SPOILER: What are the climaxes in "We Have Always Lived in the Castle"?

[Joe]

Besides the villagers destroying the house at the end of the story, what other climaxes are in this book? Are there any deeper climaxes?

[Blu]

SPOILER ALERT!!!!


To me, the climax was the revelation that Merricat, not Constance, had poisoned the family.

[Anthony]

Well, for me the climax was definitely the villagers destroying what's left of the house after they put out the fire, and then surrounding Constance and Merricat and chanting the little song over and over again. That was a strange, surreal part of the book.

The identity of who had actually poisoned the family wasn't a climax, per se, but a wonderfully timed revelation. But one that I had admittedly already assumed, so it did not floor me like the villagers turning on the Blackwoods during the fire.

The book is not really setup up for traditional climaxes, but configured rather to sustain a sense of gothic morbidity and psychological dread.

[Bill]

Probably not the "revelation." I saw that a mile off. The fire.

[Sandrine]

Anthony wrote: "Well, for me the climax was definitely the villagers destroying what's left of the house after they put out the fire, and then surrounding Constance and Merricat and chanting the little song over a..."

Anthony wrote: "Well, for me the climax was definitely the villagers destroying what's left of the house after they put out the fire, and then surrounding Constance and Merricat and chanting the little song over a..."

[Kaida46 (deb)]

The fire and the destroying. You can pretty much figure out the poisoner part, but do not expect the villagers to react so violently at the end.

[Susan]

I like the anti-climax,in a way, of the villagers sort of "coming to" after their rampage and just wandering home as if they'd done something embarassing while drunk or something quotidian like that. They're embarrased, but not horrified, which is even more intriguing. It makes you wonder what Merricat and Constance would have been like if the family had lived and the girls got to socialize with these people everyday.