Hangsaman

Last updated
Hangsaman
Hangsaman.jpg
Cover of first edition
AuthorShirley Jackson
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Speculative fiction | Gothic fiction
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Young
Publication date
1951
Pages191
ISBN 978-0143107040 current edition, published by Penguin
Preceded by The Road Through the Wall  
Followed by The Lottery and Other Stories  

Hangsaman is a 1951 gothic novel by American author Shirley Jackson. The second of Jackson's published novels, Hangsaman is a bildungsroman centering on lonely college freshman Natalie Waite, who descends into madness after enrolling in a liberal arts college. [1]

Contents

The novel takes its title from an old folk ballad. The official publisher's description of Hangsaman says the novel is “loosely based on the real-life disappearance of a Bennington College sophomore in 1946," referencing the case of Paula Jean Welden. [1] At the time, Jackson was living in Bennington, Vermont, as her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, was employed at Bennington College, where Welden had been a student. [1] However, Ruth Franklin's research for her 2016 biography of Jackson found no evidence the novel was inspired by Welden's disappearance. [2] Jackson's text mixes satire with psychological elements as her protagonist spends half her time in an imaginary world. [3]

Plot summary

On the verge of leaving for college, Natalie Waite feels oppressed by the expectations of her pompous, overbearing father, who imposes his personality on her, and by her miserable, defeated mother, whom Natalie sees as an example of the unhappy future that awaits her if she does not escape from home. Natalie withdraws into elaborate fantasies where she is a proud, unbreakable criminal being grilled by a detective for her crimes. On the eve of Natalie's departure for college, she is invited to her first adult party, where she witnesses her parents and their drunken colleagues at their most contemptible. Natalie experiments with different identities among the party-goers and seems to successfully intrigue an older man, only to be led by him into the woods behind the family's home where he sexually assaults her. [4] The following morning, Natalie convinces herself that the assault did not happen.

Natalie leaves for her all-female college, where she is determined to reinvent herself. Most of her fellow students are too superficial and self-absorbed to even notice Natalie, who finds an uncomfortable place at the fringe of a group of popular girls. Natalie is briefly attracted to her self-important English professor, who is the object of Natalie's friends' romantic schemes. Soon Natalie sees that the man has the same flaws as her own father, and that the professor's resentful wife resembles Natalie's own classmates. She resumes her fantasy life, imagining herself as an implacable giant that destroys the college and devours its residents.

Natalie hears rumors of an impish student named Tony who is both scorned and secretly admired for her lack of conventionality. Natalie is determined to find and befriend Tony, but Tony seeks her out first. Natalie becomes preoccupied with Tony. Together they embark on a series of eccentric adventures wherein they exercise their shared creativity, focusing on their own difference from—and superiority to—the people around them. Natalie's reputation suffers due to her strange new behavior, but for the first time in her life, she no longer cares how others perceive her, even as Tony lures her into increasingly dangerous situations.

On a stormy afternoon, Tony persuades Natalie to take a bus to an unfamiliar location miles away from the college. Tony guides her to a lake with a closed amusement park, and Natalie follows her into a small forest. In the fallen darkness, Natalie loses Tony and sits on a log to wait for her, in a scene which mirrors the setting where Natalie was violated the first time. When Tony reappears, Natalie says that she wants to go home. Now uncomfortable with their intimacy, Natalie sets off on her own. An older couple drive up and insist on giving her a ride. They tell her they have a daughter who is same age as Natalie; they discuss what might happen to a girl who is out alone, and those things that parents don't know about their children's lives. The couple drop her off at a bridge near her school. During Natalie's last conversation with her father, he had stated that a radical shift in perspective, such as having a suicidal frame of mind, was necessary for one to clearly see one's own worth. Natalie climbs the rail of the bridge and hesitates. Finally, she turns back towards the college feeling powerful, unafraid, and grown up. [1]

References in other media

The 2020 film Shirley is a fictionalized account of the time in which Jackson was writing Hangsaman, depicting the novel's creation as being inspired both by the Welden disappearance and the life of a newly married couple boarding in the home of Jackson and her husband Stanley Hyman. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirley Jackson</span> American novelist, short-story writer (1916–1965)

Shirley Hardie Jackson was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Long Trail</span> Hiking trail in U.S. state of Vermont

The Long Trail is a hiking trail located in Vermont, running the length of the state. It is the oldest long-distance trail in the United States, constructed between 1910 and 1930 by the Green Mountain Club. The club remains the primary organization responsible for the trail, and is recognized by the state legislature as "the founder, sponsor, defender, and protector" of the Long Trail System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennington College</span> Liberal arts college in Vermont

Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont, United States. Founded as a women’s college in 1932, it became co-educational in 1969. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.

"The Lottery" is a short story by Shirley Jackson that was first published in The New Yorker on June 26, 1948. The story describes a fictional small American community that observes an annual tradition known as "the lottery", which is intended to ensure a good harvest and purge the town of bad omens. The lottery, its preparations, and its execution are all described in detail, though it is not revealed until the end what actually happens to the person selected by the random lottery: the selected member of the community is stoned to death by the other townspeople.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennington Triangle</span> Area in the U.S. state of Vermont

"Bennington Triangle" is a phrase coined by American author Joseph A. Citro to denote an area of southwestern Vermont within which a number of people went missing between 1945 and 1950. This was further popularized in two books, including Shadow Child, in which Citro devoted chapters to discussion of these disappearances and various items of folklore surrounding the area. According to Citro, the area shares characteristics with the Bridgewater Triangle in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Stanley Edgar Hyman was an American literary critic who wrote primarily about critical methods: the distinct strategies critics use in approaching literary texts. He was the husband of writer Shirley Jackson.

<i>Last Seen Wearing ...</i> (Hillary Waugh novel) 1952 novel by Hillary Waugh

Last Seen Wearing ... (1952) is a detective novel by Hillary Waugh frequently referred to as the police procedural par excellence. Set in a fictional college town in Massachusetts, the book is about a female freshman who goes missing and the painstaking investigation carried out by the police with the aim of finding out what has happened to her.

<i>Life Among the Savages</i> Book by Shirley Jackson

Life Among the Savages is a collection of short stories edited into novel form, written by Shirley Jackson. Originally these stories were published individually in women's magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, Mademoiselle, and others. Published in 1952, Life Among the Savages is a moderately fictionalised memoir of the author's life with her own four children, an early work in what Laura Shapiro calls "the literature of domestic chaos".

<i>Me, Natalie</i> 1969 film by Fred Coe

Me, Natalie is a 1969 American comedy-drama film directed by Fred Coe about a homely young woman from Brooklyn who moves to Greenwich Village and finds romance with an aspiring painter. The screenplay by A. Martin Zweiback is based on an original story by Stanley Shapiro. Patty Duke, who starred in the title role, won a Golden Globe Award for her performance. The film also starred James Farentino, Salome Jens, Elsa Lanchester, Martin Balsam and Nancy Marchand. It marked Al Pacino's film debut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula Jean Welden</span> Missing American college student

Paula Jean Welden was an American college student who disappeared while walking on Vermont's Long Trail hiking route. Local sheriffs were criticized for errors made in the investigation, which led to the creation of the Vermont State Police. Welden's fate remains unsolved, and was one of several unexplained disappearances in the same area at the time.

"The Lovely House" is a gothic short story and weird tale by American writer Shirley Jackson, first published in 1950. The story features several overtly gothic elements, including a possibly haunted house, doubling, and the blurring of real and imaginary. It appeared under the title "A Visit" in New World Writing, No. 2, 1952.

<i>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</i> 1962 novel by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a 1962 mystery novel by American author Shirley Jackson. It was Jackson's final work, and was published with a dedication to Pascal Covici, the publisher, three years before the author's death in 1965. The novel is written in the voice of eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, who lives with her agoraphobic sister and ailing uncle on an estate. Six years before the events of the novel, the Blackwood family experienced a tragedy that left the three survivors isolated from their small village.

<i>Come Along with Me</i> (collection) Collection of works by Shirley Jackson

Come Along with Me is a posthumous collection of works by American writer Shirley Jackson. It contains the incomplete titular novel, on which Jackson was working at the time of her death, three lectures delivered by Jackson, and sixteen short stories, mostly in the gothic genre, including Jackson's best known work, "The Lottery".

<i>The Road Through the Wall</i> Book by Shirley Jackson

The Road Through the Wall is a 1948 novel by author Shirley Jackson. It draws upon Jackson's own experiences growing up in Burlingame, California.

Susan Scarf Merrell is an American author who has published novels, short stories, and essays. Her second novel, Shirley, about a young woman who goes to live with novelist Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman in their Bennington home in 1964, was published June 12, 2014 by Blue Rider/Penguin Books.

<i>Annihilation</i> (VanderMeer novel) 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer

Annihilation is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the first entry in VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy and follows a team of four women who set out into an area known as Area X, which is abandoned and cut off from the rest of civilization; they believe they are the 12th expedition, with all previous expeditions falling apart due to disappearances, suicides, aggressive cancers, and mental trauma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bird's Nest (novel)</span> 1954 novel by Shirley Jackson

The Bird's Nest is a 1954 novel by Shirley Jackson. The plot concerns a young woman, Elizabeth Richmond, with multiple personality disorder.

<i>Shirley</i> (2020 film) 2020 film by Josephine Decker

Shirley is a 2020 American biographical drama film directed by Josephine Decker and written by Sarah Gubbins, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Susan Scarf Merrell, which formed a "largely fictional story" around novelist Shirley Jackson during the time period she was writing her 1951 novel Hangsaman. The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Jackson, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, and Logan Lerman in supporting roles. Martin Scorsese serves as an executive producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miles Hyman</span> American illustrator and author living in France

Miles Hyman is an author and illustrator best known for his graphic novel adaptation of Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery, called Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation.

"Louisa, Please Come Home" is a short story by Shirley Jackson first published in 1960 in May's edition of Ladies Home Journal entitled "Louisa, Please". It has since been reprinted in the collections Come Along with Me (1968), Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives and Dark Tales (2016).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Trombetta, Sadie (2018-10-18). "Shirley Jackson's Horror Novel Hangsaman Was Inspired By A Real-Life Disappearance". Bustle. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  2. Sarah, Weinman (2020-06-12). "What 'Shirley' gets very wrong about Shirley Jackson". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  3. Parks, John G. (1984). "Chambers of Yearning: Shirley Jackson's Use of the Gothic". Twentieth Century Literature. 30 (1): 15–29. doi:10.2307/441187. ISSN   0041-462X. JSTOR   441187.
  4. Havrilesky, Heather. "Haunted Womanhood". The Atlantic. No. October 2016. Emerson Collective. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  5. Sims, David (2020-06-08). "Shirley Is an Unconventional Biopic About a Horror Master". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-07-12.