The Haunting Of Hill House Character Analysis Essay

Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House depicts the tale of four strangers in a dark secluded house called Hill House. One important character is Eleanor Vance, the improbable protagonist of this novel. Throughout the novel we see instances of her deteriorating mental stability through her childish behavior, her insecurities, her over active imagination, and her “connection” to the house, all of which lead to her unfortunate death. From the very start we see Eleanor as childish. We meet her at the twilight of her mother’s death, and she couldn’t be more contented. She had spent the last eleven years caring for her sick mother, tending to her every whim and need. She never had a normal adult life, and once her mother died, she was finally freed of those duties. That would have been that, …show more content…
She the very second the stepped on the grounds of the manor, she felt this overwhelming dark presence, and from the very first incident Eleanor believed the house was trying to get her. At times in the novels, the audience gets the feeling that Eleanor herself creates this incidents in order to bring attention to herself. Here she is, finally with people she can call her peers, her friends. The instant that their attention is not devoted to her or she feels she is wronged in some way, something bad happens. Take for instance the incident with Theodora’s clothes in chapter five. After Theo blames Eleanor about writing the creepy message herself “Help Eleanor come home”, the girls find all of Theo’s clothes ruined by what seems to be red paint. Of course this is all blamed on the house but in reality, what are the chances of something like that happening right after Theo and Eleanor have a spat? Whether Eleanor is conscious of the fact that she herself creates these events or not, they are all solid proof of her mental