We Have Always Lived In The Castle SPOILERS

[EverySongbirdSays]

SHE'S DEAD THOUGH ISN'T SHE?

THE WHOLE WAY THROUGH.

And that's the twist

But partially doesn't make sense because people can see her.

I know, there's just so much unsaid which is open for interpretation. The more I think about it the more I wonder what the father was up to. He had issues, possibly some form of mental illness which led to his need to shut his family away. The villagers have always disliked them for whatever reason. I think he was a controlling man who maybe abused Constance and Merricat and bullied his brother Julian.

Merricat clearly mistrusts all men now, so her view of Charles is skewed. She keeps having to remind herself to be kind to Julian when clearly she doesn't want to. She would rather not be around him, which makes me think she hates him for not standing up to her father.

Her father had a book with a list of people that owed him things, that was one of the things she buried. The brother was said to have his father's 'forceful' personality too. The mother did as she was told, too. Mrs Clarke feels sorry for the girls, and says that Mary Katherine, though troublesome, should still have been treated with love, suggesting she wasn't. Plus Constance has always tended the garden and cooked all meals, despite their being other adults in the house.

Also the business of being left food by the sorry villagers.

Did any of you see the documentary 'Grey Gardens' ? A couple of Kennedy relatives mouldering away in a deteriorating mansion full of cats in the American South. Just the kind of place in which Merrycat and family would live. Very reminiscent of this book.