 26. father and son - cat stevens 27. father figure - george michael 28. father of mine - everclear 29. feel the pain - dinosaur jr 30. fiddle about - the who 31. forgiven - alanis morissette 32. fortunate son - creedence clearwater revival 33. freak - silverchair 34. friends in the sky - the dirty nil 35. fuckin' up young - the dirty nil 36. ghost - sky ferreira 37. girls - the dare 38. good boy - patriarchy 39. hang yer moon - the dirty nil 40. hard times - ethel cain 41. he needs me - shelley duvall 42. i burn - toadies 43. i know it's over - the smiths 44. i'm with you - avril lavigne 45. i need somebody - the stooges 46. infra-red - placebo 47. i woke up in a strange place - jeff buckley 48. judge yr'self - manic street preachers 49. last night i dreamt that somebody loved me - the smiths 50. life becoming a landslide - manic street preachers 51. lightsabre cocksucking blues - mclusky 52. loverboy - you me at six 53. low self opinion - rollins band 54. monster side - addict 55. moodswing whiskey - jeff buckley 56. mr. self destruct - nine inch nails 57. nancy boy - placebo 58. o death - rhiannon giddens, francesco turris 59. oh comely - neutral milk hotel 60. pain - four star mary 61. papa was a rodeo - the magnetic fields 62. please hurt me - the crystals 63. please please please let me get what i want - the smiths 64. prayer - big wreck 65. pretension//repulsion - manic street preachers 66. renegade - styx 67. runnin' with the devil - van halen 68. samarians - idles 69. send the pain below - chevelle 70. sex and violence - the exploited 71. the shining - badly drawn boy 72. simple man - deftones 73. slab - silverchair 74. song against sex - neutral milk hotel 75. story of isaac - leonard cohen 76. (they long to be) close to you - carpenters 77. thoroughfare - ethel cain 78. a trophy fathers trophy son - sleeping with sirens 79. two-headed boy - neutral milk hotel 80. two-headed boy pt. 2 - neutral milk hotel 81. unloveable - the smiths 82. wanted man - ratt 83. the weight - the band 84. western nights - ethel cain 85. what will you say - jeff buckley 86. whipping post - allman brothers band 87. you are a runner and i am my father's son - wolf parade 88. you can't always get what you want - the rolling stones 89. your flesh is so nice - jeff buckley 90. youth gone wild - skid row

[xxdrowninglessonsxx]

Book Review - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

I will preface this by saying that this is a masterpiece of a book. Personally what I picked up on at first was the foreshadowing because the reader is essentially told from the beginning that Merricat “did it” with the famous opening paragraph. It’s up to the reader to accept that Merricat is the murderer and an unreliable narrator. It’s evident she’s stuck in the headspace of when she committed the crime because she spends a lot of her time daydreaming and thinking about killing the villagers and walking over their dead bodies. The way Shirley Jackson writes the foreshadowing is, dare I say, perfect because it leaves the reader guessing as to what is going to happen next and what has already happened in the past. Not to mention, Uncle Julian’s dialogue is framed in a way that gives the reader just enough information to stay curious and keep reading. Personally, I guessed it was Merricat from the beginning but I truly knew she killed her family when Uncle Julian said the Merricat had died in the orphanage when Constance was on trial. Merricat and Uncle Julian never actually interact with each other once throughout the book if you go back and look, whether Julian believes her to be truly dead, or whether Merricat forbids herself, or even a mixture of fear from both parties. I suspected as well when Merricat would say things along the lines of how she isn’t allowed to prepare the food or do certain things, as if giving herself rules. The dialogue toys with the readers mind, as if interacting as the story plays out. I’ve seen other people on the reviews say that the story drones on, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The story, in fact, refuses to drone on; it gets straight to the fact of the matter. Every word, line, and paragraph have meaning. Shirley Jackson wrote a story so great within 200 pages what other authors couldn’t achieve in 500. The climax is phenomenal - the symbolism of the house burning shows the cruelty of the townspeople and how they see the Blackwoods as “other.” They destroy their house more after the fire is put out, breaking windows, destroying the property, forcing Merricat and Constance to flee with only strengthens what is best described as a trauma bond because they feel so ostracized. Then, once in the woods, Merricat states she wants to poison the villagers food, and Constance replies with “The way you did before?” And Merricat replies back and says, “Yes, the way I did before.” The long asked question is finally answered.

As I was saying before, every interaction and the behavior between characters has a meaning, and it is so crystal clear. Take a look at the OCD rituals both sisters exhibit. How Merricat feel “guilty” and wants to make a point to be kinder to Uncle Julian. I say “guilty” because I don’t believe she truly feels guilt. It should be noted that her goal is to be isolated with Constance. After the climax (the fire and the reveal of the murderer), despite what Merricat has done, Constance reprises her role and continues to choose Merricat, choosing to be complicit once more. Think of how Constance washed the sugar dish because “there was a spider in it.” Ultimately, Merricat gets exactly what she wanted because to my knowledge, Merricat allows Constance to believe that Charles was the one who burned the house down even though Merricat was the one who threw the pipe in the trash can. Because of this as well, the reader realizes Merricat doesn’t feel guilty because she met her end goal. She even tells Constance that she knew she would like “living on the moon.”

However let’s not forget about Charles. By no means is he a good person. Merricat equates him to a ghost and a demon after he arrives, comparing him to their father. He sleeps in John Blackwood’s room, wears his clothes and jewelry, and even eats at the same spot at the dinner table, and it’s implied that he has similar behaviors as John Blackwood. He’s a trigger for Merricat because he disrupts their isolation and he’s after their money. In Merricat’s mind, he intends to steal Constance away, and Merricat refuses to allow that to happen.

I could go on for longer, but whoever reads this review will understand the point. Shirley Jackson has a way with words, and I would be lucky to write a story with just an inkling of the power that this story holds. She deserves to be more appreciated. I’m going to read The Haunting of Hill House next.

[aaronstveit]

saw you and leigh talking about shirley jackson, have you ever read we have always lived in the castle? i read hill house, and liked it in concept (unfortunately fell flat for me in comparison to the show) but your thoughts on her other works?

hi lindsay!!! i have read we have always lived in the castle!! i really liked it <33 my shirley jackson ranking so far is probably:

hangsaman

we have always lived in the castle

dark tales (this is a short story collection, not a novel, but still very weird and creepy and fun)

the haunting of hill house

i tend to think of hill house the book & hill house the tv show as separate entities, definitely looking to accomplish different things. i enjoyed them both, though!

we have always lived in the castle is pretty different from hill house, i think. still weird and creepy, but merricat as a narrator is strange in a very different way from eleanor. i definitely recommend not watching the movie before reading it... in fact, i recommend not watching the movie in general. no disrespect to taissa farmiga or alexandra daddario, i just don't think it's a book that translates well to the screen.

i think shirley jackson's writing works best when you come at it expecting less capital-H Horror, and more lowercase-h horror. the real horror in her writing is not the ghosts or the murders, it is the characters themselves. eleanor of hill house, merricat of we have always lived in the castle, natalie of hangsaman, they all share a very personal sort of horror: they are isolated, lonesome women and girls. and they all react to their lonesomeness in different but horrifying ways.

not to say that jackson doesn't excel at creating some truly creepy atmospheres. she does! we have always lived in the castle particularly has a very fun and macabre setting, with a side of intense looming dread. it's just important to remember that in her writing, the personal is far more horrifying than any amount of outside forces.

i hope this makes sense literally at all 😭 TLDR i enjoy shirley jackson's work a lot and if hill house didn't work for you, i still recommend trying her other books! <333

[weremerricat]

i do like the idea of merricat is a ghost it fits the narrative it enhances it even my niece mary katherine has been dead a long time and i had not questioned why uncle julian does not call out to merricat i don’t recall that he acknowledges her merricat is not allowed in uncle julian’s room or to touch his wheelchair or any of his belongings if he sees merricat he does not give her acknowledgment if merricat is to be kinder to uncle julian and place a feather on the lawn where uncle julian will sit in the sunlight he will not be phased on how that feather came to be there because it is the very air of the house that has decided to be kinder to him

[free-for-all-fics]

Obscure Characters List - Female Edition (A-M)

Obscure Characters I love for some reason - Female Edition (A-M). (By obscure I mean characters that have little to no fanfic written about them. Not necessarily characters nobody’s ever heard of.) Don’t ask me to explain why. UPDATED: I had to split these up into separate posts because tumblr is being a butt about post length or something and won’t let me add more to either list idk.

A

Abigail Bishop/Emily (Let’s Scare Jessica to Death)

Agnes (Downfall Redux)

Agony Symbiote (Marvel Comics)

Alice (Apsulov: End of Gods)

Amanda Ripley (Alien Isolation)

Amelia (Underworld)

Anastasie “Tasi” Trianon (Amnesia Rebirth)

Annalise, Queen of the Vilebloods (Bloodborne)

Anna Valerious (Van Helsing 2004)

B

Baroness Clarimonde Catani (The Vampire Happening)

Belle (A Christmas Carol)

Black Canary/Dinah Drake/Dinah Laurel Lance (DC Comics)

Blackfire/Princess Komand'r (DC comics/Teen Titans)

Blind Mag/Magdalene DeFoe (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

Brides of Dracula (any version)

C

Cala Maria (Cuphead)

Calendar Girl/Page Munroe (DC Comics/The New Batman Adventures)

Catherine Chun (SOMA)

Charlotte Elbourne (Vampire Hunter D)

Charlotte Thornton (Nancy Drew, Ghost of Thornton Hall)

Chrissy/Mildred Pratt (Deadstream)

Constance Blackwood (We Have Always Lived in the Castle)

Cora (Devil’s Carnival 2)

Countess Marya Zaleska (Dracula's Daughter)

D

Dana Newman/The Angry Princess (Thirteen Ghosts remake)

Dolirra (Fariwalk: The Prelude)

Doll Face (The Strangers)

Dollisa (Fariwalk: The Prelude)

E

Edith Finch (What Remains of Edith Finch)

Elisabeth Williams (Maid of Sker)

Elizabeth Eilander (Rusty Lake Paradise)

Elizabeth Shelley (Frankenhooker)

Empress Tihana (Amnesia Rebirth)

Erin (You’re Next)

Estella (Great Expectations)

Esther/Leena Klammer (Orphan 1 and 2)

Evelyn “Evie” Carnahan O' Connnell  (The Mummy series)

F

Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

G

Ginger Fitzgerald (Ginger Snaps)

Glorificus “Glory” (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Goody (Vampires)

Grace Le Domas (Ready Or Not)

Gwendolyn “Gwen” Grayson/Royal Pain (Sky High)

H

Harper Thornton (Nancy Drew, Ghost of Thornton Hall)

Hel (Apsulov: End of Gods)

Hero (Much Ado About Nothing)

I

Imogen “Idgie” Threadgoode (Green Fried Tomatoes)

Iris (30 Days of Night)

Isabelle/The Bride (Spookies)

J

Jane Doe (Autopsy of Jane Doe)

Jayme/Red (Blood Fest)

Jennet Humfrye/The Woman in Black (The Woman in Black)

Julia/Subject Three (TAU)

Juliette Waters (Sylvio)

Justine Florbelle (Amnesia the Dark Descent)

K

Kate Drew (Nancy Drew, The Silent Spy)

Kathy Rain (Kathy Rain)

Katrina Van Tassel (Sleepy Hollow)

Kissin’ Kate Barlow (Holes)

L

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower (Bloodborne)

Lady Sybil Crawley/Branson (Downton Abbey)

Lamia (Stardust)

Laura "Lorelai" Wood (Lorelai)

Laure Richis (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Laurie (Trick ‘r Treat)

Leech Woman (Puppetmaster series)

Lena (Underworld: Blood Wars)

Lily (V/H/S Amateur Night/SiREN)

Lily Munster (The Munsters)

Loretta, Knight of the Haligtree (Elden Ring)

Lucille Sharpe (Crimson Peak)

Lucy Billington (The Invitation)

Lunar Princess Ranni (Elden Ring)

M

Malenia the Severed (Elden Ring)

Marni Wallace (Repo! The Genetic Opera)

Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood (We Have Always Lived in the Castle)

Mel (Nancy Drew, Warnings at Waverly Academy)

Melanie Ravenswood (Phantom Manor)

Melina (Elden Ring)

Millicent (Elden Ring)

Milk Maiden (2001 Maniacs)

Mirror Queen (The Brothers Grimm)

Miss Brixil (Level 16)

Moder (The Ritual)

[schizotypal-disorder]

a b o u t m e

i’m merricat (she/they) 🐈‍⬛

i have psychotic depression, schizotypal personality disorder & c-ptsd

i mostly post about the psychotic/schizo spectrum, ghosts, crows and bats 👻🐦‍⬛🦇

[ugfriends]

Poor old Uncle Julian Blackwood It is imperative to be understood He used little sugar on blackberry He nearly took the river Styx ferry With Charon as Stygian tour guide From those berries he almost died You see his niece Merricat her goal Was to lace their silver sugar bowl With arsenic a family murder plan His moderation kept death on ban Constance to coverup and hide her Washes the bowl she said of spider Jonas doorway Constance by stove Ghost visit seeking a treasure trove Charles has Blackwood coins desire Merricat and pipe is a house on fire On a moon we in starlight unfurled Look down on the dead dried world In the Castle sisters are in fine fettle Grimm allusions to Hansel & Gretel Witch you have a gingerbread house Boys have gone too near that house You might make a gingerbread man Name him Charles and eat him plan They catch little boys and they ---- Hold you down make you eat candy I wonder could I eat a child well done Constance: I doubt if I could cook one

[hangingthoughts]

"I was thinking that being a demon and a ghost must be very difficult, even for Charles; if he ever forgot, or let his disguise drop for a minute, he would be recognized at once and driven away; he must be extremely careful to use the same voice every time, and present the same face and the same manner without a slip; he must constantly on guard against betraying himself."

— Merricat, pertaining to Charles, We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

[richkidcityfriends]

thinking about we have always lived in the castle as a haunting. thinking about merricat being the ghost 

[grenkids]

I’M SUCH A FUCKIN DUNCE

modern au where tilde and algot are ghosts

DUUUUHHH