Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House

One of the most distinct characteristics of Jackson’s writing is her ability to use terror instead of horror to frighten the reader. The difference in the two is that horror is more violent and physical; it is exploitative and genre centered. Terror is more mental and psychological; it is harder to write into a specific genre. The theme of terror is prevalent throughout the entire novel The Haunting of Hill House, because all of the supernatural happenings are designed to prey on Eleanor’s weak mental state. There are no chainsaws or guns or bloody massacres. The true terror lies in the fact that Eleanor is being drawn to this house not by any physical act, but because her mental state is allowing it. Jackson plays on the reader’s fear of mental illness, which is all too real and all too likely to go undiagnosed. In a book review for The New York Times, Terrence Rafferty states “the real horror of “The Haunting of Hill House” is that sad Eleanor actually feels more alive in that “chillingly wrong” place than she ever has in her own home.” There is not a masked man holding Eleanor hostage in Hill House with a gun. It is her own mind that is keeping her there; she identifies with this house because for the first time she is getting to experience life away from her mother and time to be herself. The house is a place of liberation for Eleanor. Hill House obviously inhabits some spirits, because there are multiple supernatural occurrences that are seen by all four of the inhabitants, such as the banging on the doors they hear late at night. Yet the house does not seem to affect Luke, Dr. Montague, or Theodora the way it affects Eleanor. There is something that seems to be singling her out and keeping her there, preying on her weak mental state and loneliness. In the video clip below from the 1963 movie adaption titled The Haunting, there is a moment at the end where the viewer gets to hear Eleanor’s thoughts and in her head she is saying about the supernatural occurrence, “it will go on an on and on again and come back until it finds me.” Though it seems she has lost all rationale thinking, the true terror comes in the end when the reader finds out that she actually has not lost it completely. Jackson makes it clear that Eleanor has not gone completely mad and suicidal by saying “In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree she thought clearly, Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why don’t they stop me?” (Jackson 182). That moment of clarity is absolutely terrifying because it shows that there is not some Hill House demon inside of Eleanor possessing her to commit suicide. She can still control her thoughts for one precious second, but it happens to come too late.  Jackson’s use of terror instead of horror makes for a chilling novel depicting a woman’s weak mental state that is all too real.