olved mass murder of their family. Although neighbors believe the murder was committed by Constance, the older sister, Constance knows that her psychopathic younger sister Merricat poisoned the family by putting arsenic in the sugar bowl. Throughout the story there is much struggle with the villagers and their cousin Charles, which results in Merricat burning down their mansion in order to kill Charles, but in the end the sisters stay together. Here Jackson questions the traditional definition of normality, suggesting that the villagers' violence is deviant behavior, while Merrricat's actions are prompted by a psychological disturbance that should evoke sympathy and understanding. "We Have Always Lived in the Castle remains Jackson's most critically acclaimed novel. Secondary CriticismOver the years many critics have wrote articles on Shirley Jackson's numerous work. Many critics had much to say about Jackson's most famous short story, "The Lottery". Her insights and observations about man and society are disturbing; and in the case of "The Lottery," they are shocking. "The themes themselves are not new: evil cloaked in seeming good; prejudice and hypocrisy; loneliness and frustration; psychological studies of minds that have slipped the bonds of reality" (Friedman, 44) Literary critic, Elizabeth Janeway wrote that, " 'The Lottery' makes its effect without having to state a moral about humanity's need to deflect the knowledge of its own death on a victim. That uneasy consciousness is waked in the reader himself by the impact of the story. Miss Jackson's great gift is not to create a world of fantasy and terror, but rather to discover the existence of the grotesque in the ordinary world. (Janeway, 58) Fritz Oehlschlaeger, a literary critic, stated that, "a conflict between male authority and female resistance is subtly evident throughout "The Lottery." Early in the story, the boys make a 'great pile of stones in one corner of the square,...
