Jackson argues that the traumas, illusions, and terrors lurking within the human psyche are often more frightening than ghosts or hauntings-and that the line between supernatural and psychological phenomena is often blurry and porous.Īs Jackson describes the supernatural and paranormal phenomena that take place within the walls of Hill House, she leaves open the possibility that at least a portion of the “haunting” is taking place in the minds of the four characters who have come to investigate the manor-primarily within the troubled brain of the novel’s protagonist, Eleanor Vance. Through their adventures at Hill House, Jackson shows how each individual is also at the mercy of the horrors that dwell within his or her own mind. At the start of the novel, a group of individuals with psychic sensitivities is recruited by anthropologist-and closet parapsychologist- Doctor Montague to spend a summer at the “evil” mansion, delving into the house’s terrifying mysteries as part of an experiment which Montague hopes will validate his research in the field of paranormal activity. A war exists at the heart of Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House-a war between supernatural and psychological phenomena.
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