The Haunting Of Hill House Essay

In “The Haunting of Hill House”, Jackson uses a third person point of view in order to create an ambiguous feeling during the supernatural experiences which leads to confusion of whether the novel falls under the sub-genre female gothic, or not. Jackson starts the novel with a very powerful quote: “No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.” (1). That famously known quote is very ambiguous and evokes suspense. The sub-genre female gothic conventions consist of an old haunted house, mystery and suspense, supernatural experiences, women distress during a transition to adulthood or motherhood, repressed emotions, an aspect of feminism, heroic male figure, dark, and horror. The Haunting of Hill House consists of some of the female gothic conventions but lacks others. Viewing the supernatural experiences from a third person point of view allows the reader to have an insight of the situations.

Whatever Theodora did or told Eleanor to do, she obeyed and at all times puts effort into pleasing her. For example, when all four of them are in the parlor, “Eleanor thought, She moves like an animal, nervous and alert; se can’t sit still while there is any scent of disturbance in the air; we are all uneasy … Theodora came, moving with grace, circling to a resting spot … how lovely she is, Eleanor thought, how thoughtlessly, luckily lovely” (Jackson 125). Eleanor looks up to Theodora and admires her as a motherly figure in her life; however, these feelings of admiration and lovingness fail to endure the entirety of the novel. Eleanor begins to feel hatred towards Theodora and starts to have thoughts, such as “she is wicked, Eleanor thought, beastly and soiled and dirty… I would like to hit her with a stick, Eleanor thought, looking down on Theodora’s head beside her chair; I would like to batter her with rocks” (Jackson 158). Eleanor begins to have these feelings of hatred towards Theodora because Theodora can be portrayed as a better version of

The hills surrounding the house put a dark sense on the house. The hills also impacts the inside of the house because it only gets a limited time of sunlight. George J. Demko states that “In outstanding mysteries, the place -- the geography-- is a critical element in the story and can play a variety of roles in the search for the criminal and the search for justice” in his article “Defining Place in Crime Fiction 1”. The geography around the house is hills and trees almost as if it is in a valley which gives the house limited sunlight leaving the rooms dark and creepy. Thus the character can not see where they are walking and it is affecting their sense of sight. The little sunlight the inside gets influences the characters memory of the rooms. The rooms in Hill House are set up in a way that can confuse the reader as well as the guests in the house. They do not remember where each room is and where they are in comparison to the front door. “ ‘Actually, the ground floor is laid out in what I might almost call concentric circles of rooms; at the center is the little parlor where we sat last night; around it, roughly, are a series of rooms-- the billiard room, for instance, and a dismal little den entirely furnished in rose-colored satin--’” (Jackson 73). The building of the house and the way the rooms are set up affects the character’s sense of

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 story has two main settings. First, the family’s house symbolizes union but not quite right. The family was tired of the grandmother. There was an atmosphere of oppression and manipulation by the grandmother. For example, from the beginning of the story the author stated, “You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad” (O’Connor 485). The grandmother uses this setting to suggest that the grandmother is very demanding. Finally, into the wood O’Connor uses the setting of tall, dark and deep wood to represent something that is difficult to deal with. O’Connor also mentions that “Behind them the line of woods gaped like dark” (490). It explores the dark consequences of death, where the family encounter strangers in the wood and we only learn what’s happening from the noise people make, gunshots and screams. The setting in this story is very good which states expression of mood and it helps us to know the meaning of the

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

Montague tells the long history of Hill House. It was owned by Hugh Crain. He had two children, but their mother was killed in a carriage accident just before she arrived at the house. His second wife died from a fall, possible suicide. Crain's third wife died of tuberculosis. Shortly after, Crain passed away in Europe. His two daughters were left with the house, but many fights occur over who should get it. The older sister dies, and the young sister ends up owning it. She commits suicide, and Hill House is left to the Sandersons. The first night was fine, but many things begin to happen. The following night, Theodora and Eleanor have a terrifying encounter. While sleeping, Eleanor hears a pounding sound. She wakes up. The sound continues, so she rushes to Theodora's room. The room becomes ice cold, and the pounding becomes louder. After an intense amount of time, Dr. Montague and Luke arrive. Another thing is discovered by the guests. Outside of the nursery, a cold spot occurs. Nothing can be explained about the cold feeling, but it occurs every time they walk passed it. Over time, Eleanor sees and feels the presence of a superior "being". The following quotation comes from the chilling moment when Eleanor discovers no one is in her room: "God God-whose hand was I holding?" Over time, Eleanor becomes attached to the house. She feels like the house is talking to her. On one occasion, "WELCOME HOME ELEANOR" was written over

Though the world keeps on turning, the death of a loved one always has lasting and sometimes surprising effects on those who loved the ones who died. It changes a person by making them deal with their own mortality, morality, and grief. However that is not the case in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. The effects of the death of Addie Bundren are very evident in the Bundren family through their actions and thoughts throughout the book. Though they love Addie, they use her dying wish to be buried in Jefferson as an excuse to head into town to fulfill their own agendas. This love and selfishness show the two sided nature of the family. On one hand they are genuinely grieving Addie’s death and on the other they are using her desire for their own gain. A majority of the family members grow out of their grief in their own ways through their individual suffering. Some of them choose to replace Addie in some regards with an animal or decide to deal with their grief in small segments, giving them more character depth, and uniqueness. Though the resolution of the family’s character development is not always ideal, the process to that outcome reveals that above everything else, that they are perfectly human.

In 1959 Miss Jackson wrote a novel called The Haunting of Hill House. In 1963 it was made into a film called The Haunting, starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. In this story a group of researchers gather at an old estate house as part of a psychic investigaqtion to see if the building is haunted. One of the women invited to participate on the project because of her sensitivity to the supernatural becomes obsessed with or possessed by the house.

It is common in everyday life to suddenly get a feeling of dread when something is missing. That missing piece or disconnection is a physical feeling for those experiencing alienation. Although common, enduring alienation can make one feel isolated and alone. Characters in the television miniseries The Haunting of Hill House and William Faulkner’s short story display this psychological phenomenon. In both “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and The Haunting of Hill House (2018) created by Mike Flanagan, the theme of alienation is revealed through family conflict, generational disconnect, and psychological issues.

Each moment the Ramsey’s spent in the house becomes infinite in its memory as the house has absorbed every second they existed there from all perspective imaginable (Hunter 2004, 32). The House asks “will you fade? Will you perish?” (Woolf 1927, 339) as it deteriorates, questing the memories that resonate and pulsate through its corridors as well as its mortality. Animals and plants brought life to the stagnant house once again,

Gothic Literature is a writing style that has dark setting, it has an overall atmosphere of mystery, exoticism, death. A Gothic story will revolve around a large, ancient house or an obscure setting that conceals a terrible secret or that serves as the refuge of an especially frightening and threatening character

In As I Lay Dying, an important question the reader grapples with is simply why? Why all of these unnecessary hardships just to get to Jefferson? Is the Bundrens’ journey to Jefferson driven by familial duty, or familial love? It’s really driven by neither. Familial duty is the guise in this novel for each family member to get to town—namely, Anse—for some sort of ulterior motive. Anse is the driving force for the other members of the family to find a reason to go to Jefferson. The only person in the Bundren family to convey actual familial love is Darl, who tries to burn his mother’s body—which, we are reminded—makes him insane. Yes, they get to Jefferson and bury Addie’s body, but was she even really a person anymore, or

Today, I acquired a new, gold mourning ring engraved with his date of death in remembrance of my dear Henry. However, I have no need to have a new mourning gown made for I am able to wear the plain black dress Henry bought me when my Lydia passed. Oh! Curse me, for now I have brought up the death of my poor daughter who now rests in God’s arms. The death of a spouse creates an amplified pain, but the death of child forges an unstoppable depression in the lives of all who experience such a tragedy. Never should a parent live to see the day of their child’s death, but in the autumn of 1844, at the young age of six, my dear Lydia suffered from diphtheria which also caused the passing of President Lincoln’s son, Edward. The worst day of my life was the day she passed away as I was holding her hand; her fever was so strong she began to lose her eyesight yet she yearned and screamed for blankets and warmth. My hands are shaking now just like they were back then when I held her limp hand. I experienced Henry’s burial just a few months ago, however the feeling of my child’s lifeless hand from so many years ago, stays more vivid within my mind. As I sit here writing I see that the ink from my page is becoming runny and illegible from the quantity of tears that have fallen as I think of my dearly departed husband and daughter, so I must bid this task adieu until I can again reclaim my

In Edgar Alan Poe's Story "The Rise Of The House Of Usher" the setting takes place in a mansion in the country, on a dark dreary day in the autumn months . The mansion is very unpleasant, it is surrounded by forest overgrowth , an eerie lake and the building itself is rotting , discolored and gloomy. It was damaged from years of neglect. Within first glance of the mansion one would immediately begin to feel uneasy, perhaps you would have goose bumps from such a sight and it would make you want to run in another direction. With this setting Poe has created the ideal situation for a horror story. The details of the house makes you question what type of person is living in these conditions , and what has living here done to them? Inside the mysterious mansion the disturbances continued , with long dark hallways, old books lying around and tattered tapestry. The setting lacks any positive presence and is very depressing.