Shirley Jackson and the Horror of Un-Belonging

Inspired by her own life, Shirley Jackson’s horror is experienced as an outsider looking in

It is human nature to want to belong, to be recognized by a group of our peers. We seek someone to understand us. Even the introverts and misanthropes usually want to belong to some group of choice. Humans are innately social creatures, forming tribes and communities as naturally as breathing. You want to find your community, your safe people.

Otherwise, you are alone. 

Shirley Jackson knew what it was like to be alone. It showed through the raw horror of her work. With taut prose Jackson weaves tension filled scenes of psychological dread, the literary equivalent of walking alone through a forest at night. My favorite novel of hers is probably The Haunting of Hill House, followed closely by the short story The Lottery 

If you want to learn more about american literary icon Shirley Jackson, I recommend this excellent article in The New Yorker. 

Jackson’s work isn't overly flowery, yet it reveals some of the basic horror of the human experience. Fear of being alone, and worse, fear of others. For what can you do when the mob has turned on you? Shirley Jackson mastered the intense love/hate relationship we all have with our fellow man. The agoraphobic flavor of her work rings true in modern times. In a post-Covid world we are all struggling to see groups of people as anything but a threat.

“We Have Always Lived in the Castle” was also made into a great Netflix movie.

Take, for example, Eleanor Vance, The Haunting of Hill House’s main character. She is an extremely isolated woman, raised to be a servant to her demanding, disabled mother. When her mother finally dies, she leaves Eleanor destitute. Eleanor is not married, has no friends, no education and no working experience. The paid volunteer group at Hill House is her only chance at freedom, but it makes her life no easier.

Like a tourist trying to pretend to be a local, Eleanor must interact with the other characters on the trip. It is quickly assessed that something is “off” about Eleanor. Her lack of social skills sticks out like a beacon of otherness. They are all strangers, but Eleanor is the strangest. She is alone.

It's a feeling we all know– trying to find somewhere to sit at lunch in school, times a thousand. And the nasty thing about isolation is that it is self-perpetuating. The more you are isolated, the stranger you become.

“We Have Always Lived in the Castle.” was Shirley Jackson’s last novel and arguably her bleakest. After writing it, Jackson suffered a nervous breakdown and did not leave the house for half of a year.

Shirley Jackson had problems that, in some ways, we can all relate to. The pandemic left us all feeling isolated, lost. I suppose some people just jumped back into life as if they had never left, but I wasn’t among them.

Shirley Jackson was an outsider, and she struggled. She grappled with her appearance, her skills as a writer and her place in the world as a woman. She knew that the only thing worse than being an outsider was being invaded by swirling menace that seemed to surround her.

Shirley Jackson was a celebrated talent in life, and in death has her own literary award, as well as a 2020 biopic starring Elizabeth Moss. I first read her work in high school and it helped shape me into the writer I am today. I can only hope to be half as good as she was. Her triumphs are celebrated, but it is important to talk about her struggles as well. The darkness is part of what makes her work so terrifying. The fear she lived with cuts like dirty looks of neighbors, and betrayals of trusted friends. For true fans of the horror genre, she is a must read.

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