Shirley Jackson illustrates people’s ideals, fears and terrors, and the psychological significance of subconsciousness in her novel Haunting of Hill House. The Haunting of Hill House is a ghost and horror narrative published in 1959 (Gale 4). The author uses symbolic nuances and unusual settings to form a new atmosphere, depicting the central characters’ sentiments and emotions and their ideas and inner moods. Argument Shirley Jackson shows human psychology as a “haunted house” that impacts its “owner,” their fate, and acts. She anticipates and foretells the topic of death, supernatural activities, and a sensation of horror by using the house’s unusual setting and characterization. Jackson informs the reader that Eleanor’s physical and spiritual elements have become so divided that one can only survive at the detriment of the other, employing metaphors and similes. This house seemed to create itself, soaring together in a strong pattern. It was an empty house, never meant to be occupied, unsuited for humans, affection, or hope (Jackson 35). This paper analyzes Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House by examining its narrative style, symbolism, setting, and use of language.
The attractiveness of this novel is undoubtedly due to Jackson’s narrative style. The book opens with a cheerful demeanor, discussing the house and the gloom inside it, but as the story unfolds, the lightness is absorbed by darkness, and the suspense builds with each page turn. The terror in this novel comes from how it is worded rather than what happens. With careful phrasing and sentence patterns, Jackson can induce anxiety and fear in the reader. The terrible forces of Hill House seem to converge on Eleanor Vance, an eccentric, lonely, and rather intriguing older woman in The Haunting of Hill House (Rosita 24). For Eleanor and the audience, Jackson employs uncertainty in her vocabulary to produce Dramatic Irony and a sensation of the weird to create a sense of confusion. This idea of creating an uneasy feeling to make the familiar strange is combined with the conventional Female Gothic subgenre concept. The female heroine attempts to unravel the mystery while dealing with her concerns, including the loss of her mother (Anderson 36). Jackson combines these notions into her story, her mother-daughter relation, the dread of being undesired, and the world from outside the home, ultimately supporting Rubenstein’s concept of being adrift or at home.
Jackson reveals the main protagonist, Eleanor, is concerned and struggles with using a “haunted house.” Eleanor’s most significant issue was that she had spent her childhood years caring for her ailing mother. She was left unmarried while lacking a means of revenue when her mother died. Hill House symbolizes the countless interconnections between the self and the world beyond; she is so afraid that her mind-being may be shattered that she develops an extra protective barrier (Rosita 21). The emblem of death represents the characters’ activities and behavior. Death became a sequence of alluring postures rather than an occurrence, an action, or a state of utter non-being. Dr. John Montague, Eleanor and Theodore, Luke Sanderson, Mr. and Mrs. Dudley, and the other essential characters experience dread and fear. Individuals can use isolation or a feeling of self-loneliness to understand the nature of oneself and the universe because going out or making the material world fit the imaginative assumption tends to lose innovation. Jackson reveals that the physical universe is often inflexible. Instead of the intellect willingly comprehending, the mind lost itself and has become the object as an effort of subsidence and attachment. For example, when Eleanor detects the sound, she believes that the craziest element of this ineffable sensation is that Theo should have it as well (Jackson 109). There is no visual coherence in either of these portrayals of human free will or behavior; no character is similar, and no single purpose or action bears a solid relationship to others. Jackson uses symbolic analogies to get readers to see the breakage or misalignment of human capacities as something distinct every time (Anderson 24). The work must be reviewed even if the reasoning is false: the house can be contrasted to the beyond and supernatural human outer control. As a result, death will mark the end of the life cycle in both circumstances; it reestablishes the completeness of being with which individuals began existence or may have had in a previous incarnation, but which is increasingly eroded in the inherent turmoil of this earthly life.
Like other excellent ghost tales, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House creates a trap for the hero. Intellectual desire and, sometimes, greed draw him into the presence of the ghost; the hero’s propensity to interfere, enter the sealed door, rummage around for riches, and grab a souvenir is what draws the ghost’s fury or maliciousness. Aside from their aggressiveness, the hero usually lacks personality. They are prone to being in the right spot at the right time and then lamenting the repercussions (Anderson 62). Eleanor is a true literary character instead of a plot device. She is a complex and unique individual, odd-even, but not so odd that she fails to elicit sympathy from the audience. Readers experience the narrative via Eleanor’s eyes, and no matter how untrustworthy she is, they are devoted to her. When the home invades her mind, the reader, who is so deeply entwined with her, is equally invaded. When Eleanor is apprehended, readers are as well. The Haunting of Hill House emits a persistent, clammy fear unlike anything else in the genre. The occurrences in the book are more tangible, and Eleanor is not the only one hearing and seeing them, as Dr. Montague reminds out (Jackson 78). But they could be the result of her paranormal activity, primitive, nasty, and violent spirit, rather than the house itself by an unconscious force. Jackson made it clear that the ghosts in their short stories were actual people living in the fictitious worlds they depicted.
The setting, which is located in an old house, is what renders this tale so fascinating. The house is described not only in terms of its appearance but also in terms of how it makes individuals feel. Shirley Jackson gave the house’s past so much thought and effort that it appears more filled out than the central figures because it has its personality (Jackson 112). In her work The Haunting of Hill House, she conveys gothic aspects by discussing horrific and unpleasant topics, creating an unsettling and annoying sense for the reader. This aspect is evidenced by the house’s embodiment and the dismal atmosphere it emits. The belief that people cannot hear anyone within the house suggests something wrong (Gale 6). These aspects come together in the novel to show how gothic elements can turn a story into an unsettling but brilliant work of fiction. Jackson depicts The Hill House as a house with a tragic history and rumored ghostly phenomena. Suicide controversies are one example of a sad past. There are reports of people committing suicide for no apparent cause. One explanation related to the causes of these deaths is that the house is to blame. She reflected vividly on the everlasting. Before the car slammed into the tree, there was a crashing sound. Eleanor’s decision to commit suicide is influenced when she understands how horrible the situation is and attempts to flee, which leads her car to collide with a tree. Her demise is similar to one of Hill House’s past deaths, implying that they are getting influenced by otherworldly forces. Jackson describes the Hill House in a negative light throughout the narrative that the reader is instantly dissuaded. She writes about Eleanor’s entrance into the house at the beginning of the novel to make the house seem alive (Jackson 106). The residence is decorated in the style of a medieval stronghold. It is characterized as immense and dark. It is also said to have blank windows and a suspicious demeanor. Several elements in the novel add to the story’s unsettling and puzzling atmosphere. The Gothic elements are primarily used to describe the setting of the story.
The pace of this novel is slow at times, especially towards the beginning, but the language is so appealing and fascinating. That does not imply that nothing unfolds; instead, everything takes place at its speed, and the plot is not hurried. The Haunting of Hill House has the reverse reaction: it usually starts taking a long time to get where it intends to go, but as the story unfolds, the mystery unravels rapidly (Rosita 32). Throughout the novel, the characters Theodora and Eleanor have an intriguing relationship. Eleanor justifies her dislike for Theodora in a single paragraph, even though they were closest friends merely a few days earlier. This behavior has something to do with the girls’ need for attention. Eleanor’s shyness and self-consciousness became apparent, and she could not hold a conversation with anyone. When she met Theodora, though, she seemed relieved to have a companion and be noticed. Her name is written on the walls, Theodora’s garments are soaked in blood, and the house revolves around her. These actions demonstrated that the house supported meek Eleanor over egotistical Theodora. Eleanor felt special because she was getting enough attention, while Theodora was irritated because she was not obtaining it as she used to (Jackson 53). Jackson describes Eleanor’s comprehension so that it foreshadows the events that occur at Hill House as Eleanor pursues her quest for a home.
Conclusion
Shirley Jackson knows how to tell a good narrative, and despite the lack of a resolution, this was a thoroughly amusing book. While everyone needs their homes and families to survive, Eleanor appears incapable of functioning in any context other than her own. She seems unable to leave her house, and, like a child, she craves the safety and protection of another person’s home from the terrors that genuinely get under her skin, such as the real world. Therefore, Hill House emerges as an attractive place to live. Fear drives Eleanor’s car into a tree when the others force her to abandon the sanctuary of the house. She develops into her terrible haunting castle in the end. The protagonists in the book are clever, and some of what they say helps make them three-dimensional, realistic characters that could exist. Although this is a short novel, it creates a solid connection to Eleanor, and her character growth is exciting and elegantly helped by Jackson’s command of the written word.
Works Cited
Anderson, Melanie R. “Perception, supernatural detection, and gender in The Haunting of Hill House.” Shirley Jackson, Influences and Confluences. Routledge, 2016. 47-65.
Gale, Cengage Learning. A Study Guide for Shirley Jackson’s” The Haunting of Hill House.” Gale Cengage Learning, 2016.
Jackson, Shirley. The haunting of hill house. Penguin, 2013.
Rosita, Atik. Eleanor’s Decision in Novel The Haunting of Hill House By Shirley Jackson. Diss. UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya, 2019.
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