Published in 1951, Shirley Jackson’s Hangsaman is a psychological thriller and a dark coming-of-age novel that explores the mind of 17-year-old Natalie Waite as she escapes her oppressive family, dominated by her emotionally abusive writer father, for a progressive women’s college. Haunted by a traumatic event implied to be a sexual assault, Natalie experiences deep social anxiety and alienation, causing her to retreat further into her inner world. The novel was loosely inspired by the unsolved 1946 disappearance of Paula Jean Welden, a sophomore at Bennington College, where Jackson’s husband was a professor.

Hangsaman was Jackson’s second novel, published three years after her sensational short story “The Lottery” established her as a major voice in American literature. Like her more famous works The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Hangsaman uses elements of Gothic fiction to examine the interior lives of isolated young women. The novel examines themes of The Harmful Effects of Sexism in Academia and the Arts, Fragmentation of Identity as a Survival Mechanism, and Class-Based Social Hierarchies as an Obstacle to Solidarity. Through its disorienting, dreamlike narrative, the novel charts Natalie’s struggle to construct a coherent self in the face of external and internal threats.

This guide refers to the 2013 Penguin Classics edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of gender discrimination, emotional abuse, bullying, sexual violence, mental illness, substance use, addiction, death, and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

Seventeen-year-old Natalie Waite lives in an oppressive home, dominated by her pretentious and egotistical writer father, Arnold Waite. As she awaits her departure for college, Natalie retreats into her inner world, imagining conversations with a police detective who interrogates her about a mysterious crime. The family dynamic is fraught with psychological manipulation, particularly from Arnold, who conducts daily “lessons” with Natalie, critiquing her writing while psychoanalyzing her emotions and insisting that her nascent hatred for him is part of a normal developmental stage. The tension comes to a head during a Sunday cocktail party hosted by the Waites. Natalie’s mother, Charity, gets drunk and delivers a despairing monologue, warning Natalie that life and men will “trick” her. Later, feeling a strange intoxication herself, Natalie is cornered by an older male guest. He leads her away from the party into the dark woods behind the house. The narrative becomes fragmented and surreal, and the next morning Natalie wakes up ill and disoriented, her face bruised. With a hazy, traumatic memory of what is implied to have been a sexual assault, she chants to herself that “nothing happened,” a mantra of denial that she carries with her to college.

At a progressive women’s college, Natalie initially feels a sense of a “new start” in her small, spartan dorm room. However, she is quickly overwhelmed as she experiences social anxiety and a deep sense of isolation. At a house meeting, she watches as cliques form around a popular, red-haired girl named Peggy Spencer, leaving Natalie on the periphery. Her alienation is solidified during a freshman hazing ritual where masked upperclassmen interrogate the new students in a lavatory, asking intrusive questions. When Natalie refuses to state whether she is a virgin, they label her a “[b]ad sport,” cementing her status as an outsider. Her academic life offers little solace; her philosophy and music professors are self-absorbed and uninspiring. The one exception is her English class with the handsome and charming Arthur Langdon. Natalie’s life takes a turn when she bumps into Professor Langdon’s wife, Elizabeth, a former student only a few years older than Natalie. The lonely Elizabeth invites Natalie to their home for martinis and quickly confides the misery of her marriage in her.

Natalie and Elizabeth’s fragile friendship is disrupted when Arthur and two of his students, the beautiful, wealthy, and subtly cruel upperclassmen Vicki and Anne, arrive at the house. Natalie is pulled into their toxic social circle, quickly discerning that Arthur is having an affair with the two girls. Vicki and Anne treat Elizabeth with condescending politeness while openly flirting with her husband. Under the influence of alcohol, Elizabeth retaliates with bitter hostility. Vicki reveals that she and Anne have been inside Natalie’s locked dorm room without permission, a violation that unnerves Natalie. However, the girls’ intrusion prompts them to validate Natalie, assessing that she is “interesting.” As she navigates these treacherous relationships, the atmosphere in her dormitory grows increasingly paranoid. A girl begins sleepwalking, accusations of theft become rampant, and a Peeping Tom is reportedly seen on the premises, all of which mirror Natalie’s growing internal chaos and fragmentation. She feels increasingly watched and judged, and her letters to her father become a carefully curated version of her life, omitting the fear and confusion that plague her.

After a brief and emotionally strained Thanksgiving visit home that only reinforces her sense of alienation from her family, Natalie returns to college and finds a companion in Tony, a strange, solitary girl who never engages with the college’s social structures. The two become inseparable, creating a private, magical world for themselves. They play elaborate games with a deck of Tarot cards, wander the town speaking in code, and view the rest of the world as a dull, hostile place from which they are special exiles. This intense, imaginative friendship offers Natalie a temporary refuge from her anxieties and the pressures of her life.

The climax of the novel is precipitated by an encounter that shatters their private world. In a cafeteria, a man with one arm asks for help buttering his bread. Tony reacts with startling hostility; this intrusion of a harsh, mundane reality enrages her. She insists that they must escape for good and leads Natalie on a disorienting bus ride to the end of the line. They arrive at Paradise Park, a desolate and eerie amusement park by a lake, closed for the winter. As a storm gathers, Tony guides Natalie into a dark, threatening wood. In a small clearing, Tony’s talk of magic and power shifts into a menacing, seductive monologue. Eventually, Tony’s touch becomes sexually aggressive. Natalie violently rejects her. Spurned, Tony becomes cold and mocking, abandoning Natalie in the darkness. Finding her own way out of the woods, Natalie is picked up by a couple who drop her off at a bridge in town. Natalie stands on the parapet and experiences suicidal ideation, but the spell is broken by a passing stranger’s casual question. Natalie walks back toward the college, having survived her mental health crisis. She is alone, but feels for the first time that she has matured, becoming empowered and brave.