By Crossett Library Bennington College http://www.flickr.com/photos/crossettlibrary/4502669235/
In the 1950s, women were expected to
be “having babies and the occasional bridge party”, and that was all that was
expected of them (Guran). Not many women during that time had big dreams with
careers in mind or really any substantial goals for their life. Shirley Jackson
was different. Though she did have kids of her own, she made sure to focus on
herself at times, accomplishing her own agenda. This was unusual for a woman
during that time. It was especially unusual for a woman to be involved in
journalism. Jackson fulfilled her motherly duties and still had time to take
the kids to soccer practice and make sure they were raised properly. The fact
that Jackson was both a mother and a writer conjures the ideas of a double
life, not only that, but also the fact that the stories Jackson wrote were
filled with horror and darkness. It was almost as if one part of her was
mulling over the darkness of human nature, while the other part devoted itself
to loving her children. In “The Lottery”, Jackson’s most famous short story,
and “When Things Get Dark”, Shirley Jackson’s writing style is evident through
her ambiguous beginning to the story, the way the story makes the reader feel,
and the unpleasant and dark ending, and her style reflects the duality of her
life and her belief in myth and ritual (Hattenhauer).
Jackson’s short stories are known
for their ability to deceive the reader right from the beginning, and both “The
Lottery” and “When Things Get Dark” are no exception. Jackson uses positive
imagery to lure the reader into thinking that the story will be pleasant. Words
such as “clear” and “sunny” in “The Lottery” and the entire letter in the opening
scene of “When Things Get Dark” make the reader start to formulate his or her
own opinion about where the story is going. However, the openings of Jackson’s
stories are all fairly ambiguous, giving few details and leaving the reader
yearning for background information. In “The Lottery”, the story may at first
seem fairly pleasant, which is also the case in “When Things Get Dark” as the
reader might feel that the letter Mrs. Garden received was kind and thoughtful,
and the events following could in no way turn horrid and disturbing. The reader
is always given false pretenses in the beginning of Jackson’s short stories.
This reflects Shirley Jackson’s views in that she believed in “taking the
rational and inserting the irrational”, that is, she concerned her life with
questioning what she thought was rational in her everyday life (Guran). Her
life, in a way, contained an ambiguous beginning in that her being a writer was
not what everyone expected. She started out just like the majority of the
population of women during the 50s, with kids and a household to run, and she
ended up surprising everyone with ambition.
The second major element that most
short stories by Shirley Jackson contain is the way the story makes the reader
feel. At first, the reader may feel optimistic and content with the opening of
the story. They may feel that something good is going to happen. As the story
progresses, however, and the reader continues to predict the plot, the reader
starts to feel uneasy about where the story is going. To a reader, not knowing or
feeling sure about the upcoming events in a story can be frightening, which is
Jackson’s intent. Part of the horror of her short stories is the fact that the
reader just doesn’t know, and right when they begin to formulate their
prediction, she rips it right out from under them, and throws in a shocking
plot twist. In “The Lottery”, the reader begins to feel uneasy when the members
of the town seem to dislike the lottery. A realistic prediction would be that
someone is going to win some prize or money, but none of the townspeople seem
eager to draw their slip or even win. This is the point when the reader becomes
unsure of the direction the plot is going. Similarly, in “When Things Get
Dark”, the reader starts to question his or her knowledge of the story when
Mrs. Hope refuses to answer any of Mrs. Garden’s questions. By withholding
answers from Mrs. Garden, the story turns grim and the reader fails to
comprehend why Mrs. Hope is acting in such a way. Shirley Jackson was always
fascinated with making her readers feel uneasy. She said that there were always
horrible stories floating around in her head, and it took the reality of her
children and everyday life to keep her from being dragged down by her thoughts
(Guran). She wrote in this genre of fiction because those were the thoughts
that were contained in her mind. She wanted to make the reader feel uneasy
because that’s how she felt all the time. Making the reader feel uneasy set the
background for an increasingly disturbing ending, which occurs in the majority
of Jackson’s short stories.
Though their endings are highly
dissimilar, both “The Lottery” and “When Things Get Dark” definitely do not
conclude on a high note. While one story closes with violence, the other ends
in a disturbing manner, respectively. The townspeople proceed to stone a member
of their own town, using systematic murder, and the family members of the
victim even participate. The ending to “The Lottery” is extremely violent and
makes the reader question everything they know about their own traditions. It
makes the reader want to reevaluate traditions that might be immoral or wrong.
This was of course Jackson’s intent, for she was in fact obsessed with
traditions. Due mostly to the influence of her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman,
Jackson’s stories often dealt with myths or traditions. It is even said that
perhaps she got the idea for “The Lottery” from Hyman (Hattenhauer). On the
other hand, “When Things Get Dark” ends, in a word, mysteriously. The reader
sympathizes with Mrs. Garden and feels highly uneasy about the old woman. The
reader cannot and will not believe that her motives are pure. The creepy
feeling the reader experiences is cemented when Mrs. Garden hears the
scratching of the pen and flees the scene. The story definitely does not bring
happiness to the reader. Shirley Jackson writes her horror stories to make the
reader think. They are more than just a frightening tale. These tales are also
the thoughts that clouded Jackson’s mind every day. She used her career as a
way to clear her mind of the horror stories and focus on other things, such as
raising her children.
Shirley Jackson led an interesting
life compared to that of other women of the 1950s. She was conflicted with
thoughts surrounding the darkness of human nature and grim rituals and
traditions, but her role as a mother kept her sane. Her short stories usually
follow the pattern of an ambiguous beginning, an uneasy middle, and the
disturbing finale to a grim tale. She could not help but formulate these
stories in her mind, and in this way, she led a semi-dual existence. Jackson
will forever be known for her disturbing fiction, and she will always be known
as a woman who dared to be different in an age where conformity was
nonnegotiable.
Works Cited
Guran,
Paula. “Shirley Jackson: ‘Delight in What I Fear’.” DarkEcho Horror. DarkEcho,
1997. Web. 29 Sept. 2011. <http://www.darkecho.com/darkecho/darkthot/jackson.html>.
Hattenhauer,
Darryl. Shirley Jackson’s American Gothic.
Albany: SUNY Press, 2003.
Print.
Jackson,
Shirley. “When Things Get Dark.” Just an
Ordinary Day: The Uncollected
Works
of Shirley Jackson. Ed.
Sarah Hyman Stewart, Laurence Jackson Hyman. New York: Random House Digital,
Inc., 1997. Print.
Jackson,
Shirley. “The Lottery.” American
Literature. American Literature. Web. 12
Sept. 2011. < http://www.americanliterature.com/Jackson/SS/TheLottery.html>.
No comments:
Post a Comment