Humorous Characterization In Shirley Jackson’s Life Among The Savages And Raising Demons

Shirley Jackson is a versatile American writer who writes with diverse tones andforms. Despite her short life, she is a prolific writer, boasting of six novels, twoMemoirs, and a collection of short stories. Her reputation is established by her shortstory “The Lottery”, published in1948. Due to the enduring influence of “TheLottery” and her other gothic novels like The Witchcraft of Salem Village (1956), TheSundial (1958), and The Haunting of Hill House (1959), Shirley Jackson is recognizedas an occult horror writer in literature discussion while her humorous domestic novelsare largely neglected and underestimated.This thesis attempts to discover the unique literary value of two representativesof Shirley Jackson’s domestic novels, namely, Life Among the Savages and RaisingDemons by analyzing humorous characterization in them and probing into the socialfunctions of her humor. I focus on humorous characterization in the two books as itwould certainly contain situational humor and linguistic humor in it.In my discussion of humor, I would apply the three major theories of humor,namely the Superiority Theory, the Relief Theory, and the Incongruity Theory. HenryBergerson integrates the three theories in his book Laughter and divides humor intolinguistic humor, situational humor and humor in characterization. His theories arealso of significance to my analysis of humorous characterization in the two novels.This thesis contains four chapters and a conclusion. Chapter One includes literature reviews about Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages and RaisingDemons and an overview of the theories on humor. It also explores the culturalbackground of the two novels. Chapter Two discusses humorous characterization inLife Among the Savages while Chapter Three analyzes a special kind of humorouscharacterization in Raising Demons—stereotypes. Considering the unique role of thenarrator as Shirley Jackson’s spokesperson, I would attribute Chapter Four to thediscussion of humorous characterization of the narrator. All these will enable me tobetter explore the true meaning and social functions of her domestic humor.Besides analyzing how Shirley Jackson applies humor in the characterization inthese two books, this study also leads to the discoveries of three functions ofJackson’s domestic humor. Firstly, humor can be a liberating element which canrelieve people from poisonous feelings such as depression, frustration and anger.Secondly, humor functions as a social corrective directed at the minor faults of humanbeings in words or in behavior, thus help them better adapt to society. Last but notleast, Shirley Jackson’s domestic humor in the two novels can be an index to the rolesand values of women of her day and functions as a resistant power to fight against thesocial prejudices towards women. All these will do full justice to Jackson’sachievements as a master fiction writer, not just a writer of gothic fiction.