How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"And waiting," the doctor confirmed. "Essentially," he went on slowly, "the evil is the house itself, I think. It has enchained and destroyed its people and their lives, it is a place of contained ill will. […]." (3.142)
Here, the house becomes personified as an active agent, a place with free will seeking to confine and then destroy its residents. As the novel continues, the question of whether the home is truly haunted or whether the people in it are self-destructive is left open-ended. Wouldn't want to make it easy, would we?
Quote #5
"Promise me absolutely that you will leave, as fast as you can, if you begin to feel the house catching at you." (4.220)
Dr. Montague acts as a good mentor. He's well aware of the home's power over people and doesn't want to see his new friends succumb to its deadly power. Like any well-intended warning in horror fiction, this one will go unheeded.
Quote #6
"We are on a desert island," Luke said.
"I can't picture any world but Hill House," Eleanor said. (5.103-104)
The home begins to consume its residents. They can't even imagine what life would be like beyond it, and there's some pretty awesome life to be had out there: New York, London, Tokyo, and Disney World, to name just a few options. But for the residents of Hill House, the home is becoming the end-all and be-all.