Shirley, Josephine Decker's semi-biographical drama film, is a unique blend of fact and fiction. Based off Susan Scarf Merrell's novel of the same name, Shirley blurs the lines between author Shirley Jackson's real life and the embellished story of the writer's process and inspiration.
While Merrell's novel and Decker's film tell a largely fictional story, there are key elements of Shirley Jackson's actual life embedded in the narrative. The prolific horror author attended Syracuse University where she met her husband, literary critic Stanley Hyman, who was later hired to teach at Bennington College. Jackson rejected the role of "faculty wife" and spent most of her time at home, writing and hosting eccentric literary gatherings for students and school staff. Best known for her writing in the horror and mystery genres, Jackson published six novels and just over a hundred short stories throughout her career.
Shirley takes place soon after the publication of Jackson's now-canonical piece of short fiction, The Lottery. Published in 1948, the bone-chilling story solidified Jackson's place within the literary horror genre. While both the novel and film adaptation of Shirley document aspects of the writer's life, the central narrative of Rose and Fred Nemser, a couple who moves into the writer's Bennington home, is completely fictional. Viscerally inspired by a real life missing persons case, Jackson, played wonderfully by Elisabeth Moss, works on her novel Hangsaman, using Rose as a tangible stand in for her story's protagonist. The film, book, and true story are an interesting mixture of reality and fiction that puts a twist on the book-within-a-book narrative.
Shirley Is Based on A Fictional Book, Not A Biography
Author Susan Scarf Merrell’s book Shirley was published in 2014, and tells the story of a young academic couple who stay with Jackson and her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, in their Bennington, Vermont home. Merrell's novel follows Rose and Fred Nemser growing close to the couple while living with them as Fred assists Stanley with his lectures and Rose inspires Shirley's writing. Although easily misconstrued as a biography, Shirley is a fictional telling of Jackson's writing process while working on her 1951 novel, Hangsaman. Jackson's novel was inspired largely by the actual disappearance of Bennington College student Paula Jean Welden in 1946.
What Shirley Gets Right About The Real Shirley Jackson
Both the novel and film tell a fictional story while sprinkling in the factual actualities of Jackson's life. True to reality, the story shows her marriage to literary critic and Bennington College professor, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), as a complex one. As seen in the film, Shirley and Stanley's relationship was often volatile due to his persistent infidelity as well as him being socially and financially controlling. Due to Stanley's multiple affairs, some of which were with his students, Shirley reluctantly agreed to an open marriage. Shirley also accurately reflects the beginnings of Jackson's fatal health decline which was largely caused by her excessive smoking and regular use of barbiturates which were prescribed to ease her anxiety and burgeoning agoraphobia.
What Shirley Makes Up About Shirley Jackson
The fictional side of Shirley centers on Rose and Fred Nemser (played by Odessa Young and Logan Lerman), a young couple who move in with Shirley and Stanley and must grow accustomed to their unconventional life. Quickly falling into Stanley's charismatic grasp, Fred shadows him both in his academic career and extracurricular affairs. Shirley, who dramatically rebels against the idea of being solely a professor's wife encourages Rose to do the same, seducing the expectant mother with her writing and wildness. In the film, Shirley uses Rose as a surrogate for Paula, a young woman who was attending Bennington College at the time of her disappearance. Seeing Rose and Paula as women trapped in their own circumstance, Shirley gains an empathic interest in both, relieving her of writer's block and leading to her novel, Hangsaman.
The Real-Life Mystery Case Behind Shirley
Shirley follows the time Jackson worked on her novel, Hangsaman, which tells the story of lonely and increasingly unhinged college freshman partially inspired by Paula Jean Welden, a Bennington College student who went for an afternoon walk along a section of Vermont’s famous Long Trail and never returned. In the winter of 1946, Welden hitchhiked to an entrance and was seen on the path by another group of hikers, confirming that she made it to her intended trail. Paula did not bring any gear or nighttime provisions, indicating that she only expected to be gone a few hours. Since Welden's body was never found the case remains unsolved, though both murder and suicide were speculated at the time. Eerily, the location was the site of four other vanishings between 1945 and 1950; it was dubbed The Bennington Triangle. The insufficient investigation by the local sheriffs was highly criticized and the poor handling of the case led to the creation of the Vermont State Police.