Description
Reply to FIVE of the following questions to earn full credit. Feel free to also respond to other classmates’ posts. Where possible, quote from The Haunting of Hill House to back up the claims you make in your posts:
- A number of critics have suggested that Hill House is a character in the novel, and might even be considered the main character. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, how does Jackson transform the house from an inanimate object to a subject with agency? Perhaps another way of tackling this question is to ask, is the house haunted, is the house not haunted, but rather an entity all of its own, or is the house simply a house upon which the other characters project their fears and desires?
- Excluding Hill House, the novel has four main characters: Dr. John Montague, an anthropologist who specializes in the study of the supernatural; Eleanor Vance, a shy, withdrawn woman of thirty-two; Theodora, an outgoing and adventurous young woman; and Luke Sanderson, the young heir to Hill House. How are each of them characterized? What details, images, traits, feelings and motivations are associated with each one? Each of the four human main characters has his or her own reasons for participating in the investigation of Hill House. What are they? All four of the main characters experience supernatural events in the house. What are they? How do their experiences differ?
- The activities within the house, whether or not they are paranormal, center on Eleanor. Is there any reason why Eleanor might be the epicenter for the phenomena? Put another way, why do the others seem to be more immune to the events in the house? Would you argue that Eleanor is the cause of the phenomena or the target of the phenomena?
- Throughout the novel, Eleanor keeps thinking of snippets of lines from this song in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night:
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love’s coming, (pg. 113)
That can sing both high and low: (pg. 113)
Trip no further, pretty sweeting; (pg. 113)
Journeys end in lovers meeting, (pp. 25, 28, 30, 40, 66, 100, 113, 164, 181)
Every wise man’s son doth know.
What is love? ’tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter; (pg. 19, 23)
What’s to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies no plenty; (pp. 15, 19, 69)
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
In particular, “Journeys end in lovers meeting” is a recurring refrain. Any thoughts on what this means? Is Eleanor hoping to find love (maybe with Luke)? Does it have something to do with the house? Do you notice any other Shakespearian references in the novel?
- Do you believe Eleanor was justified in feeling resentful towards the others for treating her like a hysterical female? Or do you believe the others in the party saw something in Eleanor that alarmed them? Justify your position with examples from the story.
- Did Eleanor intentionally let her mother die, or is she merely suffering from bereavement and a mistaken feeling guilt? Cite examples from the story that support your point of view.
- To what extent—and in what ways—does the novel suggest that some (or even all) of Eleanor’s experiences may be psychological rather than supernatural? Are Eleanor’s experiences the result of guilt and/or her own psychological problems, or is she being driven insane by her experiences in the house?
- Do you see Hill House’s horrors as being different for its male and female inhabitants? Any gender issues at play here?
- Discuss the differences in the methods Dr. and Mrs. Montague use to study the paranormal. Which approach, if any, do you believe is most successful? Why? Are the differences meant to reflect gendered differences?
- Why does Mrs. Montague believe that a loving attitude is more effective in a haunted house than a fearful one? Would it have changed anything if Eleanor had shared her belief? Why or why not?
- It has been suggested that Theo is a lesbian. Do you think that she is? Is she interested in Eleanor, or jealous of Luke?
- The Haunting of Hill House was first published in 1959. What aspects of 1950s culture or society do you see the novel critiquing, criticizing, or commenting on?
