After reading We Have Always Lived In The Castle, I wanted to check out Shirley Jackson's other works. I found the premise of THOHH intriguing, so I bought it and started reading it. From the start, I was mesmerized by the gothic setting and the author's descriptions.
The first thing I want to talk about is the four main characters:
Eleanor, a vulnerable woman in her early thirties, who has no life and is desperate to belong somewhere. Hill House sees her vulnerability and calls for her. That slowly leads to Eleanor's descent into madness. Even though the story is written in 3rd person, it's like we are always in Eleanor's head and we see everything from her point of view.
Theodora, a carefree artist who is either gay, or has an unofficial relationship. She and Eleanor become close at the start of the book and slowly start fighting and drifting apart.
Luke, the future owner of Hill House is described as a charming but unreliable and untrustworthy man. Eleanor seems to have a crush on him at the start, and Theodora teases her about it.
Doctor Montague, a doctor who wants to write article about supernatural phenomena. At the start of the book he recruits Eleanor and Theodora, because they have had some sort of supernatural experience in the past.
Eleanor is an unreliable character. It seems that throughout the book she disassociates, or is possessed, or has blanks in her memory. Since whatever we learn is from her point of view, it's hard to know what's true.
Even though at the start of the book the characters seem to have formed a nice group, they slowly become estranged. Or that's what Eleanor's mind tells her. Suddenly Theodora becomes jealous of her and starts being petty, Luke makes fun of her and the doctor ignores her.
While the rest of the group starts going from friends to strangers in Eleanor's eyes, the house keeps getting more and more familiar.
I believe Eleanor's mind makes her misinterpret or make up situations all together. The house has control over her and wants to isolate her even more from the group.
In the second half of the book the doctor's wife and some guy (their relationship seemed kinda sus to me btw) come to stay at the Hill House and they don't notice anything strange. That is because the damage has already been done. Hill House has already possessed the weakest one of them.
After Eleanor starts acting possessed, she is sent away by the rest of the group. She pretends to go away, but actually falls with her car on a tree. Seconds before her death her possession is over and she realized what she's doing.
Also, if Theodora isn't gay, I feel like she has some sort of flirtatious relationship with Luke.
Let me know what you guys think in the comments!
by themostbluejay