English WHATLIC Quotes

Merricat’s inherent hostile nature - causing fear in others.

• “when people are frightened; I always want to frighten them more."

• “… children, lying there crying with the pain and dying. .. stepping over their bodies…. I was never sorry when I had thoughts like this. I only wished they would come true.”

Villagers Hatred towards Blackwoods (Hostility): overall quote + laughter and silence.

• “And then the laughter, coming from all sides, from behind the blinds.. from the men … from the women peering out .. all of them watching and gloating”

• “Feeling the eyes of the men looking at me as I went by”

• “The people of the village have always hated us”

Village Hatred towards Blackwoods (Hostility) - song + food

• “Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea? 

  Oh no, said Merricat,you'll poison me.

  Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep? 

  Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!”

---

• “Her cup of tea and her little rum cake untouched.” (Mrs. Wright)

• “Don't you put that stuff in your mouth," the mother screamed.

Hostile descriptors of Villagers - ugliness and ROT:

• “The people needed the ugliness of the village, and fed on it.”

_{^{* Villagers synonymous with ugliness (evilness, imoralness inside)}}

“Perhaps there was already a rot growing inside him that was going to kill him”

_{^{*Ugilness and rot is all consuming → Festers and grow off one another (Mob mentality? Sheep in society?)}}

Hostile descriptors of Villagers - Colour and facelessness:

• “Whatever planned to be colourful lost its heart quickly in the village"

• “It was impossible to identify any one person, looking up and laughing at the fire.” _{^{→ Society acting together - hatred directed to overall body of village. Hatred is long - lasting and has no foundation - once it is perceived, even falsely, it remains. Jackson displays the unrelating cruelty of society.}}

Hostile descriptors of Villagers - Grey and DIRTY:

• “flat grey faces with the hating eyes.”

• “Dirty grey of the rest”

• (Fire) “bringing filth and confusion and danger into our house.”

Village people Perceived as non-hostile, but undertone of hostility:

• “They came dutifully” 

• “They referred to themselves as our friends”

• “The Carringtons never came into the house”

• 
  

Village people kind acts:

• “I think you'd feel …different about your friends if you could see the flowers we all sent Julian." 

_{^{*Simple acts of kindness do not cancel out the underlying hatred}} 

• “always left on the front doorstep, always silently and in the evenings.”

_{^{*Even if acts of kindness are concealed, individuals will still protect themselves. Although there are ‘good’ people who may seem to empathize and care for the girls - done from a distance.}}

• Stella =  “The only one who managed to keep hold of any colour”

MONSTER and Hostility - Threats to Merricat:

• "I wonder if Cousin Mary knows how I get even with people who don't like me?”

• “His big white face grinning at me .. or watching me whenever I moved”

MONSTER and Hostility - Likeness to villagers:

• “A broken step out back. How about I fix it for you one of these days?” (like Jim Donnel)

• “Dirtying our father’s room” (villagers also dirty)

• “If I went into the village.. Charles would be one of the men who watched me going past.”

• “Charles Blackwood said from the crowd, "Did she kill him?"

MONSTER and impact on Constance:

• "Uncle Julian should be in a hospital.. And you --" She opened her eyes wide suddenly, as though seeing her old Merricat again.” → Monster changes her thoughts

SUMMERHOUSE: (Hostility)

• “Mary Katherine must never be punished. Must never be sent to bed without her dinner.” 

• "Our beloved, our dearest Mary Katherine must be guarded and cherished. “

Hostility within Mob:

• “It was impossible to identify any one person, looking up and laughing at the fire.”

• “A wall of laughter.” 

CONSTANCE TURNS HOSTILE:

• “"I am so happy," Constance said at last "I told you that you would like it on the moon”.

• "The least Charles could have done, was shoot himself through the head in the driveway."

Fear of Villagers and Monster:

• “They can't get in, I used to tell myself over and over”

• “I was held tight, wound round with wire, I couldn't breathe, and I had to run”

Fear of Change in Constance: (control also)

• "Look how far I came today." "It's too far,"

• “When I'm as old as Uncle Julian will you take care of me?" "If I'm still around,”

Charles inducing fear = power

•  "Where would poor Cousin Mary go if her sister turned her out?" 

• “Already the house smelled of him”

Constance - protection of M (fear of her getting caught?)

• " Constance .. never called a doctor until it was too late.” 

• "She told the police those people deserved to die."

Fear of Forgetting:

"Can't it all be forgotten? - "Forgotten? You are speaking slightly..of my work.”

Isolation from Village - Limited interaction

“It was not pride that took me into the village twice a week..only the simple need for books and food.”

• “Almost all of our life was lived toward the back of the house, .. front of the house, turned toward the highway and the village, and went ..behind its stern, unwelcoming face.”

Physical Seclusion of Blackwood house

• “Along every inch of Blackwood Road is a wire fence built by our father.”

Constance -wanting to break isolation:

• "But I won't have you frightened. - sooner or later I will have to take a first step.

• “She had come to see that it might be possible, after all, to go outside.”

Charles empasising desire to break isolation

• “Iv’e been hiding here” (POWER OF CHARLES)

Protecting isolation: (Locks and darkness)

• “It was necessary for me to check constantly to be sure that the wires were not broken and the gates were securely locked. → _{^{Protecting isolation can become obsessive, the fear of the outside world protects individuals, but controls and overpowers their lives also.}}

• The kitchen was dark, but safe

• “No one could see in, because …inside was dark”

The moon (isolation)

• "Everything's safe on the moon."

• “On the moon we have everything. All the locks are solid and tight, and there are no ghosts.”

• "It is a very happy place”

Isolation increasing after fire:

• “We are going to lock ourselves in more securely than ever."

• “The boards across the kitchen windows were ours, and part of our house, and we loved them”

•  ..”barely recognizable as a house.”

*Completely descend into witch-like lives, remnants of existence.

Order within blackwood home - objects

• ‘We always put things back where they belonged.’

Order in Blackwood home - History (also family)

• layers of Blackwood property..keeping it steady against the world

Order from cleaning:

• “Very little dust fell in their rooms - could not be permitted to stay.”

• “Going into every room with mops and dustcloths, carefully setting the little things back after we had dusted”

Routine of family (order) - fear of change

There was no change coming, I was wrong to be so frightened. The days would get warmer, and Uncle Julian would sit in the sun, and Constance would laugh when she worked in the garden.

Routine Post fire:

• new pattern of days to arrange, but we were going to be very happy.”

• “We always set the baskets back where we had found them, never opened the door until we were sure that no one was near.”

• “Every morning I checked at once to make sure the front door was locked, and every morning Constance washed the kitchen.” 

Chaos - change from Constance

•  "look how far I came today."

• "I have let Uncle Julian spend all his time living in the past.. I have let you run wild; how long has it been since you combed your hair?" (POWER OF CHARLES)

Chaos from intrusion of mosnter:

• Day fell apart around me. Jonas and Constance - they had no colour.”

• Today we neaten the house." "Later, after Cousin Charles is awake”

• It was ugly to think of Charles walking among the vegetables

CHaos during fire:

• The windows were broken and inside they were throwing our dishes and our glasses and our silverware and even the pots Constance used in cooking”

Chaos post fire:

• "But today is the day Helen Clarke comes to tea." "No," .."Not again. Not here."

• “The orderly pattern of our old days had ended.”

Village contempt for Blackwood wealth

• I knew they talked about the money hidden in our house, as though it were sat in the evenings, and played with.

• “All the wealth and hidden treasure of our house had been found out and torn and soiled.”

Wealth - good people vs village

• “Up and down the driveway went the good people, the clean and rich ones who came rightfully to visit.

• “Back and forth along the path, sneaking and weaving.. went the people from the village.”

• Highway = “common people,"

Extravagance of blackwood house:

• “The windows in the drawing room reached from the floor to the ceiling… silk drapes.. fourteen feet long.”

• This staircase is one of the wonders of the county

MONSTER - obsession with money

• “Charles and money found each other no matter how far apart they were”

• “They've got it buried all over, and a safe full. They never come out, just hide away inside with all that money."

Women - power over money (patriachy vs matriachy)

• Constance gave him a key.. and a shopping list, and the money to pay for what he bought.

• Women alone ..shouldn't keep money in the house.”

Expensive items and MONEY and CHARLES - Wealth

• "This is a gold watch chain, worth possibly a good deal of money. Sensible people don't go around nailing ..valuable thing to trees."

• "It's not her money," he was shouting, "she has no right to hide it." 

THE SAFE!! Wealth

“Get the safe in the study," he said a thousand times.

Fire destroying wealth:

• “Very often I saw people walking on our path now”

• “All the wealth and hidden treasure of our house had been found out and torn and soiled.”

Gender roles - food and kitchen:

• “They come from a time before I was in the kitchen.” _{^{→ time is measured in Before and After kitchen.}}

• “She must have baked them right after dinner, so he could bring them right over.”

Gender roles - caring for others

• “working in the vegetable garden, but I don't want to leave Uncle Julian”

Gender roles - compliance

• “Our wives always did as they were told”

• “ I did not encourage her to eat heavily,”

• “" if I had known.. I would have permitted her more sausage”

Mother - family

• “Mother's portrait hung in the drawing room; "I cannot bear to see my lovely room untidy (mother)” ..now we kept it shining and silky.

Legacy of Women in Blackwood Household: (preserves, food, plated

• “taken pride in adding to the great supply of food in our cellar.” 

• “Would stand there forever, a poem by the Blackwood women”

• “Food of any kind was precious to Constance - touched with quiet respect.

  “Some great-grandmother brought them with her dowry and they were used and broken and finally put away on the top shelf of the pantry.”

FAMILY AS UNSAFE - PUNISHMENT

• "A child should be punished for wrongdoing, but .. made to feel still loved.”

• "Punish me? You mean send me to bed without my dinner?"

FAMILY AS UNSAFE - VISONS

• “Mary Katherine must never be punished. Must never be sent to bed without her dinner.” 

• "Our beloved, must be guarded and cherished. “

FAMILY AS UNSAFE - Charle’s family

• “He refused to take care of you during the trial, ..never let our names be mentioned in his house.

Charles Intrusion Family - Alignment with father

• “a ghost is sleeping in Father's bed”

• “Charles.. father's bedroom..our father's watch and his gold chain and his signet ring”

• 
  

Charles + Constnace Parenting M → represents how family treated her

• "I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do with you," he said. "But whatever I do, you'll remember it. "Don't bully her, Charles”

Family - Charle’s intrusions changing constance

“Before Constance had listened and smiled and only been angry when Jonas and I had been wicked, but now she frowned at me often.”

Fragility of female-centric household - from chalres - MAIN

“A house, seemingly solid but really made only of ash, might dissolve at a touch.”

Destruction of family legacy through fire (male intrusion)

• “Dresden figurines..break against the porch rail”

• “Dishes smashing”

• “Generations of Blackwood wives was lying bent and scattered on the floor.”

Merricat’s control over Constance:

“Constance needed guarding more than ever”

M dependance on C

• "When I'm as old as Uncle Julian will you take care of me?"

M + C love:

• "I love you, Constance," I said. "I love you too, silly Merricat."

Witchcraft as safeguard

• “ safeguards..so long as they were where I had put them nothing could harm us.”

•  “I three powerful words of strong protection, and so long as these great words were never spoken aloud no change would come.”

Cleansing of Cousin Charles:

• Cousin Charles was a ghost, but a ghost that could be driven away

• Every touch he made on the house must be erased

• it was a good house, and soon it would be cleaned and fair again

Fire and charles":

• “Shut the door to our father's room and keep the fire inside, belonging entirely to Charles”

• “There would be nothing of Charles in there now”

After fire - witchraft.

•  My new magical safeguards were the lock on the front door, and the boards over the windows, and the barricades along the sides of the house.