While ostensibly a progressive haven for women’s education, the college in Hangsaman is depicted as a microcosm of brutal social hierarchies where class and privilege are wielded as weapons. Shirley Jackson argues that this environment, far from creating feminist solidarity, creates a culture of psychological violence and intense competition. Wealthy, socially adept students like Vicki and Anne enforce conformity through bullying and exclusion, preventing the women from uniting against the shared patriarchal oppression of their academic world. Instead of finding strength in numbers, the students are trapped in a system that pits them against one another in a contest for male approval and social dominance, ensuring that the institution’s underlying power structures remain unchallenged.

The college’s social life is governed by cliques that use ritualized hazing to establish a pecking order and punish nonconformity. During the freshman “initiation,” upperclassmen don masks to diffuse individual responsibility while subjecting new students to humiliating interrogations about their personal lives. The event is effectively about enforcing social norms within communities that are typically exploited by the power structures of the college. When Natalie refuses to answer a question about her virginity, she is immediately labeled a “bad sport,” marking her as an outsider who will not play by the unwritten rules of the group. This scene establishes the college as a place where social survival depends on submission to the dominant clique, and individuality is treated with suspicion.

Wealth and social status are central to this hierarchy, used by privileged students to assert their superiority. Vicki and Anne, the undisputed social leaders, leverage their background to torment and isolate those they deem inferior. Their cruel treatment of Elizabeth Langdon, a faculty wife and former student, is a clear power play rooted in class. They invade her home, mock her relationship with her husband, and subtly flaunt their own advantages. Through these actions, Vicki and Anne perpetuate the system of patriarchal control that Arthur is enacting within the household. Arthur knows that by carrying on his affairs in full view of Elizabeth, he can bend Elizabeth to his will, forcing her to work harder for his approval. From her perspective, Elizabeth believes she has no other choice because she had already disrupted the path that would have allowed her to retain her agency when she ended her studies and married Arthur. Instead, she must comply with Arthur’s authority and endure his infidelity, knowing she has no other alternative for her life. On the other hand, Elizabeth hints that her two interlopers are immune from this kind of social pressure when she resentfully explains to Natalie that Vicki’s family owns a private island and Anne’s mother is a famous designer of expensive gowns. Their agency depends far less on their ability to finish their studies, which is why they operate freely with moral abandon. This commentary reveals a world where social standing is paramount and is used to create divisions rather than build alliances. Vicki and Anne’s invasion of Natalie’s room, justified by their own curiosity and entitlement, further illustrates how their privilege allows them to violate others’ boundaries without consequence.

Ultimately, this atmosphere of social warfare obstructs any possibility of genuine female solidarity. The women are too preoccupied with their own status and with competing for the attention of male authority figures like Arthur Langdon to recognize their shared oppression. Rather than sympathizing with Elizabeth as a woman exploited by the academic system, Vicki and Anne align with Arthur against her. Natalie, who might have been an ally for Elizabeth, is quickly co-opted by the more powerful clique. This fractured social landscape ensures that the patriarchal structure of the college remains intact, as its female inhabitants are too busy policing and undermining one another to challenge the real sources of their unhappiness.