The Homes
Shirley's Home"The Fielding house was a very old house about a mile out of town. It was the oldest in its neighborhood and the third oldest in the township..."(2.391)
"...The old manor house on top of the hill stayed empty, its white pillars sagging and its driveway chocked with dead leaves or smooth with unmarked snow. When we saw it first it looked faintly ridiculous, and even the fences on either side and along the front leaned a little bit away from it, without actually renouncing it, as though they deplored it privately and yet wanted to present an unified front to the world of inhabitants." (2.392) "Gingerly, watching out for the broken floorboards, we went inside, into a wide hall shadowed by the pillars and backed by a straight, lovely colonial stairway; somewhere to our right were a carpet flooded with red cabbage roses and a harmonium, under dark old pictures which seemed to lean forward a little to watch us, surprised; we went into the kitchen where a monumental ironwork stove threatened to fall on us..." (2.393) "There was a door to the attic that preferred to stay latched and would latch itself no matter who was inside; there was another door that hung by custom slightly ajar. although it would close good humoredly for a time when some special reason required it. We had five attics, we discovered, built into and upon and next to one another..." (2.396) |
"Hill House""Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more." (1.1) "The gate was tall and ominous and heavy, set strongly into a stone wall which went off through the trees. Even from the car she could see the padlock and the chain that twisted around and through the bars. Beyond the gate she could see only that the road continued, turned, shadowed on either side by the still, dark trees." (1.28) "The hall in which they stood was overfull of dark wood and weighty carving, dim under the heaviness of the staircase..." (1.37) "Some of these rooms are entirely inside rooms" (1.64) "No human eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house, and yet somehow a maniac juxtaposition, a badly turned angle, some chance meeting of roof and sky, turned Hill House into a place of despair, more frightening because the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice" (1.34) "Hideous, she thought, and then thought that if the house burned away someday the tower would still stand, gray and forbidding over the ruins, warning people away from what was left of Hill House" (1.113) |
"Blackwood Manor""Blackwood Road goes in a great circle around the Blackwood land and along every inch of Blackwood Road is a wire fence built by our father. Not far past the town hall is the big black rock which marks the entrance to the path where I unlock the gate and lock it behind me and go through the woods and am home." (3.6)
"They can't get in, I used to tell myself over and over , lying in my dark room with the trees patterned in shadow on the ceiling, they can't get in any more; the path is closed forever" (3.26) "...The deeply colored rows of jellies and pickles and bottled vegetables and fruit, maroon and amber and dark rich green stood side by side in our cellar and would stand there forever..." (3.61) "...The front of the house was white and pale and uncomfortable at being so clearly visible; it had never been lighted before." (3.149) "We moved together very slowly toward the house, trying to understand its ugliness and ruin and shame." (3.167) "Above us the stairs were black and led led into blackness or burned rooms, with, incredibly, tiny spots of sky showing through." (3.176) "We learned, from listening, that all the strangers could see form outside, when they looked at all, was a great ruined structure overgrown with vines, barely recognizable as a house." (3.213) |
What Makes A Haunted House?
The mansions in both The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in The Castle have some glaring similarities. Large estates that were not provided the proper upkeep for years, which is understandable considering how few people were frequenting or living in the houses. It would have been simply too much work to attend all the mansions' needs. Jackson's own fell into this category in a broader sense, though not as large and filled with more occupants, her house fell into a disarray as well because of her commitment to tending to the children, her husband, and her writing. The initial descriptions of the houses as intimidating, (2.391) foreboding and watching give them all a sense of being alive as well as grandiose. Additionally, the mention of gates and fences in all three novels point an interest in containment and repulsion; keeping people out and keeping people in. This is a link to Jackson's developing agoraphobia. The location of the houses as well contributes to this, all three houses were located outside of the towns, creating a sense of isolation. Finally, the idea of a maze of rooms, or rooms with no purpose are present in all three works. Jackson's own house had multiple additions and spaces that were not utilized, just as Hill House was a maze of rooms inside of rooms (1.64) and the Blackwood family only truly utilized the back of the house. (3.28)
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It is important to note the similarities between the two fictional mansions; for instance the placement in the woods, the streams that run through the grounds in both, and the decrepit summerhouses that reside on the property. But the most interesting about the two houses is that Blackwood Manor is burnt and charred by the end of "Castles" but still standing, in fact, the Blackwood sisters are still residing there, however, Hill House remains perfectly intact at the end of the novel, the only mention of it's destruction comes Elanor's description of what would happen to the mansion should a fire start; the tower would remain, which would act as a a deterrent for people to enter, just as the charred faced Blackwood Manor actively acts as a deterrent. Either way, a fire cannot destroy fully destroy the homes, the houses "live" on.
The houses' abilities to distort what is inside and what is outside, more specifically, to keep their female characters somewhat content inside, despite an apparent wish to leave, evident in Mary Katherine's constant running through the woods and her shelter by the creek, in Constance's consideration to go into town at the encouragement of Charles, and in Eleanor's uneasiness in the house and her attempts to move in with Theodora at the end of the time at Hill House, is related to Jackson's own anxiety and agoraphobia. Ultimately, despite all the forces pulling them away the women cannot leave the homes, just as Jackson remained in solitude while composing these novels, unable to join the outside world. |