The characters in The Haunting of Hill House are all well-realized types, with Eleanor Vance the most developed, rounded character. Eleanor, thirty-two, has spent most of her adult life caring for her invalid mother, and she is shy, repressed, and looking for her identity. She comes to the attention of Dr. Montague because of a much-publicized poltergeist incident her family was involved in when she was twelve. In context the idea develops that the falling stones from the poltergeist are generated from the repressed hatred in Eleanor. Eleanor's psychic sensitivity makes her, in...
Source: Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, ©2001 Gale Cengage. All Rights Reserved. Full copyright.
(The entire page is 346 words.)
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