So, I’m re-reading The Haunting of Hill House and I’m wondering: is Theodora supposed to be a lesbian? In the first movie version, there was reason to believe she was supposed to be (Eleanor calling her lifestyle “unnatural” or something) and in the remake from a few years ago, the character comes right out and says she’s bisexual (not that the remake was worth the paper the ads were printed on).
But what about the book? In the beginning, it says that she gets into a huge fight with her “friend” (who is also her “roommate”) during which cherished personal possesions of each woman are destroyed by the other and very hurtful things are said. I know friends fight, but it seems to me that fights that intense are usually reserved for lovers, especially in books and movies. I was thinking that maybe Shirley Jackson intended that to be some sort of— I don’t know… code, maybe?
Now, I know that it’s easy to read subtext into books and movies that isn’t really there, so I’m not asking if Theodora can be read as a lesbian, but whether or not Mrs. Jackson intended her to be one. If anyone knows, that is. I realize it’s perfectly possible that Mrs. Jackson never said one way or another. After all, in those days, that wasn’t the kind of thing one asked an author, I don’t think.
I haven’t read the book. I love the movie (the original) but I don’t remember exactly what the audio commentary had to say about this. I may be remembering this wrong, but I do think that the commentary said something about the lesbian subtext being present in the book. The impression I got was that the idea was implied but not stated overtly, and that the filmmakers decided to treat that area with some subtlety as well.
When I read the book, I certainly thought she was a lesbian (and that the other female character had a sort of fantasy of a life with her), and I’ve never seen any of the movies so I know I just got it from the book. I haven’t read it in a few years but it seemed pretty clear to me at the time.
Man, did that book scare the crap out of me. I recently read Life Among the Savages and found out that Shirley Jackson wasn’t the pent-up sexually deviant maiden aunt in the garret that I expected at all - I don’t know where she found the time or the material!
When I was a kid, I read her book RAISING DEMONS full of hilarious family-rearing stories. Imagine my shock finding that she’d written things leading people to think she was the PUSDMAITG.
Raising Demons seems to be out of print - I keep meaning to track it down. If you liked that, pick up Life Among the Savages, which is the “raising kids memoir” she wrote first. It’s absolutely hilarious and includes the story “Charles” which you’ve probably seen anthologized and had no idea was written by the PUSDMAITG who wrote The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
There are some amazing biographies of Shirley Jackson out there, and I’d highly recommend them. She was a tortured soul, no question about it. I always got the impression that her Raising Demonds and Life Among the Savages were kind of an attempt to fit in with the rest of the galaxy. Her other works seem to represent her depths.
Well, I’ve put The Haunting (the 1963 version, of course) at the top of my Netflix queue, so I should get it on Wednesday. I had no idea the DVD had commentary with most of the original cast and (I think) the director and screenwriter—that ought to be really interesting. I’ve gotten a little further in the book, too. I’d forgotten how good it was. I’m still not finding it particularly scary, which is the reason I decided to re-read it in the first place, but at the same time, I can’t put it down.
Oh, and as you get further into the book (and as Eleanor begins to lose it) the lesbian subtext becomes quite a bit more obvious.
I think that the book certainly implies that Theodora is a lesbian.
Theodora thinks Eleanor is cute, flirts with her. But when the innocent Eleanor mistakes a guesthouse fling with Forever True Love and starts displaying an alarming, clingy attachment, Theodora tries to put an end to the whole thing.
Eleanor becomes confused and hurt, and that’s when the serious trouble begins.
I read Theodora as lesbian, but there isn’t a gender specifically used for her “friend” in the book. They never say “she” or “he” at all, it is always “her friend.”
Plausible deniability? “Protecting” our youth? I’m not sure, but I think I may have missed that subtext the first time I read it, in my teens, and the story is still scary.
It is interesting that, even without the word gender clues, one still catches the lesbian implication. How is that for cool writing?
How funny. I just read this book and my husband was trying to remember if he had read it. I said, “There’s a doctor, a young man who is the heir to the house, a lesbian, and a repressed woman who got stuck caring for her mother.”
So, at least in my reading I thought she was obviously a lesbian!
I bought the DVD when it came out last year. The commentary is all four main actors, the director, and the screenwriter. It’s mostly pretty good and informative–but for me the most fun part was hearing Robert Wise chuckle evilly over how the recent overdone remark was a complete flop.