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A review by justjaqueline
The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
An interesting exploration of what we impose on young women and the alienation it brings forth.
Shirley Jackson's writing always seems deeply autobiographical to me, but encompasses the condition of women everywhere at the same time.
Elizabeth Richmond is a frightened and frightening young woman, who's not permitted to grieve the loss of her mother the way she wants; broken as she is, the only solution the authoritative figures around her - her doctor, who sees her as a case first and foremost, and her Aunt, who is troubled in the same way Lizzie is, but does not permit herself to show it - seem to offer her is to suppress all that is unbecoming and be just a docile little thing. The doctor wants Beth to be the predominant personality: she's sweet, pretty and most importantly, passive. She can be moulded into whatever society wants; on the other hand, Aunt Morgen, who's kind of outside the norm of femininity herself, despises her, maybe because she and Bess remind her of her sister, the one who took away all that was rightfully hers.
Once Elizabeth reclaims all she is, which ought to be the desired outcome of her treatment, others do not like her: she's introverted, and independent, and not at all what a woman should be. Unwomanly, the call her, when she decide to cut her hair. Icy, when she does not live in function of others.
The way Shirley Jackson explore the themes of her novels always hit it out of the park for me. The writing felt a bit dragging in this one, claustrophobic, which might have been the intent, but it made me hesitant to pick it up.
Shirley Jackson is still my queen, tho.
Shirley Jackson's writing always seems deeply autobiographical to me, but encompasses the condition of women everywhere at the same time.
Elizabeth Richmond is a frightened and frightening young woman, who's not permitted to grieve the loss of her mother the way she wants; broken as she is, the only solution the authoritative figures around her - her doctor, who sees her as a case first and foremost, and her Aunt, who is troubled in the same way Lizzie is, but does not permit herself to show it - seem to offer her is to suppress all that is unbecoming and be just a docile little thing. The doctor wants Beth to be the predominant personality: she's sweet, pretty and most importantly, passive. She can be moulded into whatever society wants; on the other hand, Aunt Morgen, who's kind of outside the norm of femininity herself, despises her, maybe because she and Bess remind her of her sister, the one who took away all that was rightfully hers.
Once Elizabeth reclaims all she is, which ought to be the desired outcome of her treatment, others do not like her: she's introverted, and independent, and not at all what a woman should be. Unwomanly, the call her, when she decide to cut her hair. Icy, when she does not live in function of others.
The way Shirley Jackson explore the themes of her novels always hit it out of the park for me. The writing felt a bit dragging in this one, claustrophobic, which might have been the intent, but it made me hesitant to pick it up.
Shirley Jackson is still my queen, tho.