Date Thesis Awarded

5-2019

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

English

Advisor

Keith Johnson

Committee Members

Christopher MacGowan

Colleen Kennedy

Leisa Meyer

Abstract

In her day, Shirley Jackson was known as the author of both haunting supernatural tales and anecdotal women’s fiction. These seemingly disparate genres find common ground in their interest in the home and particularly a woman’s fraught relationship with notions of domesticity. By reading Jackson’s final three novels The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Come Along with Me in the light of mid-twentieth century women’s issues, her use of the gothic emerges as a form of social critique of middle-class America. Comparing the gothic notion of reality/unreality to societal perceptions of normality/abnormality, this thesis examines how Jackson confronts the problem of domestic pressure and, over the course of her three novels, suggests a possible reconciliation between women and the home.

Recommended Citation

Kessler, Caroline, "Haunted Housewives: Shirley Jackson’s Domestic Gothic" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1353.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1353