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Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707

Supernatural Element of Haunting in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House

Sharmila Rashmi M.R1., Sathish Kumar D2. M.A., M.Phil., NET

1Research Scholar, [email protected] 2Assistant Professor, [email protected]

1,2PG and Research Department of English

Theivanai Ammal College for Women (Autonomous)

Villupuram- 605 602, Tamilnadu, India.

Abstract

The paper is mainly focuses on the element like which haunts the living people in Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House. In Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, revolves around the character Dr. John Montague, an investigator of the supernatural elements like ghost or spirits. He hopes to find scientific evidence for the existence of the supernatural things in the haunted mansion. He himself would experience the activities in the mansion which is haunted by the ghost. The guest would die due to the strange circumstances. The importance of this paper is to know what are the supernatural elements exists in the universe that the people are always curious to know where the person’s soul would go and what it do after their death?

Keywords:

Poltergeist, Haunting, Stream of Consciousness, Revenge, Séance

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Supernatural Element of Haunting in Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House

The writer Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House applies the theory of spiritist poltergeist. The word Poltergeist is derived from the Greek word. The word Poltern means to make sound or to rumble and the word means ghost and spirit. It is a type of ghost or spirit would be responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed.

In this novel applies a theory called spiritist poltergeist. This theory is defined as the phenomena caused by the mischievous or malevolent spirits, , or demons. Poltergeist outbreaks were met with fear and attempts like magical or religious remedies involving ritual, prayer or . The movement has been started in the year of 1840s and the poltergeist manifestations came to be understood as attempts by departed souls to communicate with the living people on the earth.

The spiritualist would be an approach to poltergeist were involves generally by establishing a channel of communication with the departed soul by holding a mediumistic séance. In these séances, the poltergeist (spirit) may reveal its identity using a system of coded raps, or through voice phenomena, or in writing on the walls, or using an board.

“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; it had

stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls

continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly

shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever

walked there, walked alone” (1).

The novel The Haunting of hill house is written by Shirley Jackson. She is the most brilliant and influential author in the twentieth century, her life span is 1916-1965. She was born in the place of San Francisco. She honored the book The Haunting of Hill House, as Best Fiction

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of 1959 in the occasion New York Times Book Reviews in the year 1959. Her notable works were The Lottery (1949), The Haunting of Hill House (1959).

The novel The Haunting of Hill House, takes place in rural places of America, during 1950s. The character Dr. Montague is the protagonist, researcher who investigates the adventure in Hill House. He is an anthropologist and doctor of philosophy and his true passion lies in the study of supernatural phenomena. He would always investigate or search for a truly . He has chosen the Hill House which is haunted in a place to research or investigates the ghost sightings because the Hill House is built some eighty years back. The Hill House is the perfect place for him to study the supernatural phenomena because Hill House is the quintessential haunted house.

For his research about the supernatural element of a ghost, he decides to invite some guests to the Hill House for a summer. He shortlisted twelve promising guests; to these twelve guests, he writes a letter as an invitation. In the invitation, Dr. Montague does not mention that the Hill House is haunted. Instead of that, he writes in the invitation as Hill House is a wonderful place to stay in the summer season. So he wants the guests to stay in the summer season, the guests can enjoy the summer with the Hill House. It is the best place for staying out of trouble.

Among these twelve guests, the two guests only accepted the invitation to stay in the Hill House; they were Eleanor Vance and Theodora. Eleanor Vance is invited to the Hill House because of the reason of her experience with poltergeist phenomena. Theodora, who is a modern woman, she is valuable to Dr. Montague because of she once, on a lark, and she took some laboratory tests to her psychic ability and the person Luke Sanderson also accompanies them. He was the young man and he bought the Hill House for his own. So, he is the present owner of the Hill House.

Eleanor Vance is the first person to arrive at the Hill House. She was welcomed by the Hill House caretakers Mr. and Mrs. Dudley. Here, Mr. Dudley warns Eleanor to get away from the Hill House and his wife Mrs. Dudley advises Eleanor that no one would be heard if Eleanor screams for help in the night. Now, Eleanor gets terrific fear to stay alone in the huge and also the old mansion in the city, but within the period, Theodora came to the Hill House. When

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Eleanor and her friend Theodora walks around to a house. Suddenly Eleanor screams because she has seen some shadows in the wall and her friend Theo also feels the same.

Later, Dr. John Montague welcomed Eleanor, Theo and Luke Sanderson to the Hill House. The four seekers were introducing themselves. For the first day of night, Dr. Montague shares the incident that happened in the Hill House (i.e., the Hill House phased the incidents of suicides and more violent murders). The first day of night itself the researchers have seen the sightings of the ghost. On the second day of the night also they feel some ghostly experiences. These were taken as evidence by Dr. John Montague in hill house.

On the third day of night, while Eleanor stays alone in her room, a ghost appears on the wall. Her friend Theo also scares after seen the ghost appears on the wall in her room. They both feel fear due to physical disturbances. The Hill House has the good thing that the ghost would not harm for the guests that were living in the Hill House. Dr. John Montague comments that spiritist poltergeist phenomena can cause damage in the physical world.

“Because you trust your house, right? It's your house. It protects you from the

world and, even more important, all the people out there. It sees you naked every

day. It knows your sins. It's the only place where you are your true self. So when

that gets corrupted, when that becomes haunted, that's terrifying” (Ocker 1).

The evil that lurks in Hill House, the ghost of the house seems to be waging psychological warfare on Eleanor and Theodora. These two women eerily echoed the relationship between Crain sisters. These Crain sisters who were grownups in the Hill House in the long back ago. After their death these both sisters appeared as a ghost and haunts to the living people on the earth. Among these two sisters the elder Crain sister target to murder Eleanor because she looks like a Crain’s younger sister. The elder Crain was murdered by her sister. For this reason, she wants to take revenge on her younger sister, but Crain’s Younger sister is not no more now. So she decides to murder Eleanor.

The character Eleanor is haunted by the Crain’s elder sister. This was noted by Dr. John Montague, he thinks that Eleanor to get away from the Hill House, but she is not allowed to

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move out from the Hill House in any situation happen in the house. Dr. John Montague advises her to get away from the Hill House only for her safety. After Eleanor hears these words from Dr. John Montague, she droves the car to get away from the Hill House.

Unfortunately, without her knowledge, he speeds up and turns her car towards the old tree. She kicked the car to the tree and the car was smashed, because of this reason she dies. Now the Hill House is claimed another victim is added to the list of mysterious deaths and suicides which happened, happen, and happening in the Hill House. After these incidents happened, Hill House stands alone in the city and gets extraordinary famous in a city.

“There are three parts to a person: a body, a spirit, and a soul. When the body

dies, the soul goes into whatever is waiting for us after death. But the spirit can

sometimes get stuck behind. That’s what a ghost is: a spirit anchored to earth by

residual . The soul, the part that goes to the afterlife, is our core person-the

identity we were born with. The spirit is our emotions, our temperament, our

intelligence-the parts of us that are created and changed by our time on earth. So,

when a ghost is formed, it’s missing both the soul and the body that it needs to be

a full human. It’s like an echo of what it once was” (Coates, 118).

The present paper concludes that the supernatural elements of ghosts, spirits or demons, and the would be haunting to the living people on the earth. The ghost, spirits would exist in a real-life situation. In fact, in the ancient period, the people were experiencing with the ghost, spirits in their own life. So only the reason to give an image or idea about the ghost by the ancestor. Not only in the abroad country and also in the country of India the people were investigating, encountered and experience the ghost in their everyday life casually.

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Work Citied

Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House. Viking Press. 1959. Print.

Coates, Darcy. The Carrow Haunt. Black Owl Books. 2015. Print.

https://psychicscience.org/polt1. Web. 1st Jan, 2020.

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/68253589-twelve-nights-at-rotter-house. Web. 16 Feb,

2020.

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