Engl 214 Final Paper

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Corrinne Snyder
Dr. Maegan Poland Shea
ENGL 214: Readings in Fiction
13 June 2023
Option 2: Gothic Conventions in The Haunting of Hill House & Beloved
Within Gothic literature, there are themes, symbols, and motifs commonly utilized by
writers that best encapsulate the Gothic genre. Two excellent examples of Gothic writing, The
Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and Beloved by Toni Morrison, use these conventions
in different ways to establish a greater meaning in their respective novels. Through the use of
Gothic conventions in The Haunting of Hill House and Beloved, Jackson and Morrison explore
how the past can haunt the present as effectively as poltergeists haunt their characters.
Upon first glance, the two novels, The Haunting of Hill House and Beloved, can seem
rather different, with differing plots, settings, and characters. However, the novels actually share
quite a few Gothic conventions and literary techniques, such as an unsettling atmosphere,
supernatural elements, psychological exploration, a haunting past, and isolation. In The Haunting
of Hill House, Hill House is the unsettling location where the characters are isolated. It serves as
a classic, spooky, old-fashioned house that few care to visit, much less spend the summer. In
Beloved, 124 Bluestone Road is where the bulk of the novel takes place. While the house itself is
not necessarily unsettling, Beloved’s presence makes it so, and the characters are effectively
isolated there due to past trauma. Morrison describes 124 as “...spiteful. Full of a baby’s venom”
(1). In both novels, the characters experience events that could be due to either supernatural or
psychological phenomena. In The Haunting of Hill House, two of the main characters hear a loud
banging growing nearer and louder: “Eleanor and Theodora saw the wood of the door tremble
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and shake, and the door move against its hinges” (Jackson 96). Just before this supernatural
event, Eleanor is awakened by a voice she believes is her dead mother’s, furthering the narrative
that her past could be haunting her present. In Beloved, Morrison characterizes Beloved as most
likely being the physical embodiment of the ghost of Sethe’s baby that she killed years ago. The
rest of the characters notice odd things about her, such as when “they ought to have heard her
tread, but they didn’t,” showing that Beloved has a somewhat ghostly presence (Morrison 118).
Both of these aspects of each novel serve to cause the readers and the characters alike to question
whether what they are experiencing is real or not. In both of these passages, the past is haunting
the present, but showing itself to the character as a physical manifestation.
While there are plenty of similarities in the Gothic conventions utilized in each novel,
there are also many differences. For instance, the theme of isolation occurs in both novels, but is
used in noticeably different ways by each author. In The Haunting of Hill House, Eleanor enters
a form of isolation by staying at Hill House, where no one visits and the groundskeepers refuse
to stay after dark. When she is sent away from the house due to her deteriorating mental
condition, tragedy strikes: “In the unending, crashing second before the car hurled into the tree
she thought clearly, Why am I doing this?” (Jackson 181). While driving away from Hill House,
Eleanor crashes her own car into a tree, killing herself. Her attempt to leave the isolating
confines of the house, whether she wanted to or not, was thwarted and ended horrifically.
Eleanor has never felt a sense of home or belonging anywhere her entire life, which is perhaps
the reason she was able to be possessed by the house. Either consciously or unconsciously,
Eleanor refuses to leave Hill House, as it is the only place she has ever felt that she belongs. Her
past and history of isolation determined her life at Hill House, and unfortunately, her death as
well. Contrastingly, the theme of isolation plays out much differently in Beloved. In the first two
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parts of the novel, readers see Sethe’s daughter Denver as someone who has grown up isolated
and physically confined to 124. Morrison utilizes the character of Denver to show how events of
the past, such as slavery, continue to haunt victims for generations. Instead of falling victim to
the same patterns of trauma, depression, and isolation as her mother, Denver breaks free from her
metaphorical chains and seeks help within the community. Finally, the women rally together to
help Sethe and Denver: “They saw Denver sitting on the steps and beyond her, where the yard
met the road, they saw the rapt faces of thirty neighborhood women…For Sethe it was as though
the Clearing had come to her with all its heat and simmering leaves” (Morrison 308). After being
isolated and haunted by the past for so long, having the community all show up to help
represents a major turning point in the lives of the main characters. Because of Denver’s strength
and resilience, she is able to confront the past, drive it away, and help her mother recover from
all of her unprocessed grief. This is in direct contrast to the events of The Haunting of Hill
House, because when Eleanor attempts to be freed from the isolation of Hill House, she ends up
killing herself. Contrastingly, the only way Denver and Sethe can regain their freedom is by
Denver rallying the townswomen to help her family, effectively bringing them out of isolation.
Therefore, the theme of isolation in each novel ends in dramatically different ways.
Each author utilizes similar Gothic conventions in different ways to craft their respective
novel. While Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is a classic Gothic haunted house story,
Morrison’s Beloved goes beyond the traditional format and also includes elements of social
commentary, historical fiction, and intergenerational trauma. Both novels' use of Gothic
conventions brings a greater meaning to the story and allows readers better understand how the
characters’ past histories haunt their present lives.

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Works Cited
Jackson, Shirley. The Haunting of Hill House, Penguin, New York, NY, 1984.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. First Vintage International ed., Vintage Books, New York, NY, 2004.

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Snyder 1

Dr. Maegan Poland Shea

ENGL 214: Readings in Fiction

Option 2: Gothic Conventions in The Haunting of Hill House & Beloved

the present, but showing itself to the character as a physical manifestation.

characters’ past histories haunt their present lives.

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