Parallels and Family in Hill House

In this week’s reading of the Haunting of Hill House, I thought the parallels between Luke and Eleanor were an interesting aspect to the reader’s perception of the story. We learned that both Luke and Eleanor were lacking in true mother figures, as Luke’s mother died, and that Eleanor’s mother was not the best mother. Furthermore, we learned that both Luke and Eleanor were metaphorical black sheep in their own blood relation families, and thus when they went to Hill House, they both found their place in a family of their own. Despite the family not being blood, they (Dr. Montague, Theodora, Eleanor and Luke) were accepted by each other in an almost unconditional way, the way a real family should act, which can be seen when Luke makes a daring rescue of Eleanor from inside of the library, and accepts the risk to save her. The themes of family and the parallels between Eleanor and Luke is considered significant in the way that they are perceived throughout the book, and this tends to make people think that perhaps both Eleanor and Luke were susceptible to the powers of Hill House. They both described Hill House as motherly, albeit, in a terrifying way. This is a strange choice of words for people staying in a haunted house, which gives insight into Eleanor and Luke’s perspective of family, and by extrapolation, the author’s perspective of family. This multiple perspective of the strange happenings and occurrences helps to reinforce the convoluted lines of the supernatural and the fantastic.