The protagonist of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is Eleanor Vance, an emotionally underdeveloped young woman with a dark past. As a character, she has a deep connection to the broad theme of family within the novel, and more specifically, how the lack of family when it is desperately needed leads to emptiness. The first major noticeable thing about Eleanor is the desire to free herself from the confines of her reality. This part of her character is what drives her from the very beginning of the novel onward. During her journey to Hill House, she imagines various different lives she might live in all the different houses she sees. However, this freedom that Eleanor is so eager to achieve always come in an illusionary form. …show more content…
Everyone needs a home and a family to get by, but Eleanor seems unable to function in any situation outside of a home. She is unable to go out and make her own home, and like a child, she needs the home of another person to give her shelter and to protect her from the terrors that really get under her skin, such as the real world. And even when Eleanor thinks she has found a home with her newfound “cousin” Theodora, that is also ripped away. Theodora as a woman is everything that Eleanor is not: Bold, confident, and outgoing. As a character, she and Eleanor’s views of family differ drastically. She is the only character in the novel who doesn’t have a last name, which suggests how much of a free spirit she is. All the other main characters have last names and are in some way controlled by their families: Eleanor practically has to steal the car she and her sister share to get by her family’s restrictive rules, Luke is only at Hill House because his aunt forced him to go, and Doctor Montague’s wife walks all over him. On the other hand, Theodora is completely free of family and all the obligations that come with it. She isn’t tied down to a family or a home and has a distaste for family life, the complete opposite of everything Eleanor desires and needs in her life. When Eleanor asks Theodora if she can move in with her, Theodora promptly turns her
The character Theodora plays is a significant role in the narrative through her relationship and encounters with Eleanor. Said relationship begins innocently as new and exciting. She is someone from outside her immediate family that she conjures a relationship with. Eleanor first views Theodora as a possible motherly figure in her life, as “[Eleanor] was always shy with strangers, awkward and timid, and yet had come in no more than half an hour to think of Theodora as close and vital, someone whose anger would be frightening” (Jackson 49). Theodora is described as “the opposite of Eleanor. She is secular and much experienced, exotic and exciting, representing, in part, what Eleanor might have been if her life had not been so restricted and
The Haunting of Hill House, written in 1959, is a gothic novel that presents a twist on the traditional view of femininity. During the 1960’s, the Women’s Movement began in the United States and women all over were fighting for equality and to be seen as equal peers amongst men. In the novel, Shirley Jackson writes about a man named Dr. Montague who reaches out to about a dozen people that have experienced anything supernatural or odd of the sort and invites them to spend a summer at Hill House. Of the dozen, four respond, and only two women actually accept the invitation. However, Dr. Montague makes it clear that he has a purpose for them to stay at Hill House - he wants them to actively seek out any odd behavior of the house or anything inside
Eleanor was the new girl in her school. She took the bus to her school and already marked as the weird
Eleanor, the protagonist, undergoes a difficult childhood which cause many of her repressed feelings to be expressed through supernatural experiences that are ambiguous. She took care of her ill mother for 11 years, until she died. That affected her tremendously. For example, during Theodora’s supernatural experience, Shirley Jackson displays how Eleanor’s inner child managed to let her grow anger and jealously towards Theodora. Eleanor felt like Hill House was giving Theodora more
However, Eleanor could not alter her absolute reality of loneliness. The commonality of the absolute reality between Eleanor and the Hill House is what strengthened their connection, which became crucial in the story. In Chapter Nine, Eleanor heard her mother's’ voice while being haunted by the Hill House: “What fools they are, she thought; now I will have to go into the library. ‘Mother, Mother,’ she whispered, ‘Mother’, and she stopped at the library door, sick… I can feel the whole house and heard even Mrs. Montague protesting, and Arthur, and then the doctor, clearly, ‘We’ve got to look for her; everyone please hurry.’” (Jackson, 169-170). In this point of the story, the connection between the House and Eleanor is stronger than ever, and Eleanor’s isolation from the rest of the group intensifies the connection. Eleanor sees what the House sees, and the House is in control of Eleanor’s thoughts and actions. The House intended for Eleanor to be separated from the group in order to surround her with the absolute reality of loneliness. As the Gothic heroine, Eleanor needs to be saved from her fate in order to live by the Gothic Hero. The character of Luke Sanderson does not suit the traditional Gothic hero, but does try and save Eleanor from her mortal fate when she climbed the iron stairway in Chapter Nine. Luke manages to save Eleanor from the danger
In Eleanor Roosevelt: A Personal and Public Life by J. William T. Youngs describes the life of Eleanor Roosevelt. Anna and Elliott Roosevelt was married and gave birth to a beautiful daughter who is Eleanor Roosevelt. This biography shows the reader a description of Eleanor’s early childhood, young adult, marriage, and how she was faced with many challenges, grief, and changes throughout her years. Eleanor is one of the great First Ladies in the United States.
The author wants to persuade the reader to agree with his statement. His statement is that Pennhurst shouldn’t be used as a haunted house. “Ribbons of paint in various shades of blue, yellow, and green peeling from walls dappled with dark brown water stains.” That shows how bad the condition is. The author is trying to say Pennhurt is a place meant that shouldn’t be left to rot for the public’s sake. But, instead preserved and used to remember the history. “They’re plunking down $25 ($50 for a VIP pass) to get their Halloween scares at “Pennhurst Asylum,” a brand-new haunted house set inside the site’s former Administration Building.” They are paying money to see the tragedy and aren’t eve learning about it. If it were a museum then the money
Most of the plot is based on her real life in 1986 which was full of abuse and change similar to Eleanor’s life. Eleanor and Park come from completely different backgrounds, but their respective concepts of relationships are greatly influenced by the adult world around them. Eleanor’s cynicism, in a reflection of Rowell’s own difficult childhood, stems from a terrifying home life, where love is temporary and the threat of her stepfather steadily darkens as the narrative progresses. Park, on the other hand, is overwhelmed and intimidated by the intensity of his parents’ love. “I believe really strongly that men are good,” Rowell says. “There are men who want love and who care and are sensitive to the same degree as women, just differently. . . . I hope when girls read [this novel], they believe that there are guys like Park out there.” Eleanor & Park, much like Romeo and Juliet, should be read twice: once in youth, before that first love, and again after experiencing love’s ability to transform and consume. After all, as Rowell says, “You get beginnings when you’re 17, not endings.” It is that same optimistic spirit that suffuses Eleanor & Park and makes it a celebration of all the joys and sorrows of young
The Themes of the Haunting of Hill House The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is the classics of the horror story, the novel, by which many other horror writers of the 20th century have taken an example. It is a striking, impressive novel with quite a lot of controversial themes brought up. Of particular interest are themes of home and the haunting nature of Hill House, however, from the perspective of the novel’s protagonist, Eleanor Vance. If seen from the angle of her personality, these themes relate much more to her psychological condition that to anything supernatural.
The second big factor that affects Eleanor’s views and perceptions is her abusive home life caused by her stepfather, Richie. Consequently, this leads to her having a constant fear of seemingly small things and an unusually prominent want to keep her home life and her school life separate, therefore causing her to keep many of her struggles to herself. An example of this is found on page 151 in which an excerpt from the book states, “Where would she go this time? Back to the Hickman’s? Hey, remember the time my mom asked if I could stay with you guys for a few days, and then she didn’t come back for a year?” This excerpt demonstrates how she has an innate fear of her stepfather and of being kicked out; as a result, she often avoids anything she even thinks might anger Richie. Another example of her fear and isolation from her own home life is a quote from the character Park, her boyfriend, on page 105 which states, “She wouldn’t talk about her family or her house. She wouldn’t talk about anything that happened before she moved to the neighborhood or anything that happened after she got off the bus.” Eleanor is very much a character that keeps her personal life close. She bottles up her problems and fears instead of sharing them with other close people, including Park.
The novel Eleanor & Park is a young adult novel which follows the journeys of Eleanor and Park over the course of a school year in 1986 Nebraska. Eleanor is overweight and dresses unlike the other girls, while Park is half Korean, both are bullied for their differences and together they bond over popular culture. The relationship shifts from fellow outcast to romance. The novel is split across both protagonists, with chapters dedicated to both Eleanor and Park in third person narration often alternating.
Eleanor & Park relates to high school life for readers. Many students have to join new schools and find it difficult to fit in. Eleanor has just moved to a new school because she is moving in with her terrible step-dad. She has nowhere to sit on the bus and no one to sit with at lunch. She has no clue where her classes are at. One of the hardest things about high school is dealing with bullies. Eleanor
Eleanor and Park show that true love requires both parties to work well in a team. Finally, Eleanor and Park demonstrate to the reader the importance of being true to oneself. When Eleanor visited Park’s house, Park’s mom insisted to give Eleanor a makeover but, she didn’t keep the makeover: “Eleanor hated it, she hated all of it… ‘It’s not
While reading the novel, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, I have showed that I relate largely to one of the main characters, Eleanor. We gain a lousy living situation, flourishing love life, and we are still functioning. Eleanor is not satisfied with her home life, and nor have I. Coping with men mistreating our family and us. Woken up to a fight in the middle of the night and hearing our mothers sob. Both having to make sure that our siblings are all right before seeing if we are. Since Eleanor shares a room with her younger siblings, she often had to climb down from her bunk bed and gather them all in her arms. Desirous that everything would be okay when she knew that would not be for a while. In the novel, Eleanor does not want Park over or
Eleanor and Park is a teenage romance novel that revolves around two grade ten students named Eleanor Douglas and Park Sheridan. Eleanor moves to Omaha, Nebraska and has a hard time finding her spot in this new town. She comes from a very poor family of seven with younger siblings Ben, Maisie, Mouse, Richie jr, her mother Sabrina and the evil and abusive stepfather Richie. Eleanor has a hard time fitting in at school since she's overweight, has big red curly hair, wears the same two oversized men outfits everyday and is just overall a quirky person. On the other hand Park has been living in Omaha his full life and a wealthy family of four. He is a geeky Asian-American and is an outsider among his schoolmates. These two starcrossed lovers go through good and bad times throughout their story and represent real life scenarios that people face day on day.