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Miguel Carpio
Writing 39B
Pragya Trivedi
14 May 2019

The Haunting of Hill House​: Absolute Reality, Horror, and Twentieth Century Women

The Haunting of Hill House ​is a female gothic novel by Shirley Jackson published in

1959. It centers around Eleanor Vance, the protagonist, and a cast of characters to explore the

paranormal activities of the haunted Hill House. At first glance, the reader may mistakenly

perceive the novel as a typical haunted house story. However, as a piece of female gothic, the

novel is also a piece of social commentary on the status of women at the time of the novels

publication. According to Friedan, married women of the 1950s and 1960s faced “the problem

that has no name” which pertains to their discontent as housewives and other issues while hiding

the main thought, “I want something more than my husband and my children and my home.”

Jackson portrays these cultural anxieties of the women of her time through her novel by utilizing

the idea of absolute reality and horror.

One social problem that Jackson conveys through her novel is female autonomy. Female

autonomy during Jackson’s time was nonexistent as women “wanted men to make the major

decisions.” (Friedan 18). Eleanor reflects this social problem. As Pascal states, Eleanor’s action

to flee from home “is an effort at escape and autonomy. But as though foreordained, her refuge

turns out to be a house that is, as she experiences it, virtually a maw.” Pascal states that Eleanor’s

attempt is futile as she is never truly autonomous. In the novel’s beginning, Eleanor’s drive to

Hill House shows the absolute reality of her inability to follow her own path and lack of

autonomy. During Eleanor’s drive, she encounters various settings that cause her to dream about
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a life anew there. However, she stops herself as soon as she realizes that she has a duty to follow

the road to Hill House, and “…it was time to look for her new road, so carefully charted by Dr.

Montague.” (Jackson 15). Eleanor may seem like a free spirit for leaving her home and going to

Hill House. In the context of absolute reality, however, Eleanor is not at all free. Eleanor wishes

to stray from the path from time to time, but stops as soon as she remembers Dr. Montague’s

instructions. This conflict between Eleanor’s wish to deviate and Dr. Montague’s instructions is

comparable to the conflict of the twentieth century women in Jackson’s society. Although

domestic women longed for autonomy, their major decisions were left to the man as stated by

Friedan. As the novel progresses and the hauntings of Hill House worsen, horror is used show

Eleanor’s demise of giving up her self. In the second to last haunting of the novel, Eleanor loses

her sanity and becomes so horrified to the point that she decides, “I will relinquish my

possession of this self of mine… whatever it wants of me it can have.” (Jackson 150). In the

context of horror, Jackson’s uses it to show the process by which Eleanor gives up her autonomy

to the supernatural in order to find a sense of security in the cacophony of the haunting.

Similarly, the twentieth century women gives up their autonomy for the security of the role as a

suburban housewife. Thus, the cultural anxiety of female autonomy is conveyed through these

two scenes by Jackson’s use of absolute reality and horror. By giving up autonomy, the twentieth

century women finds themselves in a situation of a nuclear family where they are expected to be

happy but are not.

Another cultural anxiety that Jackson portrays in her novel is the miserable domestic

woman in a nuclear family. In the twentieth century, the nuclear family was expected to be the

ideal and perfect family. However, out of the United States population during the 1960s, “a
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number of psychiatrists stated that, in their experience, unmarried women patients were happier

than married ones.” (Friedan 13). This expectation and reality comparison is similar to that of the

family in Jackson’s novel. The history of Hill House’s first family is a dismal one. The mother

passed away before they moved into the house, the father sent the two sister’s away, and the two

sisters then quarreled over ownership of Hill House. In the context of absolute reality, the

nuclear family of Hill House is miserable. However, during Eleanor and Theodora’s walk at

night they saw the deceased family manifest themselves at “… a picnic party on the grass in the

garden. They could hear the laughter of the children and the affectionate, amused voices of the

mother and the father…tumbling after a puppy over the grass.” (Jackson 130). In the context of

horror, Jackson portrays the family as the ideal nuclear family ​— happy, affectionate, and

content. ​Jackson’s use of absolute reality in contrast to this element of horror represents a

dichotomy in the idea of the nuclear family. Where the history was melancholy, the

manifestation was pleasant. Where the absolute reality reveals the tragedy of the family, the

horror fabricates a false sense of happiness. Similarly, Jackson’s society attempts to manifest a

perfect nuclear family, but the cold hard truth shows that it is far from that. The ideal nuclear

family is a facade. Women were miserable and longed for something more. Thus, the cultural

anxiety of the miserable domestic women is portrayed through these two contrasting ideas

represented by absolute reality and horror. The twentieth century women, miserable in her family

and without autonomy, then lacks a sense of home.

Likewise, Jackson portrays the cultural anxiety of the twentieth century women not

having a true sense of home in her novel. After her mother’s death, Eleanor experiences this

cultural anxiety as, “the mother’s death precipitates the daughter’s existential homelessness and
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her literally annihilating experience of being lost: the loss of the self.” (Rubenstein 317).

Throughout all of Eleanor’s life, her only purpose was to take care of her mother. However,

Rubenstein conveys that her mother’s death causes her to experience an existential crisis as she

no longer has a purpose and thus a lack of home. This causes Eleanor throughout the novel to

deceive other into thinking that she does have a home. However, the truth is revealed once

Eleanor comes to terms with the absolute reality of her situation and finally reveals to the group

that she has no home to go to. “I haven’t any apartment… I made it all up… No home… So you

see there’s no place you can send me.” (Jackson 177). Through the context of absolute reality,

Eleanor comes to terms with her situation that she has no sense of home. In contrast to the

women of Jackson’s time period, women were, “ashamed to admit her dissatisfaction” (Friedan

19) ​—​ they were afraid to come to terms that they were lost. In addition, through Mrs.

Montague’s planchette, the reader is able to delve into Eleanor’s psyche as the paranormal entity

of Hill House seems to reflect Eleanor’s character. “‘Where is your mother?’ ‘Home.’ ‘Where is

your home?’ ‘Lost. Lost. Lost…’” (Jackson 142). Through this element of horror in supernatural

communication, Eleanor’s inner thoughts are conveyed to show that she has no sense of home

and that she is “lost.” Utilizing both the idea of absolute reality and horror, Jackson creates a

parallel between Eleanor and the twentieth century women. Both want to delude others (and even

themselves) and create a facade into thinking that they do have a sense of home when mentally

and in absolute reality they do not. Thus, through absolute reality and horror Jackson shows the

reader how twentieth century women lacked a sense of home. While Eleanor is a character that

embodies all that is wrong with the twentieth century woman, there are other characters that

oppose Eleanor’s ideology.

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Theodora and Mrs. Montague are the antithesis of Eleanor and reflect what Jackson

perceives to be an ideal woman. Theodora, unlike Eleanor, is grounded into reality for most of

the time. For instance, when Theodora tells Eleanor, “‘Look… This is just a summer… You have

your life back home, I have ​my​ life.” (Jackson 154) it shows that Theodora does not romanticize

and come up with fanciful ideas like Eleanor who thinks that they would just live together. It

shows how Theodora is autonomous and has her own life and own home to go back too in

contrast to Eleanor. Absolute reality is used in different context between Theodora and Eleanor.

Theodora is able to understand the absolute reality of her situation while Eleanor is not. The

twentieth century woman, as stated by Friedan, is unable to admit their discontent as housewives

and face absolute reality. Thus, Theodora becomes a role model to what the twentieth century

woman should be. Similarly, Mrs. Montague is able to deal with the element of horror unlike

Eleanor. Upon Mrs. Montague’s visit, she states, “I will recline in your haunted room with only a

nightlight burning, and will endeavor to get in touch with the elements disturbing this house.”

(Jackson 136). This shows Mrs. Montagues ability to deal with the supernatural and shows how

she as a person is able to take command of her situation. In contrast to Eleanor who willingly

gives up her autonomy for security, Mrs. Montague faces the supernatural with questions and

aims to further her knowledge of the unknown. Twentieth century women, however, did not

assume a role like this. Jackson’s society taught women “to pity the neurotic, unfeminine,

unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents,” and that “truly feminine

women do not want careers, higher education…” (Friedan 16). Mrs. Montague stands against

this ideology of women not pursuing roles above the domestic housewife as she faces the horror

that underlies Hill House unlike Eleanor. Thus, Theodora and Mrs. Montague, autonomous, with
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a sense of home, and unafraid of Hill House, oppose the idea of the twentieth century woman,

and oppose Eleanor’s character as shown through Jackson’s use of absolute reality and horror.

To conclude, Jackson uses both the element of horror and the idea of absolute reality to

convey these cultural anxieties. Through the novel, Jackson comments on the unsaid problems

that twentieth century women were afraid to speak at the time. With this mindset, it is important

to ask ourselves today if these cultural anxieties still exist. More importantly, what are the

cultural anxieties of our time that are going unspoken? Whatever it may be, it is important to

acknowledge and speak up against these cultural anxieties as Jackson has done with ​The

Haunting of Hill House.​

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Works Cited

Friedan, Betty. ​The Feminine Mystique.​ New York, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1963.

Jackson, Shirley. ​The Haunting of Hill House.​ Viking, 1959.

Rubenstein, Roberta. “House Mothers and Haunted Daughters: Shirley Jackson and Female

Gothic.” ​Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature,​ vol. 15, no. 2, 1996. ​JSTOR,​

www.jstor.org/stable/464139.

Pascal, Richard. “Walking alone together: family monsters in The Haunting of Hill House.”

Studies in the Novel.​