History Of The Octagon House

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, located in Weston, West Virginia, is a 160 year old haunted site that many people visit each year (Trans). Even though the asylum is now abandoned, tours of the building are something people make plans to take. People assume the haunting of the Asylum was because of the restless souls of the patients that lived and died there. This assumption has not been verified. Sources can say that it is definitely haunted by many different ghosts such as the lonely spirit of a young girl named Lily. Supposedly, she wanders the halls of the asylum, looking for a playmate. Lily has her own room in the asylum on its first floor. She apparently lived in the home her whole life, and was even born there. Lily passed at

Nobody was able to go in there or to ever know who she had in there. Since she had Homer’s corpse she never let anybody in her home. She kept it a secret for a very long

The events that have occurred in the novel could not have occurred if it was not for the setting. Jerry J. Watson writes “To promote students’ critical thinking about setting and plot relationships teacher might pose the following question: Can this story occur anywhere or anything other than what the author assigned to the story? Some stories can take place only in certain settings.” This setting is much different for any others. The plot would never be the same if it was in a different setting because the house would not be just as detailed with hauntings as Hill House is. The setting of the house really sets certain conflicts that are not able to occur somewhere else. “The writing was large and straggling and ought to have looked, Eleanor thought, as though it had been scribbled by bad boys on a fence. Instead, it was incredibly real, going in broken lines over the thick paneling of the hallway. From one end of the hallway to the other the letters went, almost too large to read, even when she stood back against the opposite wall” (Jackson 107). Conflicts such as the writing they found on the wall could not have existed in a different house or setting. Most of the conflicts in the novel include a ghost or manifest of some sort which could not be in a different house or environment. The setting was the main reason for the occurrences happening in Hill House. Danger due to the house

On one night in particular, she decides that she has become together with the house. She starts to fall deeper and deeper into the haunted house and becomes dangerous. Mrs. Montague even referred to her as a creature when she climbed to the top of the stairway in the library. The morning after she made a scene in the library and had to be saved at the top of the staircase, she was embarrassed and felt humiliated. As time went by, she began to go insane. She was happy while she should have been scared and sad. Eleanor loved Hill House because it was the closest thing to a home she had. She believed she was targeted more by the ghosts than the other house guests because she thought the ghosts “only knew her name”, which wasn’t the case because the ghosts knew all of their

The house is always being referred to as alive, and throughout the story different parts of the house are being talked about as though they are body parts of a human. "Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior," just as a disease or an illness would overcome a human body (Poe 716). They say the house has eye-like windows and are of a crimson red. The house is connected to the family and the family name, because this family is the only family to have ever lived in this house, and the house has `seen' everything that has gone on with the family from the very beginning. As long as the house stays up and strong the family name will remain and continue, but if the house were to crumble the family members in it would die with the house. Because the house is almost like their hearts, and as long as it's alive and well they will stay alive and well, and the family name will be carried on.

Also, there is mention of “voices” talking in the novel, rather than people talking. In many parts of the book, I think this device helps to conjure up the image of young Rosa standing at the door eavesdropping. When her own family all but ignored her and only spoke behind closed doors, it must have seemed to her that voices talked more than actual people. Referring to voices independent of their owners also adds to the haunted, ghostly aspect of the story as seen from Quentin‘s perspective. On page 4 he says : “the voice not ceasing but vanishing…and the ghost mused with shadowy docility as if it were the voice which he haunted where a more fortunate one would have had a house.” It’s almost as if you can hear the ghosts speaking through Miss Rosa, telling their own story through her.

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, revolutionized the horror genre of books. It started a completely new trend in how horror books were written. Unlike previous books, The Haunting of Hill House uses terror rather than horror to elicit fear and emotion from the reader and utilizes complex relationships between the mysterious events in the house and the very different characters in the novel. At the end of the book, the reader realizes that none of the questions that have been burning through his or her head have been answered. Jackson refuses to shine a light in every corner, answering the questions of her readers. Her original and (at that time) never before seen writing style caused readers to speculate and create theories for their questions, one of which is what in the book haunts Hill House? Because of this, readers from around the world have been theorizing what exactly stalks the halls of Hill House and haunts the characters of the book sin 1959, the year the book was published. There are hundreds of different theories, but in the end they all revolve around two smaller questions: Was Hill House an entity that haunted its residents or was there something that haunted Hill House?

A grotesque figure is a sculpture that does not work as a waterspout and serves only an ornamental or artistic function. These are also usually called gargoyles in layman's terminology, although the field of architecture usually preserves the Figure [ 3 ]- Grotesques

Filled with a sense of dread by the sight of the house itself, the Narrator reunites with his old companion, who is suffering from a strange mental illness and whose sister, Madeline, is near to death due to a mysterious disease. The Narrator provides company to Usher while he paints and plays guitar, spending all his days inside, avoiding the sunlight and obsessing over the sentience of the non-living. When Madeline dies, Usher decides to bury her temporarily in one of his house's large vaults. A few days later, however, she emerges from her provisional tomb, killing her brother while the Narrator flees for his life. The House of Usher splits apart and collapses, wiping away the last remnants of the ancient family. Edgar’s inspiration for this story might have come from true events of the Usher House, located on Boston's Lewis Wharf. As that story goes, a sailor and the young wife of the older owner were caught and entombed in their trysting spot by her husband. When the Usher House was torn down in 1800, two bodies were found embraced in a cavity in the cellar (Neilson).

In the text “The Fall of the House of Usher” there are supernatural events throughout the short story. From the rapidly decaying house that is quite literally connected to the main character Roderick Usher, to the ghost of Roderick's twin sister Madeline. “House of Usher” -- an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion. This line gives us a hint from the title toward the supernatural link between the physical house collapsing and the metaphorical “fall” of the Usher Family. I believe Edgar Poe did this to evoke an uncanny feeling in the reader and to add to the sublime of the short story. This link between living and inanimate gives the story an extra gothic element. “There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold -- then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.” The supernatural element of Madeline “coming back from the dead” or being a ghost creates conflict within the plot and therefore leads to the inevitable fall of the Usher Family. I believe this ghostly figure struck fear into the reader creating a suspenseful follow up, allowing the imagination to take off and picture this supernatural occurrence. This was never an explained supernatural event. It was left up to the reader's imagination and their assumption as to what is real and what is a figment of the characters imagination. “There was a long and

but maybe it was the old mansion moaning out how ancient it was. Their fear took the better of them, that they could not even check what it was, leaving them with no house. This relates to my question earlier, with you being home alone, suddenly hear something, and thinking it is an intruder . In both of these situations the person thought someone was in their house when

The house exhibits “heavily lightsome style of the seventies,” (451) At the time of its construction, it was the best around, envied by all, mighty and beautiful. Built by slaves just after the civil war its the embodiment of privilege and tradition. In recent years it is seen as an outdated eyesore. The townspeople just as curious in modern day as in the past wondering what lies behind the grim exterior of the home. They get close to the home when the stench of Homer rotting causes need for lime to be put outside of the house. Nevertheless, it isn't until Emily dies that the people get to satisfy their curiosity and witness the insanity that went on within that home. The house symbolizes time not just for the house, but Emily as well. When Emily was young, men sought after and desired her. Emily was gorgeous and as always, bold. Over the years, she changed, her physical

While the first six houses tend to develop the internal, personal traits, House VII, the descendant, precedes the upper houses that sculpt the characteristics with which an individual interacts with others. In particular, House VII unequivocally addresses the quest for harmony, justice, partnerships, and marriage.

When we are informed again of Miss Emily’s death at the end of the story we also are now entering her house. After her death the townspeople went into her house

Immediately, Poe creates a scene of an eerie house in a time of the year which is traditionally known as the scariest or most frightening, fall or Halloween. Through this, Poe allows the reader to subliminally draw conclusions about the nature of this house, as well as the unsettling activity which might occur in the House of Usher. Next, Poe continues to build upon the House of Usher by invoking elements of the supernatural. As the narrator begins to move about the house, he “learned… [Roderick Usher] was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted”