we have always lived in the castle synopsis

She is disgusted with this and sweeps the cigar along with the saucer into a waste basket. She sees a cigar smoldering on a saucer on the dresser. When Merricat feels that Charles's influence in the household has reached a dangerous point, she sneaks into Charles's room, which had formerly been her father's room. We know that Constance was tried for the murders but was acquitted. Through all of this, the reader is unaware of who the original murderer was. Julian will not let Charles look at any of his own papers. Charles keeps asking for the deceased father's papers and access to the safe where all the money is kept.

Uncle Julian worries that Charles is trying to take over the household.

She makes a little camp in the woods to avoid him. She also refuses to sleep in the house while Charles is there. She puts dirt and sticks and dead leaves in his bed and then soaks the whole mess with water. Constance is interested in Charles and gives in to his demands, but Merricat doesn't like him and does her best to get him to leave. It is their cousin Charles Blackwood, and Uncle Julian immediately dislikes him because he is greedy, just like his father. One day a man comes to visit the Blackwoods. Merricat buries relics all over their property and nails items to trees in order to protect their property. When others tease her she imagines them dead on the floor and she is very superstitious. It's clear from Merricat's thoughts that she is a very strange girl. She knows she is not welcome in the village and she quietly tolerates the taunting received from children and adults alike. The younger sister, Mary Katherine, is eighteen years old, and she is the narrator of the story.Ĭonstance and Uncle Julian never leave the property, so Mary Katherine, also known as Merricat, walks into the village every week to buy supplies, get new books at the library, and stop at the coffee shop. The uncle is disabled now because of the effects of the arsenic, and the older sister Constance takes care of him. Two young women and their elderly uncle live in an isolated, grand old estate after the rest of the family was poisoned by arsenic six years previously.

We have always lived in the castle synopsis