Personification In Jackson's Haunting of Hill House

One thing I found very interesting about Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House was how frequently Jackson uses personification in describing inanimate objects.  In describing nearly all aspects of Hill house and its surrounding vicinity, almost everything is personified.  For example, upon arriving at Hill House, Eleanor uses key adjectives and verbs in personifying the house as evil. She describes the house as, “arrogant and hating, never off guard…seemed to have formed itself, flying together into its own powerful pattern under the hands of its builders, fitting itself into its own construction of lines and angles, reared its great head back against the sky without concession to humanity.” Using this rhetorical device, Jackson effectively portrays the house as truly sinister.