The Haunting of Hill House

“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" (1). For me personally, I was immediately surprised by the fact that the house was given characteristics of being alive and "not sane." As the narration continues, you find out just how strange the house really is as it watches the occupants and how true the first paragraph really is.  The sense of foreboding is present throughout the entire short story due to the calculating move on Jackson’s part to introduce the reader to the house first. Not only is the House alive as a character, but also sets pace the story and the setting and tone of the entire work.  The House is slick and sly and evil and it watches its occupants. It is like a predator, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on its prey. The house invites Eleanor to “come home,” knowing that Eleanor cannot resist the want of belonging somewhere. Hill House then influences everything that occupies the house and eventually Eleanor beings spying on the others. “I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside” Through this sentence,  Eleanor has become a part of the House, living through the laws of it. The House is not sane, the author wrote, for it holds darkness and Eleanor and the others have become part of the darkness.