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Summary: Chapter 1

Mary Katherine Blackwood (also known as Merricat) is eighteen years old and lives with her older sister Constance, along with their Uncle Julian, in the family’s secluded estate. Their other family members are dead. Merricat describes their home as old, tidy, and resistant to change, and notes that the library books are long overdue. Narrating from an unspecified point in the future, she wonders if she would have chosen different books, had she known it would be the last time she’d ever check anything out at the library.

She begins her tale on the day of her final visit to the library in the village. It’s a Friday in late April. Neither Constance, who is agoraphobic, nor Uncle Julian, who is in poor health, ever leaves the property, which means Merricat must do so twice a week to run errands. After exiting the library, she heads to the grocery store, choosing to walk in front of the old Rochester house to avoid passing the gossiping men in front of the general store. The old Rochester house, Merricat believes, should have belonged to Constance, since their mother was born there. She notes that the people of the village are friendly with other old families, such as the Clarkes, the Carringtons, and the Shepherds, but have always despised the Blackwoods.

At the grocery store, she gives the list Constance made to Mr. Elbert, the store owner. The other patrons regard her warily; there is a notable reaction when she asks for sugar. As the women in the store talk about her behind her back, Merricat privately wishes they were dead. When she passes the men still outside the general store on her way to Stella’s coffee shop, they gossip about her, and she imagines herself walking over their dead bodies.

At the coffee shop, Stella greets Merricat. Stella is the only person Merricat thinks she doesn’t want dead. Merricat usually leaves if anyone else enters while she’s there, but today Jim Donell comes and sits right next to her, blocking her escape. Her taunts her, telling her he heard a rumor that she, Constance, and Uncle Julian are moving away. Stella halfheartedly tells Jim to leave Merricat alone. Another man, Joe Dunham, enters the shop and joins Jim’s taunting. Eventually, Stella urges Merricat to leave and she does so, thinking of the moon, where she would like to live. As she hurries along home, she passes two young boys who call after her, mocking her with a rhyme about Constance offering Merricat a poisoned cup of tea.

Analysis: Chapter 1

The novella opens with Merricat’s bi-weekly trip to the village, something she dreads. This is deliberate; Jackson begins the novel by taking Merricat out of her comfort zone to emphasize the extent of the isolation that allows her to feel safe. She and Constance have no telephone, and they do not accept mail. They have only a few means of connection with the outside world, including the books and especially the food that Merricat goes into the village to collect. Throughout the text, food will serve a symbolic purpose, and here it is the driving force that brings Merricat into contact with others. Merricat becomes increasingly distressed the more time she spends away from home, directing hostile thoughts toward the villagers during just about every interaction. Her desire to live on the moon suggests she would be happy to live in total isolation, and to never speak with or depend upon any of these people ever again.

It becomes quickly apparent that the feeling is mutual. Merricat looks upon the villagers with disdain, calling them ugly and their houses dirty and wishing death upon them. The villagers, in turn, gossip about her, stare at her, and harass her. Merricat claims the townspeople have always hated the Blackwood family, though they did not always do so openly, and the fact that they don’t appear to hate other well-off families like the Clarkes and the Carringtons suggests there is something else at play, not merely the Blackwoods’ wealth, that evokes such hatred.

Indeed, Jackson refers to an ominous, unspecified incident throughout the first chapter. The villagers, for instance, regard Merricat with suspicion and sometimes fear, and there is a visceral reaction (which Merricat acknowledges and appears to enjoy) when she purchases sugar at the grocery store. At the start, Merricat states that her family is dead. Near the end, as she is walking home, the two Harris boys taunt her with a rhyme in which Constance offers her a poisoned cup of tea. Though the situation is not explained outright, and Merricat doesn’t dwell on the deaths of her family members, Jackson is hinting that the family was poisoned (with sugar, as the reader will come to learn) and that the villagers suspect Constance.

However, Merricat's preoccupation with death and violent hatred of the villagers suggests she may have been involved, deepening the mystery of what happened to the Blackwoods. Merricat narrates events from some point in the future—she mentions multiple times that she will never go to the library again, and her assertion at the beginning that Constance is the only family member left to her doesn’t bode well for the still-living Uncle Julian—which sets up another mystery. We are curious not just about what happened to the late Blackwoods, but what will happen to the surviving members of the family.

Next section Chapter 2

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