Talk:The Haunting of Hill House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Literature Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Novels, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to narrative novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit one of the articles mentioned below, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class.
High	This article has been rated as high-importance on the importance scale.
	This article has an incomplete infobox template! - see Novels InfoboxCode or Short Story InfoboxCode for a pattern
Assessment comments This article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.

[edit] Plot Summary

I don't think I really agree with the slant the synopsis takes - or rather I think it misses an important possible interpretation. My feeling has always been that it is Eleanor that is doing the haunting. The Haunting of Hill House as a title seems to suggest this - the haunting doesn't start until the guests arrive. I don't think she is exactly possessed by the house. I don't think the house really is the entity that the characters believe it to be - they bring that with them. Eleanor is producing the psychic phenomena. She has done this once before, when she caused the rain of stones on her childhood home - something that the current synopsis doesn't mention. I'll work all this into the article myself if nobody objects, but I thought I'd raise it for discussion first. Cardinal Wurzel 11:09, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the above interpretation of Eleanor as the "haunter." I also disagree with the statement that Eleanor and Theodora are opposites. In her notes, Shirley Jackson wrote that "Eleanor is Theodora." Theodora just displays the traits that Eleanor suppresses. 216.20.114.11 14:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)L.C.Norris

I generally agree, but I don't agree that the house wasn't haunted before they arrive, else why would Dr. Montague have found it in the first place? People never stayed more than a few days for years befdore Eleanor ever clapped eyes on it. But I agree - Eleanor seems to be the source in this case, and her unending guilt and experiences with her mother seem to be the root of it.

I do not agree that Eleanor is the haunting or that the house was not haunted before she arrived. If you read the novel, Dr. Montague details the events that lead to his request to rent Hill House. One of the key indications that there was some supernatural activity was that other than Abigail and the companion, no one has been able to reside in Hill House for more than a few days. Abigail's sister insisted that she would never enter the house after dark. There are characteristics about Eleanor that make her ripe for possession or obsession with the house. She is looking for a place to belong, is unable to relate well with others, lonely, isolated, insecure. Socially inept, she becomes obsessed with something that with a "lover" that will not reject her. Hill House is the one entity that accepts Eleanor for herselft and she becomes a willing victim. Trudieb1904 (talk) 00:10, 8 March 2008 (UTC)trudieb1904, 03MAR08