readers feel what she felt. She plunges the reader into a world of her creating and leaves him wondering about what he
has always believed to be the real world”(32). Geoffrey Wolff points out that “the secret of her art in this novel is her
‘comfort’ in describing ‘those things that happen’. The madness is so tangled with the ordinary that we cannot shrug it
away or hide from it. The blatant symbols-poison, the garden, the collective will of the community, the inherited house
cleaned by fire-are not things and ideas that stand for something other than themselves. Rather they are the life of the
novel. In Freud’s lexicon, the dream, or nightmare, is an allegory of hidden motives. In Miss Jackson’s novel, the
nightmare lives on the surface, so terrifying because it seems so ordinary.”(18) Jackson’s first novel, “The Road
Through the Wall”(1948), “chronicles the collapse of a small community due to its own inner demonic contradictions.
By focusing upon a whole neighborhood, rather than upon a single violated protagonist as in her other novels, the novel
creates an effective metaphor or microcosm for the tensions inherent in the culture in the postwar period. Moreover,
whether the protagonist is individual or collective, the novel adumbrates and begins exploration of one of Jackson’s
primary concerns throughout her career: the dark incomprehensible spot or stain upon the human soul and our
continuing blindness and, hence, vulnerability to it. Jackson’s fiction refuses to compromise with the glib psychologies
of our therapeutic age”(Woodruff, 155). Literary critic Charlotte Jackson explains how successfully Jackson wrote
non-fiction prose in her work, “Witchcraft of Salem Village”. “There is good introductory background and though the
story’s subject is by nature horrifying the book does not play on the emotions. It ends on the positive note that public
reaction to the obviously revengeful motives of some of the witnesses made these the last witchcraft trials in the New
World and did much to kill belief in witchcraft generally”(103). In “Life Among the Savages”(1953) and “Raising
Demons”(1957), “the horror is not absent; it is merely held at bay, as the titles themselves forcefully hint. If we pour in
energy enough, these books suggest, we can hold off entropy for a while. Her two ‘fictionalized’ accounts of
…domestic life convey a happiness that could not have been entirely invented.” (Kittredge, 14)
Jackson’s themes usually always come back to the evil found in ordinary things. “That the familiar can become alien,
that the level flow of existence can warp in the battling of an eye, was the theme to which she most often returned. She
liked characters whose minds seemed to be untidy and a touch hysterical, but whose fanatic grasp of reality is in some
inexplicable way deeper than we can understand. The motivations she preferred to study were never those of reason nor
yet of circumstances nor of passion-but of some dark quality in a psychological weather when the glass is falling and the
wind beginning to wrinkle”(Davenport, 4). Like her theme, Jackson usually uses the same gender, as her main
character, in her novels also. Lynette Carpenter explains that “In fiction, she writes most often about women. The
typical Jackson protagonist is a lonely young woman struggling toward maturity. She is a social misfit, not beautiful
enough, charming enough, or articulate enough to get along ill with other people, too introverted and awkward. In
short, she does not fit any of the feminine stereotypes available to her”(146). In the end, very few of her protagonists
achieve much of a victory over oppression. Indeed most of Jackson’s protagonists are emotionally violated and must
struggle desperately to overcome their estrangement and dislocation, and most of them fail. The novel,
“Hangsaman”(1951), was the first of her psychological novels. She had dealt with problems of the mind in her short
stories, but this novel was her first sustained study of mental aberration, in this case schizophrenia. “Miss Jackson’s
love of mystery and ambiguity is evident in this novel, for the reader receives only piecemeal information as Natalie see
it. There are gaps, therefore, in his knowledge. Suspense builds, and the mystery deepens with the appearance of Tony;
but, even by the end of the novel, there is confusion as to who Tony is and as to what has actually taken place. Only at
the end of the narrative does the reader discover that Tony is and has been a product of Natalie’s imagination or,
technically, another aspect of Natalie’s self” (Friedman, 86). In Jackson’s last three novels, “The Sundial”(1958), “The
Haunting of Hill House”(1959), and “We Have Always Lived in a Castle”(1962), “the gothic house is a prominent
feature. It serves not just as the focus of action or as atmosphere, but as a force or influence upon character or a
reflection of character… The house not only reflects the insanities of its occupants, but serves as a fitting microcosm of
the madnesses of the world”(Park, 22). In “The Sundial”, John G. Park explains that “it is a nicely woven novel, where
imagery and technique work together well. Through the use of various motifs, such as the house imagery, references to
time, Jackson is able to juxtapose character, theme, and incident in startling and ironic ways. As in her other work,
Jackson employs a deft kind of cinematic focusing, creating a simultaneity of effect and capturing well a roomful of
conversation. The novel satirizes a human condition where gullibility, cupidity, and culpability reign virtually
unrestrained by moral principle and create a community of the survival of the worst. The satire is not without rich
humor”(21). Shirley Jackson’s fiction is filled with lonely, desperate women who reflect the disintegrations of modern
life. The is seen quite clearly in Elizabeth Richmond, the disintegrating protagonist of “The Bird’s Nest”(1954). “While
Jackson was a lifelong student of mental illness, and all of her novels explore some aspect of the inner life, “The Bird’s
Nest” is doubtless her most overtly psychological novel. She demonstrates that magical thinking and magical fantasies
by themselves are not only useless but dangerous; to bring happiness, the real magic of the human personality must be
purposefully grasped and wielded with determination”(Kittredge, 4) Jackson in her 1951 novel, “The Haunting of Hill
House”, gives evil force not just reality, but personality and purpose. “The supernatural in this novel is neither product
nor facet of the main character’s mind; it is outside her, and independently real. It does not occupy her; rather, it lures
and seduces her away from the pains and problems of the real world into a ghostly existence as another haunting spirit.
In “Haunting”, the evil is developed to the point of winning the conflict; there is no happy ending for the heroine,
because her character is too weak for the battle. She does not choose madness, but is overwhelmed by it.” (Kittredge,
15). Throughout all her work, critics seem to have respected Shirley Jackson as an American novelist, short story
writer, and nonfiction writer. Mary Kittredge writes that “in all the aspects of her life,…..Jackson fought whatever
obstacles she encountered at least to a draw. Her success in the horror genre, like her successful domestic comedy, was
the result of an exquisitely sensitive double vision that would have seemed an affliction to a less determined or talented
writer. She saw the magic in the mundane, and the evil behind the ordinary. She saw that the line between the cruel and
the comedic is sometimes vanishingly narrow”(12). As Lenemaja Friedman points out Jackson’s greatest strengths are
in the “expert handling of humor, mystery, ambiguity, and suspense. Her wit and imagination have created off-beat and
original stories. Her characters are authentic, if often strange, people; and, as the critics point out, her prose style is
excellent. She chooses a simple, unadorned direct, clear manner of speaking to her reader. Her lines flow evenly,
smoothly, and have a distinct rhythm. Despite the lack of critical attention, her books continue to be popular with those
people who are sensitive, imaginative, and fun-loving; and perhaps in the long run, that popularity will be what
counts”(161).
Carpenter, Lynette. “Domestic Comedy, Black Comedy, and Real Life: Shirley Jackson, a Woman Writer.” Faith of a
Woman Writer. Greenwood Press, 1988, p. 146.
Davenport, Guy. “Dark Psychological Weather.” The New York Times Book Review. 15 September 1968, p. 4.
Friedman, Lenemaja. Shirley Jackson. Twayne Publishers: Boston, 1975, p. 18, 21, 26, 29, 31, 36, 40, 44, 64, 86,
161.
Hicks, Granville. “The Nightmare in Reality.” Saturday Review, No. 38. 17 September 1966, p. 31.
Jackson, Charlotte. “Mrs. Jackson Creates of Shocking Facts a Fascinating Suspense Story.” Atlanic Magazine.
December 1956, p. 103.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” The New Yorker. 28 June 1948. p. 292.
Janeway, Elizabeth. “The Grotesque Around Us,” The New York Times Book Review. 9 October 1966. p. 58.
Kittredge, Mary. “The Other Side of Magic: A Few Remarks About Shirley Jackson.” Discovering Modern Horror
Fiction. Starmont House, New York, 1985. p. 4, 12, 14, 15.
Kosenko, Peter. “A Marxist/Feminist Reading of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ .” The New Orleans Review. Spring
1985. p. 225.
Nebeker, Helen. ” ‘The Lottery’: Symbolic Tour de France,” American Literature: Duke University, North Carolina,
1974. p. 107.
Oehlshlaeger, Fritz. “The Stoning of Mistress Hutchinson: Meaning of Context in ‘The Lottery’.” Essays in Literature.
No. 2, Fall, 1988. p. 259, 261.
Oppenheimer, Judy. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson. G.P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, 1988. p. 45, 60.
Park, John G. “Waiting for the End: Shirley jackson’s ‘The Sundial’.” Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, No. 3.,
1978. p. 21, 22.
Wolff, Geoffrey. “Shirley Jackson’s ‘Magic Style’.” The New Leader. No. 17. 9 September 1968. p. 18.
Woodruff, Stuart. “The Real Horror Elsewhere: Shirley Jackson’s Last Novel.” Southwest Review. Spring, 1967. p.
155.