Gossip says she hanged herself from the turret on the tower, but when you have a house like Hill House with a tower and a turret, gossip would hardly allow you to hang yourself anywhere else.
Shirley JacksonRead
It watches," he added suddenly. "The house. It watches every move you make.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that our surroundings may be more aware of our actions than we realize, reflecting on the relationship between observation and existence.
In this quote, Shirley Jackson emphasizes the idea that our environment, particularly in the context of the house mentioned, is observing us constantly. This notion creates a sense of unease and introspection, suggesting that the spaces we inhabit may hold a deeper significance and are interconnected with our actions, implying a metaphysical observation that can influence our behavior.
Themes
ObservationEnvironmentAwarenessExistenceSurveillance
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about privacy, you might quote this to emphasize how technology observes our every move.
More from Shirley Jackson
All quotes βThere had not been this many words sounded in our house for a long time, and it was going to take a while to clean them out.
Shirley JacksonRead
Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
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I can't help it when people are frightened," says Merricat. "I always want to frighten them more.
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I was pretending that I did not speak their language; on the moon we spoke a soft, liquid tongue, and sang in the starlight, looking down on the dead dried world.
Shirley JacksonRead
We moved together very slowly toward the house, trying to understand its ugliness and ruin and shame.
Shirley JacksonRead
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