The Hidden Treasure of Love: A Haunted House by Virgina Wolf

The Hidden Treasure of Love

Death parted them when the life of his wife was taken from him suddenly. After her death, he left the house and sealed up all of the windows leaving the house empty. After both of them left this world, the dead couple reunited back in their old place of living. Now two ghosts wander through an occupied house that they lived in over a century ago in search of the hidden treasure. The ghosts search and search while the living couple listens and tries to figure out what they are looking for. While the living couple hears the doors open, drawers shut, or whispering throughout the house, they do not feel harmed and the narrator slowly shows the indication of the memories while the dead couple was living. The ghosts worry that the living couple has already found the buried treasure before they had the chance to find it for themselves but keep searching in every room in the house with hope that the treasure is still there. In the end they come upon the living couple asleep in their bed, the treasure was still there in their possession and the light of the heart was the buried treasure.

The story, “A Haunted House” is written by the woman that currently lives in the house. The narrator starts by saying, “Whatever hour you woke, there was a door shutting” (p. 1). This begins the story by letting the readers know about the search that is going on in their house. The living couple experiences and lives through the love and memories of the past residents that dwell in their home. The fear is not there for they know that the ghost couple means no harm, they are simply in search of something they have left behind. The curiosity and anxiousness of the narrator and her husband keep them interested in...

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...oftly, gladly, and at the end beats proudly and wildly (p. 4, 5, 10). This repetitive phrase comes into play every time the couple reaches a closeness in finding their hidden treasure. The pulse illustrates the heartbeat of love. It tells the characters as well as the readers that the love is still alive in the house even though they are not alive to show it for themselves. With every beat they become closer and closer.

In the end, the ghost couple finds the lovers sound asleep in their bed with “love upon their lips” (p. 10). At that moment they realize that this was the treasure they had been searching for. “Again you found me” (p. 10). It was in the couple

Works Cited

Woolf, Virginia. “A Haunted House.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. 40-42. Print.