"The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House tells a story about a house that seems to have a life of its own. The most intriguing part of this story to me was Eleanor’s constant journey to find her “home”. This fact is referenced throughout the story in many ways. We are first focussed on Eleanor’s obsession with finding a place where she belongs and fits in. From the opening of the story in Eleanor’s drive to Hill House, she is fantasizing  about all the other places she could make her home. Then, once she reaches Hill House, she slowly develops a new attachment to this house. The house also seems to be pulling her in because the writing on the wall always includes her name and says things like come home. The knocking on the door that they hear can also be a way to show that this is her mother, either as a ghost or in her conscious, trying to call her home by knocking, the same way she used to knock for Eleanor’s help before she died. Finally, when Eleanor is driven to go to the library, it seems as if she has finally found her true “home” in Hill House. She is so in touch with the house that she almost seems like she is now a part of the house. This is seen in the fact that she can hear what the others are doing when she is no where near them. Now that she has found her “home” she cannot allow her spirit to leave; therefore, she commits suicide on the grounds of hill house to guarantee that her soul remains at the place she now calls home.