Cup of Stars

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson incorporates different elements to constantly keep the reader on their toes. Starting out, the novel describes three different strangers all asked to live in Hill House by a character called Doctor Montague. He believes there is a “haunting” in hill house and is determined to prove the truth that is intertwined in the house itself, accompanied by three of his “associates,” as he likes to call them– Eleanor, Theodora, and Luke. Eleanor is introduced in the beginning of the book. Her journey of approaching Hill House is told, and the reader has an even better look of what goes on inside her head when Eleanor has an encounter with a child at a cafe on the way to Hill House. In this cafe, a little girl insists on not drinking milk from a regular glass, but from her own cup of stars, which is a plastic cup decorated with stars in which she drinks everything from. While the mother tries to persuade her daughter to drink from the glass, Eleanor expressed a different opinion to the young girl.

Don’t do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have you trapped into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don’t do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl (Jackson 15). 

Throughout the text, Eleanor begins to lose own her cup of stars. She came to Hill House expecting a positive change in her life, and even stole her sister’s car in order to make that happen–something the old, passive Eleanor would never do. Eleanor was shy and self conscious, but eager to experience this new adventure. She even expresses contentment after meeting Theodora and is flooded with relief that she is able to be herself. Eleanor’s cup of stars is excitement, adventure, and stepping out of her comfort zone. She has all of these things in the beginning, then with the help of Hill House, loses them. Eventually she conforms to a plain old glass of milk that replaces the excitement that once blossomed within her, with apathy.

I believe that everyone has their own cup of stars in life, and can even have more than one. These represent different values that make us stand out from the crowd, and maybe sometimes we lose grasp of them. Maybe, sometimes we succumb to the pressures of society and use the glass instead. While including the quote about Eleanor and the girl with the cup of stars, I originally wanted to cut it right in half. My initial instinct was that includng the entire thing would be tedious and unnecessary, but then persuaded myself that the “right” way was to include the entire thing. I made a choice to drink from the glass of milk. But, I disagree with Eleanor. I do not believe if one choses to drink from the glass, they are doomed and will never see their cup of stars again. On page 15, Eleanor states “Once they have you trapped into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again.” I do not think everything is necessarily black and white, and that people are either one way or another.  Since Eleanor firmly believes this, it may subconsciously aid to her downfall in letting the house fully consume her because she believes things are strictly done a certain way, with no room for exception.

Something else that stuck out to me as a reader were Mrs. Dudley’s eerie phrases she repeated throughout the book.

Mrs. Dudley turned aside to let Eleanor come in, and spoke apparently to the wall. ‘I set dinner on the dining-room sideboard at six sharp,’ she said. ‘You can serve yourselves. I clear up in the morning. I have breakfast ready for you at nine. That’s the way I agreed to do. I can’t keep the rooms up the way you’d like, but there’s no one else you could get that would help me. I don’t wait on people. What I agreed to, it doesn’t mean I wait on people. I don’t stay after I set out dinner,’ Mrs. Dudley went on. ‘Not after it begins to get dark. I leave before dark comes. (Jackson 27).

It gets even creepier when she then explains to Eleanor that no one will hear her if she screams. On page 31, when meeting Theodora, Mrs. Dudley states the same exact phrase word for world. And again, she explains how nobody will be able to hear their screams, sine nobody lives close to Hill House in the village; they stay stay as far away as possible. Eleanor also notes Mrs. Dudley smiling as she repeats these phrases, which is enough to send shivers down our spine.

 

But wait, there’s more…

Mrs. Dudley also repeats herself with other phrases that have to do with her ever-so particular routine, “I clear off at ten. The dishes are supposed to be back on the shelves. I take them out again for lunch. I set out lunch at one, but first the dishes have to be back on the shelves” (Jackson 73). She says the phrase once again on page 74, “I clear up at ten. I set out lunch at one.” Mrs. Dudley also mentions the phrase one more time before she is cut off by Theodora, who is tired of her repetitiveness.

But, why does Mrs. Dudley repeat herself so much? Is it possible that in the past Mrs. Dudley was mistreated in the house, so she uses a stern tactic with rules set in place to ensure she is not taken advantage of once again? Or, is it possible Mrs. Dudley knows something about the house that has to do with its disturbing past? Maybe, she insists on leaving every night before darkness rolls around to ensure her safety from the house’s haunted nature that she has experienced before. Once the reader stops to think about why, countless theories could pop into their head. Maybe, Mrs. Dudley is actually trying to scare Eleanor, Theodora and Luke out of staying in Hill House. She could have seen how it destroyed others in the past, and does not want to see another innocent soul destroyed by the house’s persuasive ways. Instead of just telling the occupants to leave, she tries a scare tactic that could make them think they made the decision to leave themselves. Or, maybe she really is just a creepy old lady.

Mrs. Dudley repeating the same eerie phrases so many times goes along with Burke’s repetitive form. According to Burke, “Repetitive form is the consistent maintaining of a principle under new guises. It is a reinstatement of the same thing in different ways” (Burke 125). Because of her repetitiveness, Ms. Dudley acquires a certain connotation surrounding her name. When the reader thinks of her, they think of an eerie old woman. With Burke’s logic, her repeating phrases are not a mere side detail, but an important detail of the story with truth and meaning held behind them. They could possibly be a warning, or even a sign that it is already too late to escape Hill House. 

When reading this book, we tried not to succumb to our own projections surrounding it. A projection we may have brought to the reading with us is our prior to knowledge of Shirley Jackson’s writing style. Since reading “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” as a reader, we may have brought that previous knowledge to us with, and anticipated what was to come in the novel due to our prior experience with the author’s work. At one point, Doctor Montague explained the history of Hill House to his associates, and told the story of two sisters who lived in the house after their parents died.  Hmm, two sisters…living in a house alone…after all of their family died? Sounds kind of familiar; *cough* Merricat *cough* Constance. The paragraph even states the older sister made her debut in society, just as Constance had made hers, infamously being known by everyone in the village for killing her family.

The Haunting of Hill House tells the story of four strangers, all united together by one thing–Hill House. They experience events that created bonds within the house, and also events that put strain on those bonds. Eleanor became engulfed in the house’s presence and accepted what she thought her fate should be. She believed committing suicide would insure she belonged to the house forever, as she had no cup of stars, just Hill House.