Why is Hill House haunted?
- Why is Hill House haunted? Your response should take into consideration information supplied by Dr. Montague as well as by other characters.
Based on the title, there is a haunting at the hill house, but depending on how one reads the title, then the house could be the haunter or the haunted. For instance, if Eleanor is the victim of wicked haunting, then the hill house is the haunter. Still, if Eleanor is psychologically distressed and hallucinating, then she is the haunter, together with her telekinetic abilities. The features of the house invoke the long terrifying history of Gothic literature. For example, Eleanor notices the “towers and turrets and buttresses and wooden lace on them, even sometimes Gothic spires and gargoyles” (1.129), when she first drove up to the mansion. The house personifies evil with its features as described by Eleanor when she says:
Almost any house, caught unexpectedly or at an odd angle, can turn a deeply humorous look on a watching person; even a mischievous little chimney, or a dormer like a dimple, can catch up a beholder with a sense of fellowship; but a house arrogant and hating, never off guard, can only be evil. (2.1)
It is an indication that the house was an embodiment of evil. However, the title is somewhat deceptive since there is nothing in Hill House’s history that shows that ghosts trudge through the halls. There is the possibility that the experiences of the Crain’s in the haunted house were by bad luck or bad nature (3.120-138). Also, Dr. Montague explains to Mrs. Montague that there are none of the traditional signs of ghostly origins in the Hill House’s history (7.83). According to Dr. Montague, the architecture of the house could be to blame. He notes that the “angles which you assume are the right angles are accustomed to, and have every right to expect are true, are actually a fraction of a degree off in one direction or another” (4.89). The design of the house could be the cause of why guests found it difficult to move throughout the mansion. The manifestations in the house could be caused by Eleanor’s telekinetic powers, which became alive when she came to the Hill House, probably due to her guilt over her mother’s death. Also, the fact that the planchette picks up a message for Nell, and Mrs. Montague suggests that Eleanor is perhaps “more receptive psychically than [she] realize[s]” (7.141). Also, Eleanor’s history with the rocks pelting her childhood home and her claim that she knows nothing both suggest she’s not being completely honest about the incident (3.107).
- What does Hill House want with Eleanor? Why does it select her of everyone else to “come home”? In what way is Hill House familiar to Eleanor?
Eleanor is the protagonist of The Haunting of Hill House. She is filled with the desire to free herself from the confines of her reality. The Hill House provides her with an opportunity to be the woman she always wanted to be. The problem with Eleanor’s freedom is that it always comes in an imaginary form. Even her drive to Hill House is instructed by someone else: Dr. Montague, who “guides her from some spot far away, moving her car with controls in his hands” (1.66). So, Eleanor’s freedom is pretty much all in her mind, while the reality of her situation is that she’s confined to the expectations of a new parental figure, Dr. Montague. Although Eleanor is all grown up on the outside—she’s thirty-two—she is still carrying around some childish traits on the inside. Eleanor is in a desperate need for a home, and she is “unbelievably happy” in the mansion despite the mansion being a horror place. Eleanor finds it hard to function in any situation outside of a home, and at one time, she is seen asking Theodora if she can move in with her. When Theodora promptly refuses, Eleanor sighs that she’s “never been wanted anywhere” (8.33). Her desperation to escape from reality and childishness is why she gets selected. During her car ride, she imagines new homes, homes with lions and oleanders, and a cup of stars. The illusions portray the things she desired and looked forward to achieving with the newfound lease on life. However, when she gets to the mansion, she forgets about her dreams and conforms to her inner child’s need for warmth and security as can be seen when she says:
Here I am inside. It was not cold at all, but deliciously, fondly warm. […] No stone lions for me, she thought, no oleanders, I have broken the spell of Hill House and somehow come inside. I am home, she thought and stopped in wonder at the thought. I am home, I am home. (9.15)
Eleanor’s fears prevent her from pursuing her dreams and also make her attracted to Hill House. Ironically, Eleanor’s fear of loneliness, hardship, love, guilt, and the world outside the home outweigh her fear of ghosts. To Eleanor, the Hill House becomes an attractive alternative, a place to make a home. When the others make Eleanor leave the security of Hill House, fear is what ultimately drives her car into that tree.
- What about Simón allows him to see Tomás and the ghosts of the other children that live in the orphanage when the adults cannot see them? What must Laura do to see the ghosts too?
The film is the story of Laura, Carlos, and their adopted son Simon who moves into an old orphanage on the coast of Spain. Having once lived happily as an orphan in the building, Laura decides to transform it into a home for special needs children. Before the children arrive, Simon grows restless and worries Laura with his stories of imaginary friends who want him to stay at the orphanage and never grow old. They play games with him, including creating an elaborate treasure hunt that leads Simon to his hidden adoption papers that inform him of his HIV status. During a welcome party the next day, Simon and Laura argue about the legitimacy of Simon’s imaginary friends. Simon wants to show Laura his friend Tomas’ secret house, but Laura refuses. Angered, Simon disappears. Laura tries to find him but is attacked by a mysterious child wearing a sack over his head. She runs to the caves nearby their house, convinced that Simon is hiding there but is hindered by the rising tide. After finding the caves empty, the police presume that Simon has been kidnapped. For the next sixth months, Laura and Carlos search for their son. But their search is fruitless. Desperate, Laura enlists the help of a medium and tries to contact any dead souls that might be keeping Simon away from her. It is then she learns about the gruesome fate of her former friends in the orphanage. To get her “treasure” back, she must learn the truth about the masked child Tomas and discover what really happened to her son. I think the reason why Simon can see the ghosts and other children that live in the orphanage is that he is an orphan. For Laura to see the ghosts, she had to consult a parapsychologist Aurora who reveals to her that there are spirits of unhappy children in the house and that the only way she could see the ghosts was by being in a state close to death. Laura takes sedatives to get into a state of near-death, and she begins to see ghost children around her who led her to a hidden door, which leads to a basement room. Here, she finds Simón alive and hugs him in a blanket. Laura confronts the awful truth: Simon has gone away with the ghost-children of the orphanage, the contemporaries she left behind all those years ago; to get him back, she must play their game and follow their rules.
- Why are the ghosts of Pleasant Valley so easily able to lure their victims to their deaths?
Besides the strategically placed detour signs, the hospitality and charm of the townspeople are what enables them to lures their victims to their death. The victims consist of two married couples, John and Bea Miller, David, and Beverly Wells, driving a white Cadillac convertible, plus an unmarried couple of Tom White and Terry Adams, driving a red convertible, are lured via detour signs placed in the road into the fictional small Southern town of Pleasant Valley by “redneck” citizens, to be the “guests of honor” for the April 1965 centennial celebration of the two days where Union troops destroyed the town at the end of the Civil War. On Arrival to Pleasant Valley, the tourists are cheerfully welcomed in hotel rooms and offered free meals during their stay. Also, they are duly invited by the charming mayor to be the guest of honor at the town’s Centennial celebration. Thinking that it would be fun to participate in the festivities and admiring the Southern charm of the mayor and the flag-waving Confederate locals, the “Yankees” decide that they will stay for the celebration.
The “special guests” of this centennial celebration soon find out that Pleasantville isn’t just a quaint Southern town but a charming Southern town with a secret. Once the guests are settled into their hotel rooms, each of them is lured away to take part in the event that will lead to their untimely demise. The violence in the movie begins with a charming Harper attracting Bea Miller away from her husband, John. After a casual make-out session, he invites her to “touch his blade” and cuts her thumb off with a paring knife. Bea is then taken to the mayor’s office, where she is surrounded by a group of townspeople who hold her down and chop off her arm with an axe. Bea’s husband, John, is next, and he finds himself tied up to four horses and is “quartered.” The next couple, David and Betty Wells, meet an equally gruesome end. Of the six, only Tom White and Terry Adams manage to escape and later come to learn that the people they encountered at Pleasant Valley were ghosts who come alive after every 100 years to seek vengeance.
- Typical representations of the ghost present it as a transparent wraith who passes through solid objects unseen by most eyes. How does the ghost’s invisibility point to other things that have been hidden in The Haunting of Hill House, The Orphanage, and Two Thousand Maniacs!? What is hidden from view or memory, and why has it been concealed?
The mystery in The Haunting of Hill House is expressed from within Eleanor’s consciousness. The story is a psychological ghost story where the dissolving boundary is the one between the mind and the exterior world. For instance, during the third major manifestation at Hill House, as Eleanor’s resistance begins to buckle, she thinks, “how can these others hear the noise when it is coming from inside my head?” Eleanor may be the target of The Haunting of Hill House, or she may be the one doing the haunting. After all, Dr. Montague invited her to participate in the project because of a poltergeist incident during her childhood. The manifestations in The Haunting of Hill House are more palpable; as Dr. Montague points out, Eleanor is not the only one who hears and sees them. But they could just possibly be caused by her poltergeist, a primitive, spiteful, violent, unthinking force, rather than by the house itself.
In Orphanage, the ghost story theme evokes deep fears of a child being hurt or taken away, or a child choosing to leave. The ghosts are represented as spirits of unhappy children in an orphanage where Laura grew up. The Ghosts are the contemporaries that Laura left behind. After buying the orphanage, Laura and her husband Carlos, start noticing that Simón is behaving strangely. Always prone to fantasies about imaginary friends, he starts talking about a new group of invisible children, who begin to tell Simón painful and upsetting things about himself that his adoptive parents have kept secret. Later, Simon disappears, which after long searches in vain, the parents decide to consult a parapsychologist called Aurora, who discovers the spirits of unhappy children in the house. Simon has gone away with the ghost-children of the orphanage, the contemporaries she left behind all those years ago; to get him back, she must play their game and follow their rules.
In Two Thousand Maniacs, the ghosts of Pleasant Valley use detour signs positioned strategically on the road to lure people. According to the film, the ghost comes alive every 100 years to seek revenge against the Yankees, who wiped out the town during the Civil War.
- Compare Laura to the character of Wendy in Peter Pan. You may consult this very extensive article from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_pan for some ideas.
Laura from the film Orphanage and Wendy in Peter Pan share a lot in common. Laura and Wendy are considered the protagonists in their stories and are proud of their childhoods. They are both mothers with Wendy having a daughter called Jane, while Laura has an adopted son named Simon. The two ladies are happily married, Laura to Carlos, and Wendy is married to Edward. In the two stories, Laura and Wendy are depicted first as small girls before later growing up and having their own families. They both demonstrate adventure and courage. Laura demonstrates adventure by deciding to buy back the orphanage and adapts several kids. She shows her bravery by finding ways to interact with ghosts to find her son. Wendy demonstrates adventure and courage by agreeing to travel to Never Land with Peter. Laura and Wendy are very nurturing. For Laura, her decision to adapt and care for orphans while Wendy is exceptionally nurturing with a tendency to be maternal both towards Peter and the Lost Boys. Also, they both love where they grew up, and no matter where they went, they eventually returned home.
Though Wendy loves Never Land, she eventually feels the pull towards home and decides to leave it behind. Similarly, in the film the Orphanage, Laura returns to where she grew up. Both Laura and Wendy are confident women who are ready to do anything to save their loved ones. In the Orphanage, Laura goes to the extent of consulting parapsychologist Aurora to find Simon, her adopted son. On the other hand, Wendy in Peter Pan Wendy saves Peter by offering him a kiss that motivates him to live (Peter Pan). The two are characters in fictitious stories that involve supernatural powers. In Laura’s case, she deals with ghost spirits while Wendy is involved with Peter, a person who never ages.
Works Cited
“Peter Pan.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, October 27, 2006, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan. Accessed April 15, 2020.
Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House: Greatest Gothic Horror Novel of the 20th Century. E-artnow, 2018.
The Orphanage. Directed by Juan Antonio, 2007.
Two thousand maniacs. Directed by Herschell G. Lewis, 1964.