Analysis Of Haunting Of Hill House By Shirley Jackson

Characterization

The protagonist of the novel is Eleanor Vance, a 32-year-old women who has spent the last 11 years of her life caring for her invalid mother. She seems to have a case of arrested development as she still seems to possess some childish tendencies due to having her life put on halt during the care for her mother. The next character that is introduced is Theodora, seemingly her only reason for coming was because she had a fight with her roommate and wanted to stay somewhere else while it cooled down between them. She is a direct opposite when compared to Eleanor, she is vibrant self-assured, and outgoing. Luke Sanderson is a liar, a thief, and in general is what is called a lowlife. He has no interest in the supernatural or the mansion, the only reason he is present is because his Aunt, the owner of the mansion, wanted to put him away for a while because she was tired of dealing with him. The final character the one who organized the whole visit is John Montague, an anthropologist with an interest in paranormal activities. He is in a sense a guide for the rest to follow in their navigations of the Hill House.

The first two minor characters introduced in the book are Eleanor’s sister Carrie, and her husband. Not much is known about them but we can assume they are selfish and controlling. Their refusal to let Eleanor take the car that she half owns because they would potentially be inconvenienced if their child got sick while staying up in the mountains shows their selfish demeanors. Or at least they think they’re protecting her but under the guise they just don’t want her to have the car.

Mrs. Montague and her assistant Arthur are introduced later in the book. Mrs. Montague is a domineering woman who belittles her husband at near every turn, insulting him for not using a planchette to seemingly communicate with ghosts or spirits that have passed. John is adamant in his refusal of said device as he believes there is not a shred of scientific evidence of it being effective. They butt heads with each other, they don’t seem to make a great match. Arthur is a man who is egotistical and narcissistic possibly due to his headmaster position at his college. He was quick to insult Luke and to question his masculinity because of his refusal to go outside at night in fear of what happens after dark.

Eleanor is an interesting case, I’m not sure how to describe it, but she changed the most and the least in a way. She was always like this her personality didn’t massively shift during the novel. It’s just her halted development was beginning to unravel her true self during the stay at the Hill House. Near the end of the book as she becomes more in tuned with the estate she is slowly accepting that this place is her home, its where she feels like she belongs, a place where she matters. Which was seemingly her desire all along. Her refusal to leave the place eventually led to her decision to end her life, forever to wander the halls of the mansion and the surrounding woods alone, just like she always fantasized.

Setting

The town before the mansion Hillsdale was foreboding in a sense, Eleanor could sense something was wrong with the place when she first arrived. The two people in the diner were quick to reinforce this idea as they talked about how depressing and dark it was. When we first see the Hill House Eleanor provides some insight on how we can imagine it “The house was vile. She shivered and thought, the words coming freely into her mind, Hill House is vile, it is diseased; get away from here at once. ” Her immediate reaction to seeing the mansion was foreshadow at the atrocities one would be subject to a resident of the place. The woods were otherworldly in a sense. Big green hills as far as the eye could see, small creeks and meadows too shallow for anything other than tadpoles to live, and the wooded areas with trees that seemed to spring alive at night. During a nightly stroll the trees seemingly turned ghastly white and the sky darkened even further than night. The outside area seems to come right out of a fantasy tale for children. But in a twisted sense as it becomes evil and wicked at night like a flick of a switch. The backgrounds of the characters played a major part into the supernatural events that the inhabitants were subject too. For instance, Theodora has no last name, that is no coincidence, she doesn’t have the pressure and problems of a family like the others do, so the things that haunt her are those. The ghost family that appeared in the woods was her nightmare, it is never directly stated what she saw when she looked back, but it was frightening enough to leave her shaking and laughing in a scared sense. Eleanor’s horror revolves around her mother, she wasted her youth caring for her mother, and now regrets it as she couldn’t develop due to being in a paralyzed state. The ‘ELEANOR COME HOME ELEANOR” written in shaky red letters was the first clue as it attacked her fears. Luke and Montague weren’t haunted nearly as harsh as the two females were, almost of the events were focused on those two.

Plot

There wasn’t a singular event that was alarming than the rest. It was the buildup of the plot and the characters. The way the characters, especially Eleanor, quickly lost grip on reality becoming something inhuman. Near the end of the novel she barely even responded or acknowledged the others she was interconnected with the Hill House. Its believable in a sense people who have lost their mind became strange and erratic. Which fits in with Eleanor’s tragic ending where she purposely swerved into a tree. Her weak mental state and her desires lead her to what she always wanted, a home and a life isolated from others; unfortunately, she became a permeant ghastly resident of the hill house destined to wander it alone.

It was clearly seen that throughout the story Eleanor was losing her mind, she was being consumed by the vile taint that sticks to the mansion like tar. Like a frog being eaten by a snake, being slowly but surely eaten alive; a terrifying reality that one has almost no chance of escaping the only thing there is to do is to accept your fate. Her desires were given to her, although in a less than desirable way. “Journeys end in lovers meetings”. Is repeated throughout the story. It has many different meetings, in a literal sense it doesn’t make any sense in the novel. But under a different view, its provides us into another layer of Eleanor that we didn’t see before unless we searched for it. She fell in love with the house, not in a sexual attraction way, but in a familial way. She finally found a home somewhere she felt she belonged; which is exactly what she was unknowingly searching for the entire time.