The Haunting of Hill House: Book Review The Haunting of Hill House is a 1959 horror novel by the famous American author Shirley Jackson. A finalist for the National Book Award, and considered one of the best ghost stories published during the 20th century. This 175 page novel has been made into two films and a play. The novel revolves around terror rather than horror to bring fear and emotion into the reader with the use of complex relationships between the horrifying events in the house and the characters’ psyches. Although the writer of this novel, Shirley Jackson, might seem an unlikely author of the supernatural horror genre, she is best known for her numerous short stories in which she exposed the darkness of a small town. The Haunting …show more content…
It begins with Dr. Montague, who is curious about the paranormal activity of Hill House, along with Luke, Hill House’s family heir, and Eleanor and Theodora, two young women who are brave enough to take on the horrors of Hill House with them. As the week goes on, the evil that lurks in Hill House thrives on the growing enmity between the two women. When Dr. Montague notices how deeply ensnared Eleanor has become by the ghosts of the house, he insists that she leaves for her own safety, while the others stay the rest of time left at Hill House only to be left with a horrific sight when they walked outside the next day. An example of the horror in the story is when Theodora and Eleanor are sleeping in the same room when Eleanor thinks she is feeling Theodoras hand touching, when in fact, it’s not Theodora’s hand at all. “Now, Eleanor thought...holding with both hands to Theodora’s hand, holding so tight she could feel the fine bones of Theodora’s fingers”(Jackson 115). “God God, Eleanor said, flinging herself out of bed and across the room to stand shuddering in a corner, “Who was holding my hand?”(Jackson 116). Another way Jackson portrays the true horror in the novel is when Eleanor begins to be mentally engulfed into Hill House. He mind and her thoughts are being dimented by the demons and spirits overtaking her. “I am disappearing inch by inch into …show more content…
Eleanor and Theodora are at each others throats and the end of chapter one, only to be locked arm-in-arm with friendship in the beginning of chapter two. The group as a whole will suffer through a horrifying haunted house experience, only to be laughing and drinking brandy shortly after. But in the end, both the book and the movie excel at establishing a mood and a setting necessary to bring this haunted novel to life. The book does so with its poetic descriptions, tone and character development while the film captures the chilling mood with skillful camera work and brilliant art
Every story, every book, every legend, every belief and every poem have a reason and a background that creates them. Some might be based on historical events, some might be based on every culture´s beliefs, and some others might be based on personal experiences of the authors. When a person writes a literary piece, that person is looking for a way to express her opinion or her feelings about a certain situation. A good example is the poem “Southern Mansion” by Arna Bonptems. The main intention of “Southern Mansion” could have been to complain, or to stand against the discrimination and exploitation of black people throughout history. However, as one starts to read, to avoid thinking about unnatural beings wandering around the scene that is depicted is impossible. The poem “Southern Mansion” represents a vivid image of a typical ghost story which includes the traditional element of the haunted house. This image is recreated by the two prominent and contradictory elements constantly presented through the poem: sound and silence. The elements are used in two leading ways, each one separate to represent sound or silence, and together to represent sound and silence at the same time. The poem mixes the two elements in order to create the spooky environment.
Edith Wharton’s brief, yet tragic novella, Ethan Frome, presents a crippled and lonely man – Ethan Frome – who is trapped in a loveless marriage with a hypochondriacal wife, Zenobia “Zeena” Frome. Set during a harsh, “sluggish” winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan and his sickly wife live in a dilapidated and “unusually forlorn and stunted” New-England farmhouse (Wharton 18). Due to Zeena’s numerous complications, they employ her cousin to help around the house, a vivacious young girl – Mattie Silver. With Mattie’s presence, Starkfield seems to emerge from its desolateness, and Ethan’s vacant world seems to be awoken from his discontented life and empty marriage. And so begins Ethan’s love adventure – a desperate desire to have Mattie as his own; however, his morals along with his duty to Zeena and his natural streak of honesty hinder him in his ability to realize his own dreams. Throughout this suspenseful and disastrous novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton effectively employs situational irony enabling readers to experience a sudden shock and an unexpected twist of events that ultimately lead to a final tragedy in a living nightmare.
This is Eleanor’s story. Another interesting point to make would be to address Eleanor’s obvious sexual orientation – and maybe the repressed identity is what causes the disturbances in the haunted house.
During the story the author often uses foreshadowing to give hints to the reader of things that will happen in the future. When the story starts, a storm is coming on a late October night. The storm symbolizes the evil approaching the town. Usually it seems a storm would resemble something dark and evil, because a stormy night is always a classic setting for something evil. At the climax of the story, Charles Halloway reads a passage ...
None of the false-front signs are in neon lights, nor are the houses in vibrant hues. The shops are aligned, the houses are grey, and there stood one singular tree that wreaked havoc. This simplicity acts as the unassuming catalyst in the wedging of the brother-sister pair. The walk to the aunt’s house (a simple trek) showed signs of alarm when the aunt’s butcher shop was not to be found. In there place, there was “a string of houses, weathered gray or peeling gray.” The second caution comes in after the presence of the tree entices Karl. A single tree, one with “white petals” and a “delicate perfume.” The two begin to stray from each other. Karl remains hypnotized by this tree while Mary remains pragmatic and continues walking. The final simple act that completely separates the two stems from the tree. After a moment of mesmerization of the tree, a woman comes out of the house and lets her dog loose. This, while maybe loud, is a simple and expected act. No one wants random strangers surrounding themselves in the yard shrubbery. The dog let loose, the two split their ways: one to the aunt’s house, the other to the freight train. The unobtrusive objects of the town all act as admonitions for the pre-adolescents for what is to come, their complete
“Things in the world even those built by man are so quiet left to themselves…” People futilely fight the decay of life and relationships in an attempt to find beauty and goodness in the world. Joyce Carol Oates masterfully illustrates this theme in her short story “Haunted.” Oates reveals the protagonist Melissa’s desperate struggle with looming forces like the physical environment, her twisted relationship with her best friend, and even the insanity in her own mind.
When Charlotte first arrives at the house she says “A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate, I would say a haunted house” (Stetson, 647). Immediately when Charlotte arrives she begins
He describes them as being "withered", "pale", and "decaying" almost as if they could be ghosts themselves. Their behaviors, such as starring into the fire, and short responses to the young man's questions adds suspense. Even the description of the castle sets a tone of horror, "fashions born from dead brains" and "the ornaments and conveniences in the room were ghostly." Everything being in black shadows because of the moon light and the absolute silence, leads the reader to believe something bad is going to
The particular story I collected takes place in Philadelphia, where ghost stories are plentiful. Philadelphia is an old city with a rich cultural heritage, and our founding fathers made history in the place that was once our nation’s capital (Eidmann). Many believe that their spirits and spirits of those from colonial times still lurk around. It is easy to feel like spirits are around when in a place where many people have lived and died before, and in a place that is filled with old buildings and landmarks. All of these factors make this city a perfect place for a ghost story.
The author selects techniques of diction such as connotation, repetition, and onomatopoeia, to establish the fear is the overall excerpt. He manipulates connotation to enhance the mood. As the character is driven about the midnight landscape by the mysterious coachman, he notices the “frowning rocks” hanging over the road, a “ghostly flicker” of blue light which he cannot explain and off in the distance the “long agonized wailing” of dogs. The word “frowning” allows us to see that this is no happy setting, even the rock that cannot feel is frowning and not smiling. The author uses the word ghostly to describe the flicker of light. Light usually portrays a saving or some sign of hope. By using ghostly as a descriptive word, he makes it seem supernatural or like it’s faintly there. If he wanted this to be a sign of hope he could have worded it a flickering light, but he did not causing the character to feel fright and no hope. The utilization of repetition by Stoker applies reinforcement to the atmosphere. Throughout the excerpt the narrator continues intensifying the effects by also repeating phrases such as “another and another.” By repeating these words the reader is being reminded of the alien emotions and surroundings of such a strange place. The use of intensifying repetition strengthens the negative connotation words following directly before or afte...
In Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House", there are numerous traces of the representation of the uncanny which was suggested by Sigmund Freud. In the story, the Hill House itself is an uncanny figure to the central protagonist, Eleanor, as it features as her mother which has an ambivalent nature as the meaning of the German word of `uncanny' itself. Moreover, the house also acts as a mirror reflecting her own image so that she can see herself by looking at the house, thus the house is actually an allegory of Eleanor's psychological condition and she is literally consumed by it in the end as the boundary between her and the house collapses. Besides, another protagonist, Theodora, is a double of Eleanor as she figures her opposite side which is her denied self and self-destructiveness while she also expresses the repressed feelings of Eleanor. These examples match with the concept of the uncanny which stresses on the uncanny effect of the `Doubling' and `Infantile complexes' . (Alison 32)
One aspect in the novel Beloved is the presence of a supernatural theme. The novel is haunted. The characters are haunted by the past, the choices made, by tree branches growing on backs, by infanticide, by slavery. Sethe, Denver and Paul D are haunted by the past that stretches and grasps them in 124 in its extended digits. A haunt, Beloved, encompasses another supernatural realm, that of a vampire. She sucks the soul, heart and mind of her mother while draining the relationships that exists between Denver and Sethe and Sethe and Paul D.
To conclude, in Modernist works like the ones I mentioned above the theme of haunting is introduced by means of different ideas and different materials, it is not necessarily handled with the use of real ghosts.
a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped
Hall’s prose lulls the reader, contrasting a growingly eerie mood with an overall calm tone. Hall has no great love for her characters in the tone of the narrative, though she shows some sympathy for the woman’s plight. Only at the climax does the prose become fast-paced, and then only for a moment before a terrible calm once again takes over. This too, shows where the real priorities lie. There is no mournful pause for a dead man, but there is a solemnness to the woman’s retreat, allowing the reader to process what the woman’s safety has cost