Haunting Of Hill House Eloe Character Analysis

Human beings, flawed as they are, frequently form unhealthy attachments, run arms akimbo into delusion, and create fictions that drive them eventually to suicide or madness. In the world outside of horror novels people lose their grip on reality and in their insanity meld their mental illnesses to the environment around them. Within the world of horror novels such a break from reality could certainly be hastened by a malevolent antagonist. In The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson the protagonist, Eleanor, begins to form an attachment to the haunted mansion in the wake of her mother’s death. Between her mother that required constant care and her less that compassionate sister Eleanor is left less than what one could consider proper mental health. This death provides Eleanor, her mother’s former caretaker, with an opportunity to escape the controlling grip of her sister and her brother-in-law as to remove herself from the dysfunction that was this household. When Eleanor …show more content…
Montague which brought Eleanor to its front door. Dr. Montague contacted Eleanor due to the fact that she had experienced a paranormal event after the death of her father in which stones began to pelt her home from the sky for three days straight until she and her sister had left. Such an event marked her as someone who is more sensitive to the paranormal, psychic aspects of the world. Those paranormal events that would affect others affects her more severely. This same sensitivity could explain that while the Hill House affected all who resided there for any extended time Eleanor was especially vulnerable. Like the house itself is inherently dark she is inherently more sensitive and there for inherently at more risk. This parallels many mental illness in that while some events have the potential to insight a specific illness in humans some people are more predisposed than