ENG 208 Lecture 6: Discussion of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (Chapters 1-2)
Document Summary
The haunting of hill house by shirley jackson chapters 1-2. Shirley jackson baits us, intrigues us, provides us with insight into human nature. She puts the psychology of a generally average person under a microscope. No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill house, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within (jackson 3: jackson creates a kind of equation: Sanity = dreaming/fantasy: this is eleanor to a t. She would not have survived with any sense of individuality had she not invented her imaginings to get her through daily life. She has a kinship with this child because she identifies with the need to get what she wants. Because eleanor does not get what she wants. She identifies with the parents being the one squelching the child"s dreams/desires: there is an innocence about eleanor.
