Hill+House+Feminist

Summery/Response: Haley Carroll 4/30/08 Ackerman- 3 Summery/ Response “Shirley Jackson and the Reproduction of Mothering: The Haunting of Hill House” discusses how Feminist analysts have taken the ideas of Freud concerning the Oedipal complex of men, and changed it to help define the actions of women. Stating that women tend to make bonds with their mothers before men, the article goes on to elaborate on how this bond can either become stronger or a hindrance in their relationship. Through time a women can view themselves as an addition onto their mother, or she can become emotionally scared because of how the mother figure has treated her. //The Haunting of Hill House//, by Shirley Jackson, displays the extremity of how a mother’s overcrowding of her daughter can prevent the child from leaving the pre-Oedipal stage as defined by Feminist analysts. As stated in “Shirley Jackson and the Reproduction of Mothering: The Haunting of Hill House”, “Female gender identity is therefore threatened by separation, and shaped throughout life by the fluctuations of symbiosis and detachment from the mother.” Because of this fluctuation of symbiosis with her mother, Eleanor is unsure of her identity as a woman, leading her to be unsure of herself, constantly having to remind herself of her life such as “I have red shoes, I hate lobster and sleep on my left side and crack my knuckles when I am nervous and save buttons” (Jackson 59). Because Eleanor was in a mother-dominated relationship, it is as if she unsure if she had a life outside of the one she had when caring for her mother. She feels as if her life begins now. But more importantly, Eleanor’s social awkwardness and discloser with her life could be cause from her mother’s control over her. Eleanor has confessed many times to have not have had the best relationship with her mother, along with gratefulness for her mother’s death stating “No [I wasn’t sorry when she died]” (Jackson 62). Because Eleanor, although physically close with her, truly wasn’t very close to her mother, this could display how “individuation may be inhibited by paternal absence and by over-closeness to mothers, who tend to view their daughters as extensions of themselves. Conversely, coldness on the mother’s part may prevent the loosening of the emotional bond because of the unappeased nature of the child’s love. In maturity women may form close personal relationships with other women to recapture some aspects of the fractured mother-daughter bond” (Shirley Jackson). This recapturing of female connections can be seen between Eleanor and Theodora, by Eleanor telling her anything she wants, in hopes of keeping a connection between them. Eleanor, upon finally reentering the world after her mother’s death, is constantly trying to become a normal part of society upon stumbling into such a new world. Although this connection, as argued by Feminist analysts, “entails total dependence and loss of self” it is sill in accordance with adult societal norms (Shirley Jackson). Works Cited Jackson, Shirley. //The Haunting of Hill House//. New York; Popular Books, 1962. Newman, Judie. "Shirley Jackson and the Reproduction of Mothering: //The Haunting of Hill House//." __American Horror Fiction: From Brockden Brown to Stephen King__. Ed. Brian Docherty London: Macmillan, 1990. 120-134. **Rpt. in** __Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism__. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 187. Detroit: Gale, 2007. 120-134. __Literature__ __Resource Center__. Gale. ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL. 30 Apr. 2008 .
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Articles: [|H1420076332&docType=GALE|Shirley Jackson and the Reproduction of Mothering: The Haunting of Hill House] (used in summery response) & [|H1420076336&docType=GALE|Comic-Satiric-Fantastic-Gothic: Interactive Modes in Shirley Jackson's Narratives] (includes interesting information of topics Jackson starizes)

Opening Activity: Look at a clip of footage that has a "ghost" in it from [|"Most Haunted"] and discuss about how people may create a fear of something that may not exist.

Discussion Questions: 1. After learning that Hill House is "haunted" because of the various deaths that have occured there, do you think that the tale will sway the test subjects into believing that it is haunted? 2. What do the colors of the rooms symbolize (pink, green, blue, and yellow) 3. What parrallels can be found between the two sisters of Hill House and Eleanor and her sister, how will this play into the story? 4. Why do you think that every owner of Hill House has left within a few week sof moving in, is it haunted or is it the hype that scares them into moving away? 5. Why are people so interested in the unknown? 6. Why did Jackson decide to have Eleanor see the past and Theodora see the future?

Haley C