It Runs in the Family

I've noticed that besides the common theme of a haunted house, many of our readings so far have involved some sort of "ancestral curse," supernatural activity that occurs throughout a family's history. I think that in ghost stories, the home is not just a symbol of security and privacy, but also has a close connection to family and relatives. In both "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Rats in the Walls", a connection or interest in family binds the characters to the houses, then when they try to rebel against their ancestry (either by failing to continue the family line or unearthing its dark secrets) the house reacts in a negative supernatural manner.

The horror in these stories comes from how ultimately trapped and helpless the characters are -- they could run away from a monster or a demon, but they can't run from their family heritage. They aren't haunted by an external force, but rather the very blood running through their veins. The house, in this case, serves as a physical manifestation of the family, and being trapped inside a haunted house represents being haunted by the repercussions of their families past evils. The concept of a haunted bloodline would have been especially evocative in the time period these stories were written, when a family's name and honor were a large point of pride and respect. A disgraced family name could haunt someone just as much as a curse from their ancestors.

At first, "The Little Room" seemed to fit this theory, with both the mother and daughter cursed to see different rooms, and the two Aunts bound to serve the house as propagators of the victims madness. However, after Margaret leaves the curse passes on to the cousin and someone who is not part of the family, but a bystander, just by exposure to the house and the room. In this case, the house fully becomes a manifestation of the family, and the curse spreads just by association. The Haunting on Hill House seems to have a similar situation of haunting through association with the house, and I am very interested to see how it unfolds as we learn more of the house and the characters' pasts.