We Have Always Lived In The Castle: 3

P104

It was Charles' fire. When I listened particularly for the fire I could hear it, a singing hot noise upstairs, but over and around it, smothering it, were the voices of the men inside and the voices of the people watching outside and the distant sound of cars on the driveway. Next to me Constance was standing quietly, sometimes looking at the men going into the house, but more often covering her eyes with her hands; she was excited, I thought, but not in any danger. Every now and then it was possible to hear one voice raised above the others;

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Assignment 1

The setting in the story has always been kind of dark, but not filled with tension. Nothing crazy happened, only that Merricat was angry at Charles because he brought disruption in her life. To the reader, Charles seems the most sane person in the story, but he has his flaws that Merricat can point out well because she is telling the story. For example, He is obsessed with the money the Blackwood family is keeping in their vault. He manipulates Constance, etc. During the fire, Charles is yelling over and over again that the firemen have to get the vault with the money. He isn't at all concerned about Constance, Julian, or Merricat. That makes us think he is different from the person he makes everyone believe he is.

In the passage, Merricat seems to believe that Constance is excited about the house burning down because she is covering her face with her hands. This makes no sense and only contributes to the fact that Merricat is psychotic. On another note, the way she tells the story makes us feel tension at the wrong moments! There is tension when she talks about Charles and how he is destroying the family, but not when their house is on fire.

Assignment 2 (B)

Mary Katherine's and Constance's relationship is everything but ordinary. At the beginning of the book, the reader immediately knows Merricat is insane (she thinks about murder all the time) contrary to Constance, who has the role of a big sister trying to take care of her and putting on the mask of being pleased. The whole time we are rooting for her to realize that her sister is crazy and we are disappointed in her accepting the behaviour of Merricat. There were some hints before that Constance was not in her right mind, but we let it slide because she was just trying to protect her remaining family. However, as we get to the end, we discover that reality can often be disappointing; Constance is the happiest living with her deranged sister in a burned-down house, and having only each other to talk to. She also knew that Merricat was the one who killed the family and still decided to be kind to her, which makes her as disturbing as her crazed sister.