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In addition, Jackson’s heroine, Natalie Waite, is a psychically fragile flower,
This comes off very insulting.
unfortunate academic couple resembles a younger version of Natalie’s parents—just
The couple where they are both academically and intellectually smart but in the heterosexual relationship dynamic the male will always dominate over the female?
quotidian
(1) daily.
(2) ordinary.
Slack your rope, Hangsaman, O slack it for a while, I think I see my true love coming, Coming many a mile.
Hangsaman meaning? And why this specific portion of text from which ever document she took this from?
“Your God,” he customarily remarked to Mrs. Waite down the length of the breakfast table, “has seen fit to give us a glorious day.” Or, “Your God has seen fit to give us rain,” or “snow,” or “has seen fit to visit us with thunderstorms.” This ritual arose from an ill-advised remark made by Mrs. Waite when her daughter was three; small Natalie had asked her mother what God was, and Mrs. Waite had replied that God made the world, the people in it, and the weather; Mr. Waite did not tend to let such remarks be forgotten.
This is demeaning.
Natalie, fascinated, was listening to the secret voice which followed her. It was the police detective and he spoke sharply, incisively, through the gentle movement of her mother’s voice. “How,” he asked pointedly, “Miss Waite, how do you account for the gap in time between your visit to the rose garden and your discovery of the body?” “I can’t tell,” Natalie said back to him in her mind, her lips not moving, her dropped eyes concealing from her family the terror she hid also from the detective. “I refuse to say,” she told him.
I can't tell if the detective is real or if she's interrogating herself from a disassociated perspective in order to psychoanalyze herself. I think because of how she was and is being raised, emotions are not valued. So, she might've created this detective voice in her head in order to change the way she thinks and appease her family. Or is the author jumping forward in time and then back discreetly?
(once she had given him the notebook each morning
Why does she give him her notebook every morning? And when did it become a habit?
“It’s an unusual thought,” her father said consideringly. “I’m not sure but that you’re too young for it, though.”
What does that mean? Too young for it?
if you are ever to be a good writer, understand your own motives.”
“I am not a vain man,” he began slowly. “I do not hold myself in undue estimation. As a matter of fact, my own description of myself would be much harsher than yours. You do not mention my pettiness, for example, although you hint at it in your statements about”—he consulted the notebook—“the fact that I ‘substitute words for actions.’ You overlook one of my outstanding characteristics, which is a brutal honesty which frequently leads me into trouble—an honesty so sincere that, applied to myself, it gives me a picture I cannot be proud of, although you name me as a proud man. My honest picture
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He has this strict idea of who he is and what it means, he's stubborn about his own self-perception no matter what anyone else says about it. He's painting a certain narrative of himself not caring what anyone else has to say about it.
“you know by now that it is natural for girls to hate their fathers at some point in their growth. Now I submit that at this time of your life you are growing to hate me.” “No,” Natalie said. She stared at him. “Of course I don’t hate you,” she said.
He's pushing this certain narrative, why?
convivial
(1) (of an atmosphere or event) friendly, lively, and enjoyable.
(2) (of a person) cheerful and friendly; jovial.
because her mother and father were bickering, transplanted herself to an archeological expedition some thousand years from now, coming unexpectedly upon this kitchen and removing layers of earth carefully from around the teakettle—“This
The fact she escapes into her mind during turmoil/conflict shows how internal she is. Her reactions, emotions, and thoughts must be internalized a lot. It's a fantastical yet isolative existence.
unmolested,
Why does Shirley Jackson use such dark words to describe something so natural that human beings do? Is it to point out that even the present ordinary was once considered abnormal?
comprehensible
Able to be understood; intelligible.
There was a point in Natalie, only dimly realized by herself, and probably entirely a function of her age, where obedience ended and control began; after this point was reached and passed, Natalie became a solitary functioning individual, capable of ascertaining her own believable possibilities.
triteness
(Of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lacking originality or freshness.
indefatigable
(of a person or their efforts) persisting.
“Little Natalie, never rest until you have uncovered your essential self. Remember that. Somewhere, deep inside you, hidden by all sorts of fears and worries and petty little thoughts, is a clean pure being made of radiant colors.”
“Do you pretend,” the detective said, “that you are actually the daughter of these people? That they will acknowledge you?”
“Natalie,” he said, his back to Verna, and grinned. “I hardly know you from her description.”
That says a lot, I think.
“It all starts so nice,” Mrs. Waite said, twisting her face into a horrible look of disgust. “You think it’s going to be so easy. You think it’s going to be good. It starts like everything you’ve ever wanted, you think it’s so easy, everything looks so simple and good, and you know that all of a sudden you’ve found out what no one ever had sense enough to know before—that this is good and if you manage right you can do whatever you want to. You keep thinking that what you’ve got hold of is power, just because you feel right in yourself, and everybody always thinks that when they feel right in
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I can't tell if Natalie's mother is just being dramatic or truthful. But in heterosexual dynamics there are always going to be issues regarding gender because of the already pre-existing gender norms/expectations.
her father across the lawn, leaning forward and smiling as he talked, his arm carelessly around the waist of the pretty, dark girl.
Yikes, he's giving me "man who likes young pretty women".
eddied,
(of water, air, or smoke) move in a circular way.
as though his voice were in her mind like the detective’s.
Why has she created this "detective" voice in her mind?
Oh my dear God sweet Christ, Natalie thought, so sickened she nearly said it aloud, is he going to touch me?
Oh now you question that? Not when he led you away from people and into a secluded forest? Or before when he grabbed your arm?
vouchsafed
(1) give or grant (something) to (someone) in a gracious or condescending manner.
(2) reveal or disclose (information).
“Please, please, please,” still echoed maddeningly through her head.
I think she did get assaulted. It's very inconspicuous.
Anything which begins new and fresh will finally become old and silly.
hoarier
(1) grayish white.
(2) old and trite.
(a fine of twenty-five cents for every nail hole, of course; graduation from the college not allowed until every blemish on the walls of the room, including marks left by scotch tape, had been paid for),
It's cool to know this rule had been originated a long time ago.
ascetic
(1) characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons.
(2) a person who practices severe self-discipline and abstention.
Then someone from the masked circle around the new students said, “Look, we’re all allowed to ask questions, aren’t we?” “Sure,” said the leader, with obvious gratitude. “Then listen, Myrna,” said the girl happily, from behind her mask, “you a virgin?” Natalie saw the freshman blushing full-face and the upper-classmen blushing behind and above their masks, and thought, I hope they don’t ask me, and, It’s the girls with masks on their faces blushing too. Could it be, she wondered tiredly, that a mask is no protection at all?” “Certainly,” said the girl on the stool, surprised at the question,
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I think that it's interesting the way Natalie views interactions with others as some sort of test or if they're testing her. But then again she's mostly interacted with people who are friends with her father, who considers himself an intellectual, who probably has friends who consider themselves intellectual. While in this environment they're girls who are also immersed in a "typical intellectual" place; university. It's no wonder she sees those conversations as trials and triumph because she has to constantly try to prove herself to be one of the "intellectuals".
Arthur Langdon.
This is the only professor who she's named. Is this guy going to be a part of the dynamic like Natalie's parents? The dynamic being an older "intellectual" with a younger "intellectual" yet the older man asserts his intelligence over the woman. Or is this dynamic the one aformentioned but the man is cheating or interested in younger women who he can manipulate and use?
“Sir,” she meant to say brightly, “if Descartes really means that he exists because his mind thinks he does, then wouldn’t it be true that . . .”
Not specifically.
as she looked at the inside, and meant to mark the next day whether the panels outside were the same as those inside; odd, she thought, that someone standing outside could look at the door, straight ahead, seeing the white paint and the wood, and I inside looking at the door and the white paint and the wood should look straight also, and we two looking should not see each other because there is something in the way. Are two people regarding the same thing not looking at each other?
Miss Shirley Jackson why the constant double meaning to everything?
I’m very careful about my friends, I dislike knowing lots of people, I don’t make friends easily because I keep them for a long time, I make friends slowly and with discrimination, I devote myself to my studies
Relatable.
“They say you’re spooky.” Rosalind said. “That’s what they call you, Spooky, I heard them.” “Who?” Natalie said. “Who knows what I do?” “Well, I think it’s your own business,” said Rosalind critically. “I mean, everyone has the right to live the way they want, and naturally none of them has any right to call a person names just because a person wants to live their own way.” Feeling a sudden quick warmth toward Rosalind for not having watched her, Natalie said, “All I want them to do is leave me alone.” “Well, that’s what I say,” Rosalind said,
Natalie is comfortable in solitude, at least used to it. Solitude seems to be more comfortable than people, because human beings are unpredictable.
Natalie, please
Ends abruptly. Odd.
Nothing in the world exists in a perfect form,
“I mean, when you say there’s nothing perfect?” “Nothing in the world exists in a perfect form,” the professor murmured, watchfully. “Yes, I said it.” “Well,” the girl said; she stared straight at the professor; to confound a professor of philosophy midway through the first month of the first semester of your first year . . . “Well,” she repeated, “I mean—what about a vacuum? I mean, that’s perfect, isn’t it?”
Not knowing what it means for something to exist in a vacuum I still don't think that's correct.
convolutions
(1) a thing that is complex and difficult to follow.
(2) a coil or twist, especially one of many.
castrati.
A male singer castrated in boyhood so as to retain a soprano or alto voice. The practice of castration was banned in 1903.
“I’m Elizabeth Langdon,” she said. “My husband teaches English. I used to be a student.”
Oh. So, this is the relationship that's supposed to mirror her parents.
deploring
Feel or express strong disapproval of (something).
“Don’t ever tell anyone,” she said. “No one thinks I’m unhappy, no one even dreams I’m unhappy, and you know once you let them know you’re unhappy then they start wondering why, and then they look at you and they think you’re getting old or something. They were all so jealous anyway. I’m still as pretty as I ever was.” She turned her head proudly on her neck, and Natalie, feeling herself more than ever thin and unformed, nodded admiringly. “You see,” Elizabeth went on, spreading her empty hands in front of her and looking at the fingers, “all the students think I’m friends with the faculty
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If she's so unhappy; leave. I think though that because this novel was published in 1951 she couldn't divorce this man without unacceptable disgrace to be placed on her.
chamois,
(1) an agile goat-antelope with short hooked horns, found in mountainous areas of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus.
(2) a type of soft pliable leather now made from sheepskin or lambskin.
“We were in your room the other day while you were out,” Vicki said carelessly. Natalie stared at her and she laughed.
That's an immense invasion of privacy, I hate them already.
“Arthur it was so nice.” Arthur Langdon looked nervously at his wife, and said, “I hope you’ll come again soon.”
That's disgusting. They're all disgusting.
esoteric
Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
