The Haunting of Hill House was published in 1959 and quickly gained popularity. Jackson’s son claims that “she created one of the most famous ghost stories of the twentieth century” (Leyshon). The question is, what lead to the creation of this famed novel?

 

Shirley Jackson was a true believer in the paranormal. She often referred to herself as a witch, which was only partly a joke. She believed that she had some sort of supernatural power and these beliefs were reflected in her work. There is some evidence that Jackson had supernatural experiences of her own. She was also in possession of a ghostly house. Jackson documented her experiences in the house in the essay ”Good Old House,” which can be found in “Let Me Tell You,” a collection of her works put together by her children. The house had a reputation; housekeepers refused to work there and hired workers demanded extra pay to work at the house. Jackson recalls that things would mysteriously disappear and reappear as if “there were pockets of time in the house into which things dropped for a little while and then came back” (Heitman). More disturbingly, Jackson recounts several instances in which groceries were left on the counter and then found put away upon returning, with no explanation. There are an abundance of supernatural occurrences such as these. It is likely that these occurrences had an influence on Jackson’s writing, particularly The Haunting of Hill House.

 

Jackson had a unique approach to presenting the supernatural. The ghosts are never actually seen. Jackson’s novels, especially The Haunting of Hill House, are very psychological. According to her son, she “wrote often about alienation and withdrawal, fear, phobia, disassociation and paranoia, in ways that often leave the reader uncertain as to whether things are real or imagined” (Leyshon). She leaves open the possibility that the haunting is either external or internal, because “she believed in the powers of the mind” ("Readers' Review"). It is never clear whether the phenomena is caused by something inside the house or by Eleanor herself. Her son also comments on one of the themes present in the novel, which is “the gradual realization of no escape, where the horror is that there is no help coming, no way out, no relief from any direction” (Leyshon). Part of her reasons for creating The Haunting of Hill House are to explore the workings of the mind.