Topic > Trapped in a Cage: The Haunting of Hill House by Jackson and The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman

The human mind is a very fragile thing. It is easy to be manipulated or hurt by events in someone's past. When the mind is hurt, it looks for something to attach to. For example, they may find comfort in an object that has sentimental value or seek empathy in others such as love and acceptance. In the case of Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrators of both stories appear to have some mental issues when visiting their "vacation homes" respectively. Both acquire an unhealthy attachment to homes and become unstable as a result. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, our narrator Eleanor is introduced as a lonely person who hates her family. “The only person in the world he genuinely hated, now that his mother was dead, was his sister. She didn't like her brother-in-law and her five-year-old niece, and she had no friends." The reason he was like this is because he spent eleven years nursing and caring for his sick mother. Eleanor's loneliness is the reason her adult life has been so unhappy and deplorable. “Never wanting to become reserved and shy, she had spent so much time alone, with no one to love, that it was difficult for her to talk, even casually, to another person without embarrassment and an awkward inability to find words. ”. For this reason, when he received an invitation from Dr. Montague to help him with his research at Hill House, he saw it as an opportunity to get away from his problems at home. Maybe she could meet people who would make her feel wanted since she has never done anything like this before in her life. When Eleanor first arrived at Hill House she quickly became friends with Theo and for once felt like she belonged somewhere. Eleanor was not attached to Hill House when she first arrived. She got really nervous when she got to the gates and almost didn't get into Hill House. “I should have gone back to the gate, Eleanor thought. The house had hit her with an atavistic twist in the pit of her stomach, and she looked along the lines of its roofs, trying in vain to locate the evil that lived there; her hands became nervously cold so much so that she was fumbling, trying to take out a cigarette, and on top of everything she was afraid, listening to the sick voice inside her whispering, Get out of here, run away.”. Even though she was terrified of it, at first, given the presence of the house, she overcame her fear and went in anyway. Hill House is said to be "haunted" and is personified in many different ways. “Hill House has a reputation for insistent hospitality; It seems he doesn't like letting his guests escape." This is important because throughout the story, Eleanor continues to experience paranormal things and it really changes her entire personality. During her time at Hill House Eleanor begins to become paranoid towards everyone around her because she feels like everyone wants to take her place at Hill House. She cultivates an unhealthy attachment to home that seemingly leads her to believe she has been chosen for something for once. Ultimately, when she was kicked out of the research group, she was forced to leave Hill House, something she absolutely didn't want to do. Since she was distanced from the only thing that brought her happiness in her life, she ended up killing herself by driving a car into a tree full of regrets. In Gilman's, The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator writes about everything in his diary. In this diary he writes his thoughts and reactions to events that happen.