Finally, something easy we can talk about regarding The Haunting of Hill House. This title is straightforward and simple: there's a haunting, it takes place at Hill House, and you'll have to read the story to find out more. Done, done, and done.
Then again… maybe it's not so simple. We know the title looks straightforward, but like all things in this novel, the simplicity throws you off guard. What's the problem? Believe it or not, it's that teeny-tiny preposition of.
The Smaller They Are…
That pesky little of makes what should be a read-it-and-move-on title something in need of a good pondering. Why? Because, like so many other words in the English language, of has a lot of definitions.
Let's take a look at of's first definition. The dictionary tells us that word may be used with a "gerund to link it with a following noun that is either the subject or the object of the verb embedded in the gerund" (source). If you remember your mid-school grammar lessons, then you'll remember that the difference between a subject and an object in a sentence lies in its relation to the verb. Subjects perform the verby action while objects have that action performed on them.
We have two different ways of reading the title based on this definition. If Hill House is the subject of the preposition, then it's the one performing the action, the haunting. So that title would mean something like: "Big Bad House Plays Some Crazy Pranks on Some Ghost Hunters."
But if Hill House is the object of the preposition, then it's having the haunting performed on it. That title would mean something like: "Big Bad Crazy Person Does Some Weird Stuff in an Old House."
Depending on how you read the title, Hill House could be the haunter, but it could also be the haunted.
So which is it? That depends on what you think is actually going on in Hill House. Is Eleanor the victim of a wicked haunting? If so, then Hill House is the haunter. Is Eleanor psychologically distressed, and it's all in her head? If so, then the haunter is Eleanor and her telekinetic abilities.
We have to really dive into the novel's nuances before we can decide exactly what the title means. But even then, the point may be to leave open both possibilities. One of the great things about this novel is that things could really go either way: maybe the house is haunted, or maybe Eleanor is haunted psychologically. Or both.
Lacking Definition
But that's just one definition of of. There are many more. Consider: the preposition of can be "used to indicate possession, origin, or association." If we read the of with this definition in mind, then the title says the haunting originates from Hill House but isn't necessarily an action of Hill House. In other words, the haunting is something Hill House owns, like a car or bureau, but not something it does. What do you do with a definition like that? Is it the result of a ghost that somehow belongs to the house? Something else? How does that change your understanding of the novel?
So much for the easy way out.