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The Haunting of Hill House (1959)

Reception

Reception

Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel has been popular since it's first publication. Early reviews generally praised it, and it was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1960. It has been adapted to the screen at least three times: The Haunting (1963; fairly true to the novel); The Haunting (1999; a somewhat looser adaptation that is widely considered to be an inferior film); and The Haunting of Hill House (2018; Netflix Series whose first season is only VERY loosely based on the novel).

Gothic Horror

Genre

The Gothic genre dates to the mid-1700s in Europe; it then spread to Britain and then to the United States. It is a subset of the Romantic Movement, a cultural movement that rejected the cold intellectualism of the Enlightenment and argued for a celebration of emotion, individuality, and imagination. In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), Edmund Burke argues that fear is the strongest emotion that a human can experience, and the Gothic certainly capitalizes on this. The early Gothic relied on stereotypical fear-inducing elements: gloomy and often decaying, once-grand structures (such as estates or monasteries); villains (who were almost always men and figures of power); and a generally gloomy atmosphere. Over time, the genre became more psychological, and more common elements of everyday life take on elements of fear.

https://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2019/11/28/renovation-project-gothic-mansion-great-harwood/

Subtopic 1

An Interesting Fact:

The Gothic Genre has always been a subset of other, larger cultural movements, but it has never faded since its origin. Every movement has a subset of the Gothic in some form.

Gender

The Text

  • Nell has been denied of her culturally expected role as a woman; she has become a care taker of her mother, sacrificing her child-bearing years in the process (she is 32, well beyond the age that a woman in the 1950's would have been married and had children), Her experience is paradoxical; she has been served the traditionally female role as caregiver (both for her mother and her sister's children), yet she has been unsexed by being denied her own family. Additionally, she has taken on the adult role of caregiver, yet she is infantalized by her family, especially by her sister (think about how they act when Nell wants to drive the car and go to Hill House).

Psychology

Psychology

  • Nell is isolated from any meaningful human relationships, and she is seeking connection; this makes her vulnerable--to the idea of being part of a group, to the charms of Luke and Dr. Montague, and to the pull of the house itself; they each offer the allure of the possibility of community. Of course, her isolation continues while she is in the house because she has experiences that are not shared by the other people.
  • Nell in many ways is frozen in her development (see earlier point), which also makes her vulnerable to the pull of the house. Not only has she been stuck in her adolescence, but she has also failed to really develop as an individual. The house offers her an identity and a place; she is chosen and special through this relationship with the house. However, there is really nothing there, and after she is consumed by the house, the novel concludes with the statement that, "whatever walked there, walked alone." Nell is no longer a "she" and is now a "what"--dehumanized.
  • The structure of the text reflects the increasing disorder of the experience within the house; the passage of time gets very confusing as Nell is drawn further and further into the house
  • You could argue that Nell is unsure how to function outside of a controlling force and that the house takes the place of her mother (and, of course the scary house is a "she").

Sexuality

Sexuality

  • Theodora is generally understood to be a lesbian; her stilted reference to her "roommate" and her attentions to Nell are lightly coded references--just enough so that Jackson did not have trouble with her publisher.
  • Nell's isolation and immaturity referenced in earlier points also tie to her sexuality and how she processes romantic relationships.

The Characters

Characters

  • Read this page about the definition of literary characters and an overview of different kinds of characters: https://literarydevices.net/character/
  • Think about the characters; what motivates each of them? How does each of them behave? Look? What kind of character is each of them? What are important passages in the text that establish their identities?
  • In what ways does the house act as a character as well? What kind of character is it?
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