The Haunting of the Hill House is a very unusual novel and creates suspense for the readers till the end of the story.
First and foremost, we never get a glimpse of ghost in the entire story. We occasionally encounter evidences such as noises, writing on the wall, chilling breezes with no apparent source and doors that open and close by their own. The novel starts with a brief description of four people who agreed to stay in hill house as “Guests”. The leader of the group is Dr. John Montague, who plans to write a book about his research into paranormal incidents, joined by two women, the Eleanor Vance and bohemian Theodora, both invited to participate because they have had some previous experience researchers join the party; Montague’s wife, a trained spiritualist who believes she can communicate with the dead, and Arthur Parker, a school headmaster with a longstanding interest in the occult.According to me the novel mainly drags the audience to pay attention on one specific character named Eleanor Vance.
Eleanor life is characterized by numerous challenges that happen because of her mother. She has a difficult responsibility of taking care of her ailing mother without any help from the society. She also worries about not being liked by the others. Whenever she feels like the others are distancing themselves from her, she does everything in her power to come “back into the fold”.
