the [in]sanity of The Haunting of Hill House

is the house haunted or am I?

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the house is the problem

1. the house is haunted.

Shirley Jackson’s novel is titled The Haunting of Hill House. Not The Hauntings at Hill House. Not Hill House is Haunted.

The haunting of Hill House.

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. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House; and whatever walked there, walked alone.

The house, not sane, experiences a haunting. By who or what, we must come to find out. Is then Hill House our main concern? Or the living figures who find their way there? Or perhaps the ghosts of past inhabitants? Do the walls that stand and the doors that sensibly shut bear witness to the plight of man, or do they cause it?

Either way, no one will hear you scream.