Hell House, or Your Napoleon Complex has Really Gotten Out of Hand

Not to be confused with Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, Richard Matheson's Hell House is an entirely different beast (and I will admit to confusing the titles more than once—I am ashamed).  While it wasn't clear if Hill House was truly haunted or it was lonely and just wanted a friend, there is no doubt that something's rotten in the state of Hell House. Let's start with the name. The Belasco Mansion has such a perverted history that it became known as Hell House. Even if the house wasn't haunted, the history has power. When alive, Emeric Belasco filled the house with every imaginable debauchery, and the knowledge of this history leaves an impression on those who visit Hell House. Former residents of Hell House fell into an animalistic state and Belasco reigned over his base kingdom as "The Roaring Giant".

Yet, Hell House is haunted. Rather than the house itself generating the hauntings from residual energy, visitors of the house experience violent apparitions and attacks from entities. What struck me about these apparitions was how they chose to attack their victims. Two men and two women are visiting Hell House. Only one of the men is directly attacked by being locked in a steam room and is eventually killed. The other man—a physical medium—manages to separate himself from being attacked. Both women, one a mental medium and the other the wife of the man who dies, are attacked sexually. The medium is not only killed, but she is also raped by a ghost and sexually assaulted multiple times leading up to the rape. The other woman is possessed by an entity that causes her to attack both men in the pursuit of sex and cast doubt onto her sexuality.

When reading these attacks, I was taken aback by the actions the entities took on the women—how both women had the control over their bodies taken from them in different ways. But after separating myself from the initial reading and thinking about the story, I couldn't help but wonder what Matheson was saying by only having the women be victims of sexual abuse. Maybe the time the novel was published had an influence, but given what supposedly happened in the house, homosexuality isn't far-fetched. The violent apparitions were all male, yet they chose not to exhibit their power over the living men the way they did over the women.  

The only reason I don't speculate why there couldn't be a female entity to go after the men is the ending. Turns out the paranormal activity was all controlled by a single entity: the ghost of the Roaring Giant himself, Belasco, who had found a way to live after death. Now, this is all fine and dandy, but the rest of the ending I had to read it multiple times through tears of laughter to make sure I understood correctly. Turns out ol' Belasco was no giant. He was a tiny man with a Napoleon complex who’s motivation for everything was to convince others he was tall. Please, if I’m missing something about the ending, tell me. I'm at a loss for an alternate interpretation. Although at a towering 5'3", I now have a whimsical motivation to haunt and terrorize the living.

Hell House had elements I enjoyed. I liked the in-your-face aspect of the hauntings—Belasco wasn't a power to be dismissed. I enjoyed the constant pull between the logical and the unexplained that carried throughout the story. Yet after gaining distance from the story, I'm not sure if I like that only the women were the victims of violent sexual assault. And the ending… well, it only emphasized what I've always said: don’t mess with short people.

Now There Be Ghosties: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Last term there were beasties. Now there be... well, ghost-ies.

When I saw Shirley Jackson on the reading list this term, I was excited. The only thing of hers I’d read until now was The Lottery, the granddaddy of dystopian short stories and what I sense was a major influence behind The Hunger Games. I’d heard of The Haunting of Hill House, but hadn’t had a chance to read it until this class. I’m a fan of The Lottery. It’s one of those stories that made me stop in my tracks, so I had high hopes for The Haunting of Hill House.

Yet while I didn’t hate it, Hill House didn’t fill me up with the same dread I was expecting thanks to The Lottery. Yet what happens to protagonist Eleanor Vance comes close.

The spirits of Hill House have a special interest in Eleanor. After receiving the invitation to Hill House as an assistant in an experiment to prove the existence of ghosts, Eleanor leaves the reluctant charity of her disapproving sister and steals the car in an attempt to go on her first real adventure. Not only is Eleanor intent on seeking an escape from her quiet and dull life, but she is also socially stunted and seeks the companionship she’s never truly had.

Of those who are visiting the house during this experiement, Eleanor is the weakest and the most easily influenced out of the group—the most susceptible to believe that the house is haunted, whether she realizes it or not. She sees manifestations that others don’t, and she receives personal messages from those long gone who still haunt Hill House’s halls. Through this attention, Eleanor begins to feel a kinship with the house unlike anything she'd felt with another person. It’s forgotten and unwanted, like her, and she opens herself up to the house so much the spirits override her senses and drive her to the roof where she can jump to her death to be morbidly united with the house forever.  Even when she is forced to leave, Eleanor finds her way to remain at Hill House and drives into a tree, killing herself.

Eleanor is whoI found to be the most interesting aspect of The Haunting of Hill House. She is not a strong protagonist. If anything, most of the action happens to her rather than her seeking out the action. She becomes puppet-like—consumed by the energy of the house so much that it controls her.

This loss of control I find to be the most chilling aspect of Jackson’s novel. While it’s the dark moodiness of the setting that helps contribute to the Victorian Gothic feel of the novel as a whole, it’s how the spirits warp Eleanor’s senses so completely she’s deluded into believing she must die in order to remain at Hill House that takes the novel beyond Gothic into horror. Because there is nothing particularly special about Eleanor as a heroine, she easily slips into the role of the every-man. This reminds the reader while their disbelief is suspended that they too could be susceptible to supernatural influence.

What happens to Eleanor also represents a loss of control that most people fear. When she arrived at Hill House, she sought only an adventure, and before she was possessed wanted to seek out her own life separate from her family. Yet she loses control over her actions and her thoughts to seek death as a means of remaining at Hill House. This loss of power to an unseen supernatural entity is the recurring fear that drives forward all ghost stories I’ve either read or seen, and while this fear is presented more quietly than some, it delivers.

While it might not have been my favorite story read to date, The Haunting of Hill House has rightfully earned its place among the ranks of ghost story heavy-hitters. Just because a protagonist might be conventionally weak doesn’t mean that their story can’t send chills down readers’ spines.