The Haunting of Hill House Week One - 5 points

 I enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House about as much as I enjoyed reading Frankenstein. From the limited amount of gothic literature I have read, it has become increasingly obvious that it is not my style. I respect both books as classic pieces and I did enjoy reading them both, up to an extent, however, I would not choose to read them again. It's clear that both pieces uphold the gothic style of writing and I think that is where I find my problem, in the structure that gothic literature is laid out in. Page after page of "woe is me, my life is hard, and nothing is my fault" and incessant anxiety. Being in the headspace of these individuals is frustrating for me, especially when sentences drone on and on with, personally, unnecessary details. Picking up the book, I truly expected to be scared. From the description on the back of the book and the countless movies, I expected chills to spread down my spine and to not be able to sleep after reading it. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I read each page with ease. Sure, my ease with uncomfortable events may stem from years of watching and reading more gruesome novels and movies, however, I expected this book to make my mind wander more into the supernatural realm.

The book is narrated in the third person but it closely follows the emotions of Eleanor, the main female character. She is on point the "woman in white"; she is helpless in some cases, easily manipulated by those around her, and most importantly, she is too self-conscious to do anything about her situation. Her constant anxiety about the house and the people she is with makes her an almost unreliable character. The experience of this book comes less from the bumps in the night and more from her constant worrying about every little detail- what she says, how the others talk to her, and all-around how she is viewed by everyone else. Eleanor and Theodora are not only referred to as helpless women that need protection but they often refer to themselves like that as well. They often succumb to their emotions and are at each other's necks with curt remarks or insults, while as the men are seemingly more level-headed. Both the doctor and Luke are written as protectors and it seems like, other than his family requiring him to be there, protection is his only real reason for being there. Throughout the book, Eleanor thinks "journeys end in lovers meeting". This is one constant that she thinks to herself the majority of the book. It kinda caught me off guard when she said it at the threshold of Hill House, seeing it for the first time. Was she expecting a great romance from a person inside the house? Or was she saying it to the house? I couldn't really figure it out, and to be honest, even though there was romance pushed between her and Luke, nothing really stemmed from it. 

I felt the most disruption from the characters in the house rather than the supposed evil house. I think that the characters brought their own discretion and the fear of being in the house just amplified it. Besides, most of the inconsistencies were explained by the doctor; the awkward architectural feelings Eleanor gets are because every angle of the house is off about a fraction of a degree; all the steps are slightly slanted; and so on. For the most part, all the supernatural happenings have a clear natural reasoning. Theodora and Eleanor are straight-up nasty towards each other, yet they hold on tightly to each other and boast about how close they are. They are clear foils of each other; clearly so opposite yet it seems that they can't be without each other. I think that Theodora is meant to resemble Eleanor's mother and her home life. For example, Eleanor had a dream about her dreary life with her mother and thought her mom was yelling for her when it was actually Theodora. And at one point later in the book, Eleanor tells Theo that she wants to go with her when she goes home, and Theodora responds with, why would she want to be with someone who clearly doesn't want her. Sometimes we cling to people we know are bad for us just because the interactions are familiar and hard to leave. Theodora treats her just like her mother, sister and brother-in-law do. I don't think she sees the familiarity but I think that is why she insists on encouraging her behavior.