We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The narrator introduces herself as Mary Katherine Blackwood (or Merricat) and says she lives with her sister, Constance. She wishes she had been born a werewolf. She doesn’t like washing herself, dogs, or noise, but she does like Constance, Richard Plantagenet, and the death-cup mushroom. All of her family members besides Constance are dead. The library books in the kitchen are more than five months overdue, and she anticipates them remaining so forever. Everything in her house has always had its place and has belonged to the Blackwoods for generations.

Merricat recalls that she got the library books on one of the terrible days when she had to go to the village, since neither Constance nor Uncle Julian ever went. On the way home she always went into Stella’s café for coffee because, if she didn’t, she knew Stella would think she was too afraid to go in. Stella would ask after Constance and Uncle Julian, and if anyone else entered, Merricat would leave.

Merricat carefully chose library books for herself and Constance. In the evenings, Uncle Julian liked to see Constance reading, and would ask her about her book. The last morning that Merricat goes to the library is a beautiful day in April, and she wishes she didn’t have to walk through the village. She stands on the library steps and plans her path, wanting to avoid the general store, where men sit outside. She decides it’s best to go past the Rochester house, though she doesn’t like this fancy house where her mother was born.

Wealthy people like the Clarkes and the Carringtons live outside the village, and Merricat doesn’t understand why the villagers are friendly towards them but not towards the Blackwoods. Village politics often split between the villagers and the wealthy families. The Blackwoods’ land is enclosed by a fence, and the villagers have always hated the family.

When Merricat does the shopping, she pretends she’s playing a board game in which various circumstances make her approach or retreat from the finish line. This day starts out well. She walks quickly, knowing that someone is watching her from the post office. She avoids looking at the Rochester house, where the yard is in disrepair. The house should belong to Constance now.

When Merricat crosses the street, local drivers always give her dirty looks. She imagines that if she stepped into the road, someone would swerve towards her and everyone would laugh to see her jump away. In the middle of the street, Merricat observes the ugliness of the buildings and thinks how it matches, or perhaps comes from, the ugliness of the villagers. She wishes the stores would rot.

Constance has made Merricat a shopping list. The villagers hate the fact that the Blackwoods always have enough money, and since their money isn’t in the bank, the villagers seem to think that the family has piles of it sitting around their house. Merricat is always helped immediately in the grocery store, and the owners try to keep everyone else away from her. Merricat is afraid of the children and mothers, but today there are few in the store. The store goes quiet and everyone freezes while she’s there.

Merricat tells Mr. Elbert which food items she needs. When she mentions Uncle Julian and sugar, the people in the store react with horror. Mrs. Donell mentions that the Blackwoods have always had good food, and Merricat wishes everyone in the store were dead. She imagines finding them all dying and stepping over them as she gets her groceries. Constance always tells her not to hate the villagers, but Merricat doesn’t listen. Mr. Elbert writes Merricat a receipt, and she checks his math carefully as a form of revenge.

As Merricat leaves the store, she hears the shoppers behind her preparing to go about their business again. In order to make it down the street and past the watching people, Merricat imagines setting the table in the garden for lunch. She can hear the people talking to each other about the Blackwood girls and Blackwood Farm. Merricat holds her grocery bags carefully, because she once dropped them and the villagers shouted while she gathered her groceries.

There’s a crack in the sidewalk in front of Stella’s café. Merricat remembers roller-skating and bicycling over it when the villagers didn’t yet express hatred of her family. The crack was even there when her mother was growing up, and she imagines it has been there ever since the village came to be.

Stella made a couple of changes to the café with the insurance money after her husband’s death, but it’s almost the same as when Merricat and Constance used to come here after school. When Merricat enters, Stella greets her and asks after Constance and Uncle Julian. Stella is slightly kinder than the other villagers.

Merricat only comes to the café for reasons of pride, so she orders black coffee even though she doesn’t like it. Jim Donell comes in. He and his wife are particularly cruel. He sits right next to Merricat, too close. He says he’s heard her family is moving. She wants to leave the café, but she stays and denies that the Blackwoods are moving. Jim Donell ponders the nature of gossip while Merricat tears apart a paper napkin and wishes death on him. She thinks of how Uncle Julian is dying, and she mentally promises to be kinder to him.

Stella tells Jim Donell to leave Merricat alone, but he continues wondering aloud why the villagers are saying that the Blackwoods are leaving. He’s constantly stirring his coffee, and Merricat wants to stop the spoon. Joe Dunham comes into the café, and Jim tells him that Merricat is denying that her family is moving away. Jim pretends to regret the departure of old families and laughs over the fact that many of the Blackwoods are already gone.

Jim Donell remarks on the Blackwoods’ isolated way of life. Merricat knows that he could go on talking for a while. She imagines she lives on the moon. Stella tells Jim to cut it out, and he says he certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be invited to dine at the Blackwoods’. Joe Dunham remarks that he once fixed the Blackwoods’ step and never received payment. This is true, because he didn’t properly rebuild the step. Jim says he should go ask for payment, but if he gets invited to dinner, he should refuse.

Stella tells Merricat that she should go home. Jim Donell lets her get off her stool, saying they’ll all help the family pack when they leave. Outside, she hears Stella, Jim, and Joe laughing. She imagines her house on the moon. Now she just has to pass the town hall, where people make licenses and count fines and won’t bother her.

Merricat realizes the Harris boys are in their yard, but she doesn’t want to have to go the other way home, which is harder. She imagines them crying in pain on the ground. They chant a rhyme about Constance poisoning Merricat with a cup of tea. As Merricat walks past, she hides inside herself and thinks about living on the moon. Once when she passed the Harris house, the boys’ mother watched them taunting her from the porch. Merricat asked her to stop them. She told them without emotion to stop calling names, and then she laughed. Merricat imagines the boys burning from their words.