Book Review: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

A subjective literary analysis of the Haunting of Hill House.

Overview

dark, lighthearted, mysterious, reflective, sad, tense

Pacing? Medium
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It’s complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers — and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

Review (5/5 stars)

“Journeys end in lovers meeting.” Eleanor, or Nell, did find her lover in the end, and it wasn’t any of her companions — it was Hill House. This book was a slow descent into madness. I feel taken by this story, much like how Nell was taken by the house.

Reading the Haunting of Hill House made me feel like I was slowly losing my mind. I think the “supernatural” in this story was actually, at its core, a euphemism for mental illness. Nell was always susceptible to the house, to the supernatural, even having prior experience with poltergeist phenomena in the past. She is very lonely, having been forced to live with her cruel sister after her mother’s death, something she blames herself for. She doesn’t own anything, has done nothing for herself, and seems in general kind of depressed. She is also constantly in her head, imagining theoretical situations with such lucidity, that it’s almost as if they are actually happening. All she seems to want is to be accepted, to belong, and to make something of herself.

Many of the characters, actually, also have connections to supernatural events and circumstances, and they all behave similarly to one another on some level. I almost want to call Dr. Montague a psychologist, and they are all participating in this weird, disturbing form of group therapy. If I’m going to read into it this far, then I suppose I could also say the novel is a critique of how people with mental illnesses are treated, how the efforts of the system are often lost on them because nobody can actually understand what it’s like. Nobody can truly see the person suffering, and nobody actually, genuinely cares. There is even a point near the end of the book where Nell appears to be watching everyone in the house, completely invisible to them. She wants to know if they’re talking about her — wants to be the centre of attention, wants to overhear them saying her name, wants them to be thinking about her. But nobody actually does. It’s like she was begging to be truly, honestly seen, and when she wasn’t, it was the final straw for her mental state.

But the house saw her. The house wrote her name on the walls with chalk and blood. The house was always there for her, never turning from her, always accepting. So when Nell’s whole group of companions turned on her, seemingly wanting what’s best for her and forcing her out of Hill House — she made the decision to defy them and crash the car, so she could live in the house forever, the one place she had felt belonged. “I am really doing it, I am doing this all by myself, now, at last; this is me.”

To me, Hill House is like a hub, collecting those “poor, unfortunate souls” (as described by Mrs. Montague) who were failed by their own circumstances, who suffered and were thrown away; ignored, and disregarded. It preys on those susceptible to mental illness, then takes them in this neverending cycle, in an attempt to not be alone anymore. When I look at the entire story this way, the sad part is the last sentence of this book: (…)silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

Notable Quotes

Journeys end in lovers meeting.

In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree she thought clearly, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don’t they stop me?

(…)silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

Content Warnings

Graphic: N/A

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Depression