The opening of The Haunting of Hill House introduces three main elements of the book. In terms of mood, the first paragraph is intentionally vague, with ominous undertones that define the atmosphere of the book. The first line introduces many aspects of Eleanor's character and the character of the house. A final main element introduced is the relationship between Eleanor and the house, although Jackson also uses the opening to gesture to the importance of other characters in the narrative. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"? Get the original essay One of the most significant early passages in Jackson's novel is: "No living organism can continue to exist healthily under conditions of absolute reality, even larks and katydids are believed, according to some, to dream. This first sentence, which presents the house as a living organism, is followed by “Hill House, not sane”, which refers to the words “sanely” in the first line. This means that the house has been exposed to more "absolute reality" than a living organism can handle. Jackson personifies the house, "the face of Hill House seemed awake, with watchfulness from the blind windows and a touch of joy in the cornice of an eyebrow" and "hiding his happily mad face." The doctor says at one point that he was "born bad" and "sad" from the start, but that he wasn't bad from the start. This implies how finished the house is, as if it has a lifespan. The expression “for a long time” is emphasized in the first paragraph by “it has been going on for eight years and could last for another eighty years”. Inside the house, time still plays a central role, where the characters lose track of time, with the only structure in their lives being the meal times set by Mrs. Dudley, which are another extreme. When Luke asks, “But when is Saturday?” ”, the doctor replies “the day after tomorrow.” I think Saturday is the day after tomorrow. We will know of course because it will arrive. The reinsurance tricolon shows how uncertain it is. Mrs. Dudley, on the other hand, juxtaposes this by getting right to the point, saying "I finish at 2" or similar short, succinct phrases. For the second part of the "eighty years" quote, the word "may" can refer to the quote "Hill House isn't forever, you know." when Schuyler tells Eleanor that Hill House will end, that her life is over. The other characters even talk about ending it, with Theodora saying, "What fun it would be to see it burn," the previous tenant saying, "It should be burned," and Luke saying, "It's harder to burn an apartment down." ". house than you think. The last one shows that he fights it, he does not give in to the flames. Another use of time, or a strange coincidence, is that a book written by Hugh Crain to Sophia is dated June 21, 1881, and Eleanor was invited to arrive on June 21, approximately 80 years later. Like the human senses, the house “watches”. » and “listen” at any time, sometimes even while moving. In one line, the doctor says: “Home. He watches every move you make,” showing that they believe he has sight. For hearing, quotes such as "as if listening, waiting to hear their voices and what they had said" show that they think they are listening. In addition, it is not a taboo subject since Dr. Montague even says: "Let us be very careful in our language", prohibiting puns on "spirits" so that the house no longer breaks loose on them. On top of that, Eleanor thinks that Theodora naming house is like "saying homethat she knows his name, to call the house to tell him where we are,” as if it were “deliberate.” Upon hearing this, due to Theodora's supposed telepathic abilities, she repeats the name three times, without Eleanor having spoken aloud. For movement, Eleanor says, "Nothing in this house moves until you look away, and then you just catch something out of the corner of your eye." » Like let's say he does it when no one is paying attention, but he's actually alive everywhere. Another thing is that she feels that the cold is alive and an integral part of the house. She describes the physical house as “terribly wrong in all its dimensions.” Every time something strange is about to happen, she feels cold, but one day she says the "cold shivers" were "like something alive." Like something alive. Yes. Like something alive. She repeatedly evokes cold, even heat. When she finally feels at home in the house, she feels "warm, sleepy, luxuriously warm." The cold only adds to the menacing spirit of the house. Another thing to add to the cold is the iron theme. Iron appears in many forms, such as when she thinks that everything that knocks at the door is "an iron kettle or an iron bar or an iron glove" and that if a spirit moved through the house it would have “nerves of iron” and that the library staircase was built of iron. The house even has a heart, the nursery. Cold is the main feature of the nursery, colder than "11 degrees", as was the case at another haunted house, Borley Rectory. It is described as “the door to a tomb” and “the very essence of the tomb”. By calling it the “heart of the house,” he shows the importance of the room while anthropomorphizing the house. The cold here was “almost tangible, visible like a barrier” and “like walking through a wall of ice.” There is an "indefinable air of neglect found nowhere else in Hill House", as if the heart, where love comes from, is neglected. Back in the cold, the thermometer “refused to register any change” and they were unable to measure it, as if the house was defending itself. The house personality is described as "one of the popular euphemisms for insanity", showing that she was indeed "not of sound mind". Closer to the beginning, it is called "an arrogant and hateful house" and later "an arrogant and patient house" as if it changes personality throughout the book. It is also described as "a house without kindness [...] which is not a fit place for people, for love or for hope". Ironically, Schuyler says that "Hill House has been kind to us so far." and Eleanor embodies a lot of hope and hints at love. The doctor even goes so far as to make a reference to his personality, saying that "this is Hill House's first clue into his true personality." To reinforce this, he speaks of having a "reputation for insistent hospitality", of not letting people go, and of having "destroyed his people" because of his "ill will". The narrator adds some of his own moods, as when Luke says, "Nothing in there was touched, nothing was used, nothing in here wants no one left, just sitting here thinking." and “Around them the house smoldered, settling and stirring with a movement that was almost like a shiver.” Sometimes the characters reflect emotions, like when Eleanor says, “We're not the ones waiting. It's home. I think he's biding his time. These moods influence what happens in the scenes and are an essential element because they make the reader question whether or not the house is in control of thedemonstrations. In the opening, the narrator says: “Inside, the walls remained straight, the bricks met perfectly. , the floors were firm, the doors were reasonably closed; silence rested firmly on the wood and stone of Hill House,” as if speaking of its construction. One quote says "which seemed to have formed itself somehow, flying to gather itself into its own mighty pattern under the hands of its builders, adapting itself to its own construction of lines and angles, raising its great head towards the sky without concession to humanity". .” This shows his ability to control, although it's clearly not entirely true since Hugh Crain makes allusions to having built the house with intention, in little things like the statue that was made for him. tilt of the ground and mentioned in the book he wrote for. his daughter. Eleanor's view of the tower and veranda also makes the house seem like it was built by himself, calling the veranda "insistent" because it holds the "grotesquely solid" tower in place. Part of the construction that foreshadows the ending concerns the "conical wooden roof" which was "cheerful and impatient, perhaps waiting for a slight creature coming out of the little window on the sloping roof." The creature here refers to Eleanor, who refers to herself and is frequently referred to by others as a creature. The personification of the roof shows how it is viewed as a living organism. Eleanor also fits the description in the first line. She does not exist sanely and Hill House is like her absolute reality. When she finally dies, she escapes this reality. As the doctor says, once she's gone, "she'll be herself again." She realizes that her dreams will follow her everywhere, no matter how long the journey or how many potential "lovers" she might meet. She can't leave her guilt behind, "fear and guilt are sisters" and they constantly trade for her, moving from one to the other. The fact that she can't escape the house may be what she fears most, but it's also her guilt. An anecdote from a conversation with Dr. Montague is her realization on this subject: Eleanor says, “She should have left. Leave the house and run as far as you can. He replies, "Actually, she did," referring to the fact that she died the second she could, which, while physically close to Hill House, is as mentally distanced as she could get never reach it. Before all this, she proves to be sane with her constant fantasies, which are dreams, about the places she might live, the lovers she might meet, and the possessions she might own. At one point this changes completely with her thinking, “No stone lions for me, no oleanders” and is completely absorbed by the house. All this guilt may play into her manifesting everything. The knocking on the doors sounds like her mother knocking on the wall when she doesn't answer, the untouchable air of the library and the smell that only she detects can resemble the books she read in her childhood. mother and the cold spot in the baby's room looks like the room of the baby she sleeps at her sister's. There are a few signs that point to Eleanor being the one doing it, starting with the fact that she might be a poltergeist. When the doctor mentions poltergeists, he says: “They deal entirely with the physical world, they throw stones, they move objects, they break dishes [...] they are destructive, but stupid and without will; they are only undirected forces; [...] they chase away everything else too", reacts Eleanor,"laughter trembled in Eleanor [...] she wanted to sing and shout". This shows that she may be the one who does everything, especially since the house has "bad will" and she is "willless" and the house orders her to do what she does . A key scene is when Schuyler's clothes are covered in blood, Schuyler explicitly says "I don't know how you did it." and Eleanor never denies it. She responds with a part of the song from Twelfth Night: “The son of every wise man knows this. » Later, Theodora even said “Why? Wasn't this just a little private surprise for me? A secret just for the two of us? The intention behind this is also clear, so Eleanor need not be jealous of Schuyler's "considerably larger" and "considerably more luxurious" wardrobe. Eleanor thinks in this part that “it must be paint; it simply has to be paint; what else could it be? Deep down, she may know it's her blood, and none of the other characters want to question it, but they are aware that she did it all. Even though they determined it was blood, when she tells the doctor, she calls it paint, trying to hide the fact that she actually knows what it is. She even says "someone-something" while trying to hide the fact that it was a person, claiming that she still believes it could have been a supernatural event. She even thinks, “Here lies one,” she thought graciously, “whose name was written in blood,” as an allusion to Keats' tombstone, where it says “water” instead of blood. The meaning is quite clear: the water will disappear quickly, just like its name. Here, it implies that his name will last for a long time. The quote “sacred pacts are signed with blood” also shows that this “sacred pact” can come true and that she will eventually find a home and return home. Another manifestation is writing with chalk. Luke happens to recount a story involving chalk, where he says that "the public executioner" "drawn his stab wounds in chalk." It's like it's not concrete, just a trial here, and when it's written in blood, in the closet, it's then signed, like when Hugh Crain signed his name in blood, sealing the “sacred pact”. It may also foreshadow that she would be killed, as in the case of an executioner, who made the chalk with the intention of drawing blood later. The expression “whatever walked there, walked alone” refers to Eleanor because she arrives and leaves alone, unlike the others. She is also isolated in life, while others have lives to leave and return to. The theme of loneliness is prevalent, and Eleanor's isolation may be why Hill House targets her, and she is always the one chosen. At first, to stop feeling alone, she follows Mrs. Dudley to "hurry after whatever lives in this house." The relationship between Eleanor and the house is best summed up in two sentences. At the beginning the sentence is "Hill House itself, unsane, stood alone against its hills", and at the end the sentence changes to "Hill House itself, unsane, stood against its hills. This slight change shows Jackson's clever use of syntax, mimicking the line, but the edit shows exactly what has changed throughout the book. Technically, when she crashes, as previously mentioned, she goes as far as possible mentally but not physically. It is therefore not autonomous, because it is now and forever part of the house. It is part of the “self” and because it does not refer to a singular object, it is moved. She is in some waysort separated at the last moment, when she "thinks clearly" about the questions "Why am I doing this?" Why am I doing this? Why don't they stop me? Her mind is separate but she is still united with home. Before this, she was "driven mad" by the house, and the verb "drive" is emphasized as she drives away, madly, into the tree. Luke describes this perfectly, saying it's "a motherhouse" with "Everything is so sweet." Everything is so padded. Beautiful wrap-around chairs and sofas that feel hard and unwelcome when you sit down and immediately reject you. In the end, Eleanor thinks that “Hill House is not as easy as them; just telling me to leave, they can't make me leave, not if Hill House wants me to stay. Hill House belongs to me. Obviously she's leaving, so the house made her feel welcome but didn't allow her to stay, because she left. He rejected her the second she felt comfortable. A final reference about "belonging" refers to a point made by Dr. Montague, "she was one of those stubborn, unintelligent young women who can cling desperately to what they believe to be their clean,” like Eleanor who can’t let go of the fact that Hill House isn’t hers. She is so involved in the house that she even wonders, “Is there still a world out there somewhere?” But as far as I remember, there is no other place than this. I can't imagine any other world than Hill House. This shows how lost she is in the house, something Dr. Montague predicted and warned her about. He realizes early on that she is one with the house, using it to predict what may happen and detect small indicators that he does not perceive. He said, “Definitely promise me that you will leave as quickly as possible if you start to feel the house catching up with you.” » She doesn't take this seriously, and it hits her, most evident in the phrase "how can other people hear the noise when it's coming from my head?" She even thinks "Now we're going to have a new noise" and the noise changes, showing her control. After this, it is shown that she is not the house, even though the house is her. When she thinks “Am I doing this?” It's me ? She hears "little laughter behind the door, mocking her", as if she had no control, she was only a medium. The voices are not new, she arrives and hears a “sick voice inside her”. During a protest, she hears sounds and cannot speak until the sounds stop, as if it is her voice that is being used. She hears a "wild, howling voice that she had never heard before and yet knew she had always heard in her nightmares" followed by a voice that she heard "inside and outside of his head.” Finally, she hears a voice and thinks with joy: “None of them heard it, no one heard it except me.” It shows how much she enjoys the isolation in the end, how for once something gives her the attention she wants. Ironically, one of the doctor's criteria was that none of them had "a clear tendency to take center stage." but Eleanor and Schuyler are still competing to get it. When she is completely invaded by the house, she no longer has control and thinks "Poor house, I had forgotten Eleanor". and his “spirit furnished him with a reason.” She has become disembodied and is thinking thoughts of home. That's exactly what she was thinking earlier: "I'm like a little creature swallowed whole by a monster." » None of them were separated, just controlled. Another point about her and the house is that Schuyler.