History Creator / ShirleyJackson

Shirley Hardie Jackson (1916–1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror. Her best-known work is the short story "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted for film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shirley_jackson_1.jpg]]

Shirley Hardie Jackson (1916–1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror. Her best known work is the short-story, "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted for film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.

[[quoteright:270:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shirley_jackson_1.jpg]]

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror. Her best known work is the short-story, "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted for film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.

* MistakenForAnImposter: The short story ''Louisa, Please Come Home'' concerns a nineteen-year-old girl who runs away from home and returns three years later only to find that she [[YouCantGoHomeAgain Can't Go Home Again]]. Because her family thinks she's an imposter after the reward money. DramaticIrony ensues.

* VerbalTic: In ''The Road Through the Wall', Beverly, a young girl with an unspecified mental disability, tends to repeat entire sentences.

* HornyDevil: A recurrent figure in Jackson's short story is a mysterious man in blue calling himself James Harris, who may or may not be a supernatural creature. Though he rarely appears directly, women seduced by him abandoned their lives and families to pursue him...only to find themselves stranded and alone when he vanishes. (The original title of ''The Lottery'' was even subtitled "The Adventures of James Harris" and the collection ends with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daemon_Lover the ballad of the Daemon Lover]].)
* HumansAreBastards: The moral of her most famous work "The Lottery."

* BigApplesauce: While Jackson is more famous for her stories of small-town horror, many earlier stories take place in what is clearly meant to be a nightmarish version of New York City.
* DaylightHorror: Many of Jackson's short stories take place in cheery sunlit suburban kitchens.

* {{Housewife}}: Many of Jackson's short stories are about housewives trapped in a hellish suburbia. It's like the dark side of Donna Reed -- gossiping neighbors destroying reputations, people sending anonymous poison pen letters, racial and class prejudice galore.
* HumansAreBastards: A common theme in Jackson's short stories, and the moral of her most famous work "The Lottery."
* KidsAreCruel: Children are often presented as amoral monsters.

* SanitySlippage: A common feature in Jackson's short stories is a woman gradually, subtly going mad.

* ''Life Among the Savages'' (memoir, 1952)
* ''Raising Demons'' (memoir, 1957)

* AllClothUnravels: In the very slightly autobiographical book ''Raising Demons'', on a family trip to New York, 6-year-old Sally ties the loose thread of her knitted hat to a seat in the train before getting off: "I'd like to see ''that'' train get away," she says. Things don't get really challenging until the hotel turns out to have a revolving door.

* ChildMage: Several of the family stories show Sally as one. Jackson herself was a witch and it's possible the "Sally's Magic" stories started with Sally imitating Mommy's spells.
* DaylightHorror: Many of Jackson's short stories take place in cheery sunlit suburban kitchens. The "gas from the refrigerator" incident in ''Life Among the Savages'' also counts... including the fact that she managed to get a sparkling new remodeled kitchen out of her husband in the following weeks.

* TheFifties: The setting for a number of her works, in particularly her family-based stories. Jackson had a talent for both invoking and successfully skewering the popular culture of the time, such as "[[http://school.xvatit.com/index.php?title=Birthday_party_by_Shirley_Jackson Birthday Party]]". Preteen Jannie's slumber party fills the house with the sounds of Musice/ElvisPresley while jazz-loving oldest son Laurie retreats to the den with his trombone. Meanwhile, little Barry cranks his "Spacemen On The Moon" record (5--4--3--2--1 BLAST OFF!) and his sister Sally joins in with a recording of ''Peter and the Wolf''. After a few repetitions of The King, both parents give their son permission to start practicing, with instructions to "play the loudest."
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Jackson's children, presented as mildly fictionalized versions of themselves:
** '''Sanguine''': Laurie, the boastful, exuberant, natural leader who throws himself into dozens of projects and hobbies and surrounds himself with groups and teams.
** '''Melancholic''': Jannie, Future Homemaker of America, member of the Starlight 4-H Club and all-around GirlyGirl who is the most conventional and sociable (and later the most romantic-minded) of the four.
** '''Choleric''': Sally, the challenging, stubborn, mischievous, self-defined imp who marches to her own drummer.
** '''Phlegmatic''': Barry, the youngest, described as a "dogged little foot soldier." He's a bit too young to have a personality of his own just yet, but what little he displays is easy-going, patient, and almost wearily amused by his siblings (and often his parents).
* FreeRangeChildren: An almost expected extension of TheFifties above. Jackson paints a picture of a world where children essentially go off to live their own lives as soon as they step out their front doors. Sometimes this childhood freedom is idealized and sometimes it's played for AdultFear (as when Laurie rides his bike into an oncoming car -- this really happened) and sometimes even both at once.

* {{Housewife}}: Many of Jackson's short stories are about housewives trapped in a hellish suburbia. It's like the dark side of Donna Reed -- gossiping neighbors destroying reputations, people sending anonymous poison pen letters, racial and class prejudice galore. Jackson herself also appears as a housewife in her family collections, albeit an often wry and coolly cynical one.

* ImaginaryFriend: ''Life Among the Savages'', essays based on her family, describes a shopping trip with her son, daughter, and her daughter's seven daughters, all named Martha, whom Jannie has adopted after their real parents killed each other.
** Inextricably intertwined here with IHaveManyNames: Jannie's real name is Joanne, after one of her parents wanted to name her Anne and the other Jean: "Her brother calls her Honey, Sis, and Dopey, Sally calls her Nannie, and she calls herself, variously, Jean, Jane, Anne, Linda, Barbara, Estelle, Josephine, Geraldine, Sarah, Sally, Laura, Margaret, Marilyn, Susan, and -- imposingly -- Mrs. Ellenoy. The second Mrs. Ellenoy." Mrs. Ellenoy's seven daughters all use these names as well, in a "constant bewildering shifting", so that "it is sometimes very difficult to remember whether you are addressing Janey Ellenoy or a small girl with seven daughters named Martha."
** Sally and Barry, a few years later, engage in WorldBuilding. Gunnywapitat is the paracosm unifying all the places we associate with fairy tales. Located under [[WorldTree a huge tree]] (causing Sally's father to ask "[[Myth/NorseMythology Yggdrasil?]]"), it's presided over by someone named Pudge (now you have to turn around three times). Jackson plays this one to the hilt. Sally and Barry subsequently disappear for a few hours and Jackson gets frantic, while everyone calmly reassures her "they're in Pudge's tree". A huge tub of flowers appears on the porch the next morning, ''with an elegantly written card [[NotSoImaginaryFriend signed by Pudge]]''.
* KidsAreCruel: Children are often presented as amoral monsters. Jackson's representations of her own children are not immune from this interpretation (although in their case, it's usually PlayedForLaughs).

* NoodleIncident: It's never made quite clear exactly what Sally and her magic did to the clock: everyone in the family has [[LetusNeverSpeakOfThisAgain agreed to speak no more of it]]. Jannie can still tell time on the clock, sort of, but Jannie is left-handed anyway.

* VerbalTic: In her loosely autobiographical ''Raising Demons'', Jackson describes her daughter Sally going through a phase, at about four, where she repeated the key word in every sentence: "Well, I told Amy's mother that I did not have any breakfast, breakfast, because my mommy did not wake up and give it to me, mommy. And Amy's mother said I was a poor baby, baby, and she gave me cereal and fruit, cereal, and she said there, dear, and she gave me chocolate milk, and I ''did'' remember to say thank you, remember." (Jackson was gifted at capturing the VerbalTic s of small children's speech: "You bad bad webbis.")
** Amy is even worse. She repeats entire sentences. "Can Sally come out and play? Is Sally here so she can play with me?"
** In ''The Road Through the Wall', Beverly, a young girl with an unspecified mental disability, tends to do pretty much the same thing.
* WhamLine: In the short story "Charles" (later included in the fix-up book ''Life Among the Savages''), Jackson's son Laurie, a new kindergartener, is constantly telling stories about a mischievous classmate Charles whose inventively naughty behavior fascinates both parents. The narrator sets out for her first parent-teacher conference eager to meet Charles' mother. The teacher remarks that Laurie has had some trouble adjusting and his mother blames it on Charles' influence. The teacher is confused:
-->"Laurie usually adjusts very quickly," I said. "I suppose this time it's Charles' influence."
-->"Charles?"
-->"Yes," I said, laughing, "you must have your hands full in that kindergarten, with Charles."
-->"Charles?" she said. "We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten."

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shirley_jackson_1.jpg]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shirley_jackson_1.jpg]]

* DaylightHorror: Many of Jackson's short stories take place in cheery sunlit suburban kitchens.

* {{Housewife}}: Many of Jackson's short stories are about housewives trapped in a hellish suburbia. It's like the dark side of Donna Reed -- gossiping neighbors destroying reputations, people sending anonymous poison pen letters, racial and class prejudice galore. Jackson herself also appears as a housewife in her family collections, albeit an often wry and coolly cynical one.
* HumansAreBastards: A common theme in Jackson's short stories, and the moral of her most famous work "The Lottery."

* WhamLine: In the short story "Charles" (later included in the fixup book ''Life Among the Savages''), Jackson's son Laurie, a new kindergartener, is constantly telling stories about a mischievous classmate Charles whose inventively naughty behavior fascinates both parents. The narrator sets out for her first parent-teacher conference eager to meet Charles' mother. The teacher remarks that Laurie has had some trouble adjusting and his mother blames it on Charles' influence. The teacher is confused:

* ''TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' (1959)

* FourTempermentEnsemble: Jackson's children, presented as mildly fictionalized versions of themselves:

** Sally and Barry, a few years later, engage in WorldBuilding. Gunnywapitat is the paracosm unifying all the places we associate with fairy tales. Located under [[WorldTree a huge tree]] (causing Sally's father to ask "[[Myth/NorseMythology Yggdrasil?]]"), it's presided over by someone named Pudge (now you have to turn around three times). Jackson plays this one to the hilt. Sally and Barry subsequently disappear for a few hours and Jackson gets frantic, while everyone calmly reassures her "they're in Pudge's tree". A huge tub of flowers appears on the porch the next morning, ''with an elegantly written card signed by Pudge''.

** Sally and Barry, a few years later, engage in elementary WorldBuilding. Gunnywapitat is the paracosm unifying all the places we associate with fairy tales. Located under [[WorldTree a huge tree]] (causing Sally's father to ask "[[Myth/NorseMythology Yggdrasil?]]"), the people hold cookie parties, the queen wears beautiful flowers, and they fight off enemies with their trusty srops. The whole thing is presided over by someone named Pudge (now you have to turn around three times). Jackson really plays this one to the hilt. When Sally and Barry subsequently disappear for a few hours and Jackson gets frantic, everyone around her calmly reassures her "they're in Pudge's tree". A huge tub of flowers turns up on the porch the next morning, ''with an elegantly written card signed by Pudge''.

* TheFifties: The setting for a number of her works, in particularly her family-based stories. Jackson had a talent for both invoking and successfully skewering the popular culture of the time, such as an incident where her preteen daughter's slumber party fills the house with the sounds of Musice/ElvisPresley while her jazz-loving oldest son retreats to the den with his trombone. After a few repetitions of The King, both parents give their son permission to start practicing, with instructions to "play the loudest."

** '''Melancholic''': Janie, Future Homemaker of America and all-around GirlyGirl who is the most conventional and sociable (and later the most romantic-minded) of the four.

* FreeRangeChildren: An almost expected extension of TheFifties above. Jackson paints a picture of a world where children essentially go off to live their own lives as soon as they step out their front doors. Sometimes this childhood freedom is idealized and sometimes it's played for AdultFear--and sometimes even both at once.

* Housewife: Many of Jackson's short stories are about housewives trapped in a hellish suburbia. Jackson herself also appears as a housewife in her family collections, albeit an often wry and coolly cynical one.

** '''Phlegmatic''': Barry, the youngest, described as a "dogged little foot soldier." He's a bit too young to have a personality of his own just yet, but what little he displays is easy-going, patient, and almost wearily amused by his siblings.
* FreeRangeChildren: An almost expected extension of TheFifties above. Jackson paints a picture of a world where children essentially go off to live their own lives as soon as they step out their front doors. Sometimes this childhood freedom is idealized and sometimes it's played for ParentalFear.

* NoodleIncident: It's never made quite clear exactly what Sally and her magic did to the clock: everyone in the family has [[LetusNeverSpeakOfThisAgain agreed to speak no more of it]]. Jannie can still tell time on the clock, sort of, but Jannie is lefthanded anyway.
* RapeAsDrama: Natalie Waite in ''Hangsaman'' flirts with a man at her father's cocktail party and he drags her off. In so many words the narrative reveals that he raped her. When she gets to college she refuses to tell a gathering of the school's GirlPosse whether she's a virgin.

* ImaginaryFriend: ''Life Among the Savages'', essays based on her family, describes a shopping trip with her son, daughter, and her daughter's seven daughters, all named Martha, whom Joanne has adopted after their real parents killed each other.

* WhamLine: In one chapter of ''Life Among the Savages', her son Laurie, a new kindergartener, is constantly telling stories about a mischievous classmate Charles whose inventively naughty behavior fascinates both parents. The narrator sets out for her first parent-teacher conference eager to meet Charles' mother. The teacher remarks that Laurie has had some trouble adjusting and his mother blames it on Charles' influence. The teacher is confused:

* "TheLottery" (1948)

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror. Her best known work is the short-story, ''Literature/TheLottery'', about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted for film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.

* ''TheLottery'' (1948)

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror. Her best known work is the short-story, "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted for film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.

* "TheLottery" (1948)