Feminism in the Story "The Haunting of Hill House"

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The Haunting of Hill House: Jackson and Her Hidden Genius
The Haunting of Hill House was a novel written by Shirley Jackson for Leonard Brown (Jackson 1). It was a fictional horror story that depicted the mid-twentieth century and explored the masculine societal norms against womanhood that aimed to nurture women forever to confine their innovative minds. The author used various figures of speech to convey the message that men must refrain or discontinue considering women as kids as if they do not have their rationality and snatching them their authority to decide for their sake. The novel illustrated how women are caged inside the gender box, an idea created by rampant men, especially during the story’s setting. Therefore, Jackson provokes the rationality of the close-minded society by forming an informal protest against male domination via a platform that can be easily understood and distributed to several audiences, declaring an informal and silent war against male ascendancy.
Feminism and the Characters in the Story
The characters in the story embraced masculinity and femininity at the same time. However, Jackson focused on the latter than the former. We shall analyze the significant characters of the story through the lens of feminism.
The first character introduced was Dr. Montague, a doctor of philosophy whose life purpose is to investigate supernatural phenomena and prove his worth by publishing his findings (Jackson 1). Here, masculinity or patriarchy was represented as having a high rank in society by finishing a high education level. During this time, although women were able to study, they were regarded as having a lower intelligence quotient than men or cannot handle what men can, intellectually. Jackson balanced this by allowing Dr. Montague to search for assistants, ultimately hiring women (1-2). Although women are frequently illustrated as assistants, they were seldom employed in dangerous or frightening tasks like this since they are regarded as vulnerable and enclosed in domesticity. He symbolizes men who were the only people who were allowed to create rules at the time.
Eleanor symbolizes all the women before they could gain access to their rights. She was introduced next as a thirty-two-year-old woman who spent her adult years caring for a disabled mother. Her life was unhappy and full of silent criticisms, accusations, and guilt-tripping as if her life’s purpose was only about this, and she was compelled to abandon her genuine ambitions. Despite being imprisoned in her domestic role, the letter of Dr. Montague enlightened her mind, and she began considering her purpose again. However, Eleanor’s family was hesitant, overlooking her strengths and seeing womanhood as a weakness against possible perpetrators like Dr. Montague. Eleanor disregarded her family’s wishes and was banished from the home (Jackson 2).
Here, Jackson gave a voice to a child-like character, Eleanor, who pursued to be included in a team ready to conquer an evil home. Because she spent years of torture from her oppressive mother and sister, Eleanor did not initially think about her aspirations (Boylan 22). However, she began breaking away from the domestic ...