Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Of Hill House

In her 1959 novel, The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson analyzes the means by which the collective imagination – and its darker unconscious – within humanity and beyond, manipulate the psyche. Moreover, the relationships established throughout the novel stand as a warning to dabblers in the study of the supernatural and paranormal activity, especially that of Hill House and Eleanor Vance, Jackson’s protagonist. The two wayward souls meet when Eleanor agrees to accompany Dr. John Montague on his quest to investigate “the causes and effects of psychic disturbances in a house commonly known as ‘haunted’” (1). As their stay progresses, however it becomes clear that the union of Hill House and Eleanor is inevitable. Her unfulfilling life

In her life prior to Hill House, although Eleanor did not physically spend her days alone, the constant care of her bedridden mother for eleven years left her with an everlasting feeling of emptiness and seclusion since “she had spent so long alone” and did not “[have] any home” (3,177). Finally a potential of a new life arises, at Hill House. At first, Eleanor is reluctant to “lift her foot and set it on the bottom step” of the house, because as soon as she did “Hill House came around her in a rush”– for Hill House had claimed its next victim (25). Enlightened by Eleanor’s weedy mentality, the house corrupts her sense of self by further exercising her vulnerability. In fact Eleanor, at the closing of the novel, believes that Hill House “belongs to [her],” and that “[she] is home” (181,171); when she goes to leave, she refuses and insists that “the house wants [her] to stay” (178) Through this imagery, Jackson alludes to the idea that Hill House and Eleanor have been united, as one entity. The house’s suppression upon Eleanor drives her to her death. However, moments before her demise Eleanor is released from the jurisdiction of the house, as she wonders “ why [she] is doing this” (182). This release does not last long; we are to believe that Eleanor’s spirit will remain a part of Hill House for