The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson: Day 15
Chapter 7, Part 3-4
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and a similar adage might apply to Mrs. Montague. (Harry Potter fans may also be reminded of Professor Trelawney, the overly dramatic Divinations professor who once in a while manages to make an accurate prophecy.) Jackson amps up the chill factor of the scene in which Mrs. Montague and Arthur read the dialogue directed to Eleanor by having them remain stubbornly oblivious to its significance. The house is so determined to get its message across that it manages to get even these two into its service.
Or is the message coming from Eleanor, picked up by Mrs. Montague and Arthur through some kind of psychic reverberations? HELP ELEANOR COME HOME. We don’t know that the others see the same things she sees in the writing on the wall, just as we don’t know if Eleanor and Theodora see the same thing out there in the woods. The others may not see her name there at all. Is it the house that chooses Eleanor or Eleanor who chooses the house?
Interesting that Mrs. Montague’s planchette has a “control”—a spirit who speaks through it, I guess?—named “Merrigot.” The protagonist of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson’s next (and last completed) novel, would be named Merricat.
The message is so poignant, even if Arthur and Mrs. Montague don’t notice that aspect. Home… home… home… home. “Like a word, and use it over and over, just for the sound of it,” Arthur explains unhelpfully. Lost. Lost. Lost. We know Eleanor is lost, longing for a home where she belongs, a family that will love her and accept her. In an early version of the novel, the spirit voice that the protagonist hears whispers to her to go away. But at some point in the writing process, Jackson realized that staying in Hill House was more frightening than leaving it. Like an abusive relationship—or an ineluctably entangled marriage of more than twenty years—the house is both impossible to remain in and impossible to escape.
Whatever happens that night, all four of them hear it. “Am I doing it?” Eleanor wonders of the babbling noise, which she anticipates. “Is that me?” Are the sounds coming from inside Eleanor’s head or from the house itself? Is there still any meaningful separation between the two?
 | A guest post by
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Such helpful commentary today. Though they all witness something....a part at least is limited to Eleanor’s perception, it seems. The shifting or stopping of time that came about at the end of the previous chapter 6 remains in place for Eleanor. She is moving through time differently and is unaware it is time for breakfast.
Also in this chapter:
The end of part 3: “Peace, Eleanor thought concretely; what I want in all this world is peace, a quiet spot to lie and think, a quiet spot up among the flowers where I can dream and tell myself sweet stories.” This echoes back to the death and dreaming first part of this chapter, as if she is dreaming this all from that quiet spot, some variation perhaps, on the “cold” spot.
Near the end of part 4, when I read Jackson’s lines:
“ No; it is over for me. It is too much, she thought, I will relinquish my possession of this self of mine, abdicate, give over willingly what I never wanted at all; whatever it wants of me it can have.”
I worry, is this Jackson letting go of her own identity in the marriage? Though sad, this brings in a more literary and tragic reading to this “haunted house” or horror genre. The personal undertow is pulling me forward as much as the plot.
I find this whole book (which I am reading a first time) reads very differently when thinking of Hill House as a dysfunctional relationship/marriage, which Jackson may have been struggling with. This insight to the real life background is so helpful. (Thank you so much, Ruth!) This gives more sadness and weight to Eleanor’s mix of disorientation, resistance, and slow giving in. And the understanding that Jackson toyed with the idea of having Eleanor leave, but found it more scary to stay in the house/relationship adds to it.
(Writing from Rome on a gray and rainy afternoon! Happy to be jumping back in the group.)
I love all the play in this post and this section of the book. That is, I love the play and ambiguity regarding who is doing what (is it Eleanor making noises or writing or is it the house), who experiences what (Theo and Eleanor sharing experiences but interpreting and reacting to them differently), and the extent to which these experiences are shared (or not) amongst the four and now six characters (7 counting the house!). It really drives home the question: what is reality and can there ever be a shared reality amongst people when so much of what each individual experiences is conditioned by their past experiences, their position in time and space, and then the sensory data that is filtered and translated by the limited capacity of our senses to that gray matter locked dark inside our skull.