In my attempt to branch out and read other genres, I’ve been looking into what would be the best horror books to get my feet wet. Across Goodreads, Reddit, and other forums, turns out most people said The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was a staple of the genre. I found it by accident at the library, and the book wasn’t very long, so I picked it up and gave it a shot. I should say outright, this is going to have some spoilers, and the book is very good and pretty short. Give it a read and then come back so we can talk about it.

It’s a Hell of a book.

I judge a good book by whether it can make me feel something – doesn’t have to be a good something. I want an experience from a book, and I certainly got that with Hill House. But even with the spooky pounding, babbling voices, bloody messages, and labyrinthine rooms, the relationship between Eleanor and Theodora was what really kept me reading through to the end. It may not have been Jackson’s intention, but there is a reading of this book that casts at least Eleanor as a lesbian, and I think that adds a lot to her already complex character.

Proof?

For those not interested in reading the book or who might have read it a long time ago, here’s the setup. Eleanor is living with her sister and her husband after the recent death of her mother, whom she was staying with in order to care for. Now, after thirteen years spent taking care of her, she’s on her own and isn’t sure exactly what she wants her life to look like. She then receives an invitation from the enigmatic Dr. Montague, who is looking for people who have experienced some kind of “psychic phenomena” in the past, postulating that they would be more likely to interface with the strange happenings of Hill House. Eleanor takes her sisters car (without asking), and drives all the way there, where she meets another woman named Theodora and a man named Luke, all about the same age. Together with the Doctor, and later his wife and servant, they set out to uncover the mysteries of Hill House.

In the time spent in the house, Eleanor begins to uncover truths about herself as well, along with the other people she’s working with. I would like to posit that one of those truths is that she’s attracted to women, specifically Theodora, which is one of the things that drives Eleanor’s development through the novel, as well as her choices near the end of the book.

If I learned anything at all from AP English, it’s that you can’t make a claim without evidence, and I think I have some strong proof that Eleanor is far more interested in other women. Take this scene, for example, when Eleanor and Theodora are first meeting and preparing for dinner:

“Theodora came through the bathroom door into Eleanor’s room; she is lovely, Eleanor thought, turning to look; I wish I were lovely. Theodora was wearing a vivid yellow shirt, and Eleanor laughed and said, ‘You bring more light into this room and the window,'” Jackson (44).

Innocent enough, but out of all of the people that come through Hill House that Eleanor meets, the way that she describes Theodora is unique to that character alone. Apart from their names, many descriptions of the characters tend to be trim, especially the other men in the house. Many of their mannerisms and characteristics are brought out in what they say, but in the case of Theodora, Eleanor explains how she sees her, what she looks like, and the impression that it gives the space she inhabits. This, accompanied by a lot of touching hands and leaning on one another, especially for someone who hasn’t had a lot of social contact in the past decade, means the two share a bond that specific only to them.

But just that would not be enough for me to interpret such a LGBT sensitive read through – for the time that it was written, not many men would be comfortable with such intimate displays of emotion, something that we see from the doctor regarding his wife. It could just be that Theo and Nell are good friends and enjoy each others company, and for Theo, that would appear to be the case. But Eleanor’s feelings seem stronger, especially in a moment where the two are walking the grounds of Hill House, along together, after a small dispute between them:

“Nothing irrevocable had yet been spoken, but there was only the barest margin of safety left them; each of them moving delicately along the outskirts of an open question, and once spoken, such a question – as “Do you love me?” – could never be answered or forgotten. They walked slowly, meditating, wondering, and the path sloped down from their feet and they followed, walking side by side in the most extreme intimacy of expectation;” Jackson (165 – 166).

In this moment, both women have let their guard down, for one of the few times they have been together. In talking about one another’s past, most is relayed as a joke to one another, as they make up stories about themselves and then take the joke as far as they can take it. Eleanor has already told some untruths about her living situation, and after they have a small feud, the two women now stand with walls down. As the audience, we only have access to Eleanor’s thoughts, and we can see the question that’s really on her mind; whether or not Theo has feelings for her. This is not a thought she shares with any of the other people in the house – even Luke, with whom she attempts to have a meaningful conversation with beforehand. She’s unimpressed with him, as she is with the other men who come through Hill House, perhaps representing the various aspects of masculinity she has to choose from in a partner (but that’s another essay).

But Eleanor’s feelings are unrequited, as the story progresses, it would appear that Theo and Luke are becoming closer, even intimate. One might think that Eleanor is jealous of Theo for taking Luke’s attentions, but I suspect the reverse – that she’s jealous of Luke for taking Theo. But this doesn’t prevent Eleanor from continuing to think there is something between her and Theo, even a future. For a woman who finally has some agency in her life, the two most important choices of her life are to come to Hill House, and then, what to do after the fact, which she lays out for Theodora when she says:

“Yes,” Eleanor said, deciding. “About what I’m going to do afterwards. After we all leave Hill House.”

“Well?”

“I’m coming with you,” Eleanor said.

“Coming back where with me?”

“Back with you, back home. I” – and Eleanor smiled wryly – “am going to follow you home.” Jackson (198).

Understand, Eleanor is a woman without a future, or there never was a future for her that didn’t include her mother. When she died and Eleanor could decide for herself what she wanted, her sister had stifled much of that, and there was still little consideration for what she wanted. It was Eleanor’s choice to go to Hill House, but in that instance, she had already been invited, and the uncertainty of the situation is what drove her there.

This decision, this choice to live with Theodora and make a life with her, is the only thing Eleanor has ever decided on, the one true choice she’s ever made in her whole life. She could have chosen a life with anyone else, but she only has eyes for Theodora. When Theo answers her in the negative, and says she won’t have Eleanor, Nell says she’ll just follow her home – it’s the one thing she’s ever decided for herself up until that moment, and she’s not letting it get away. Other events would ensure that, which should shed some light on why Eleanor would make the second, tragic decision of her life. She doesn’t quite understand it in the moment, and has some second thoughts, but by then, it’s already too late. For Eleanor, agency always had its price.

So What?

The book in itself was already compelling once Eleanor arrives at Hill House and things start happening to her and her party, but I thought reading for the benefit of the LGBT subplot made the story that much more interesting. It’s possible that Jackson did not intend for their relationship to be read that way, but in the end, how much does that matter? The evidence is pretty staggering, and for a book written at the end of the 1950s, The Haunting of Hill House stands out as a book written honestly about a woman in a world more dominated by men than it is now, and that’s saying something. It would have taken some thought to make Theo and Nell as intimate as they are in the book, even going so far as to sleep in the same room and share clothes. They could easily be friends, and easily be something more. Perhaps Jackson was not trying to make a statement, but our generation can take something out of the character study of Eleanor, and how her feelings and unrequited affections motivated her toward the conclusion of the book.

Surely, it’s not the only view. I really enjoyed reading the book this way, but if you don’t agree, go ahead and say your piece, we can have a discussion over it. Maybe we shed some new light on an old story, and in the way that it’s written, I doubt I would be the only one to read the book through that lens. The book may be a product of its time, but it can also be a product of ours.

Keep reading.