We Have Always Lived in the Castle: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Constance gives Charles the shopping list and a key to the gate. When she gives him grocery money, he protests that it isn’t safe to keep the money in the house. Merricat waits till he’s gone, then tells Constance he forgot the library books because he doesn’t know how things work in this house. Constance remarks on the warm weather, and Merricat tells her how wonderful life is on the moon. Constance wonders when to start making gingerbread for Charles. Merricat thinks about the villagers waiting to see her come into town and seeing Charles instead. Then she suggests that Constance could make a gingerbread Charles and Merricat could eat him, which irritates Constance.

Merricat goes to her father’s room to look for a magic object to use against Charles. Since Charles is staying here, the room is filled with his things. An open drawer shows that he’s been looking at her father’s expensive jewelry. Merricat takes her father’s gold watch chain and brings it into her room. She decides to nail it to the tree where the book fell down, and in the meantime she lies on her bed and plays with it.

Later that day, Charles brings the watch chain to the kitchen, having found it in the tree. He’s enraged that something so valuable would be damaged in such a way. Constance doesn’t think it’s important, and he tries to impress its monetary worth on her. When he says they need to figure out how the chain got on the tree, Constance tells him that Merricat put it there, like she always does. Charles looks closely at Merricat. When Constance helps Uncle Julian into bed for a nap, Charles asks Jonas what Merricat would do if Constance didn’t love her and turned her out of the house.

Merricat decides that the next step is to ask Charles politely to leave, before he leaves his mark on the house any more than he already has by leaving his pipe and tobacco and newspapers lying around. After he’s been there three days, Merricat asks Constance whether he’s mentioned leaving. Constance gets cross when Merricat brings this up, even though she was never cross with Merricat before. Merricat says Charles makes Uncle Julian sicker, and Constance says that Uncle Julian shouldn’t think about the gloomy past so much. She says she’s been undutiful to him and to Merricat, who runs wild. Merricat begins to say what life is like on the moon, but Constance stops her. She says Uncle Julian should be in a hospital. Then she becomes her old self again and says Merricat is being silly.

Merricat goes outside to ask Charles to leave. She tries to be kind to him in her thoughts, but when she thinks of his face she wants him to die. She approaches him in the garden and politely asks him to leave, but he refuses. He’s wearing her father’s watch. He wonders aloud whether he’ll be there in a month, or she will. Merricat runs up to her father’s room and breaks the mirror with a shoe.

Merricat has been doing a better job of being kind to Uncle Julian. Charles hates watching Uncle Julian eat and says he should wear a bib. Charles eats huge breakfasts in the kitchen, and if Uncle Julian calls from his room, Charles tells Constance she shouldn’t wait on him. Merricat avoids eating breakfast with Charles. She looks in Uncle Julian’s window from the outside and pities him. When she asks Constance to make Uncle Julian a cake, Charles says that Constance is too busy.

One afternoon, Merricat follows Charles to the edge of the village, where she sees him sit down with the village men. When she returns home, Constance asks where she’s been and tells her she’s no longer allowed to wander. Constance says she’s been wrong to shut them away from the world, and Merricat should have boyfriends. Then she realizes how ridiculous she sounds and they both laugh.

Merricat goes to look for Jonas, and Charles returns with a scarf that Merricat had used to tie the gate shut. He’s irritated that she used it that way because it’s expensive. He wants to look over their father’s clothes and papers in his study, which is where the safe is. Merricat isn’t allowed to open the safe, and she avoids the study in general. She thinks that being a demon and a ghost must be hard for Charles, because he has to constantly pretend he’s human.

Later, Merricat goes into the kitchen, where Constance and Uncle Julian are. Uncle Julian demands a box for his papers so that Charles can’t touch them. He calls Charles dishonest and a bastard. Constance brings him a box from the cellar, but Uncle Julian temporarily forgets why he wanted it. Constance says she should have put him in a hospital, and she might have to, though Merricat says it wouldn’t be kind. Merricat feels like time is running out and is considering smashing the mirror in the hall when Charles comes downstairs for dinner.

That evening, Constance plays songs that their mother played on the harp in the drawing room. Charles is restless while he listens, but doesn’t dare put his feet on the furniture. Uncle Julian says all the Blackwood women had a delicate touch. Charles takes a Dresden figurine off the fireplace, asking whether it’s valuable, but Constance says it isn’t. He says it’s time for her to stop playing, because they have to discuss plans.