The Haunting of Hill House: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

As Eleanor wakes in the morning, she thinks to herself how “unbelievably happy” she is. After a sleepless, frightening night, she nonetheless feels purely joyful, and the refrain “Journeys end in lovers meeting” fills her head. Eleanor hears Theodora calling flirtatiously to Luke from her room, and then hears Theodora knock on her own door. As Theodora enters Eleanor’s room, she remarks on how beautiful Eleanor—whom she calls “Nell”—looks, and states that the “curious life” at Hill House agrees with her. Eleanor smiles, and notices that the life agrees with the radiant-looking Theodora, too.

Theodora and Eleanor race laughing down the stairs to the dining room, where they greet everyone happily. Luke, too, is in a sunny mood, and only Doctor Montague looks drawn and tired. Despite his appearance, he is excited and thrilled by the previous night’s events, and says he can’t wait to tell his wife. Eleanor reflects on the previous night—though she remembers being afraid, she can’t “imagine” the sensation of being frightened. Luke agrees that this morning he had to remind himself that the previous night’s events had all been real. The doctor admits he is “trouble[d]” by the good mood everyone shares—he wonders if they are falling under a spell. When everyone seems frightened by this, the doctor reminds them that there is no physical threat to any of them—ghosts break down people’s minds, not their bodies.

Mrs. Dudley enters the dining room and announces that it is ten o’clock—time for her to clear the table. Montague asks if they can sit at the table another fifteen minutes or so, but Mrs. Dudley seems to panic, repeating over and over that she clears breakfast at ten o’clock. The doctor acquiesces, and says that Mrs. Dudley can clear the table. They all leave the dining room laughing at the odd woman. They retreat to the parlor, but the doctor has a hankering for coffee, and sends Luke—who, he believes, Mrs. Dudley must regard as her future “master,” to ask her to put on a pot.

Just a few moments later, Luke bursts back into the parlor, white-faced and grinning. He urges everyone to come into the hall, and they all follow him; on the wall, there is writing in chalk. The lettering is huge and scraggly, taking up nearly the entire wall. The words read: “HELP ELEANOR COME HOME.” Eleanor is chilled and frightened, and begs the others to wipe the writing off the walls. Theodora puts an arm around Eleanor and guides her back into the parlor while Luke begins wiping the writing away with his handkerchief. Back in the parlor, Eleanor, paralyzed with fear, cries to Montague that the house knows her name. She begs Theodora to say she wrote it as a joke to frighten Eleanor, but the doctor assures Eleanor that none of them wrote it. Luke returns to the room and insists he didn’t write the message, either.

Eleanor wonders why the house has chosen to taunt her. Theodora suggests that Eleanor wrote the letters herself, and the two begin quarreling quite viciously. Montague, after a minute or two, suggests that Theodora tried to make Eleanor angry in order to stop her from being afraid. A suspicion at the back of her mind, however, tells Eleanor that Theodora was not doing any such thing.

The rest of the day passes “lazily.” The group explores the grounds, and spends some quiet time alone in their rooms, writing accounts of what has befallen them so far. The next morning, the group’s third morning in Hill House, Montague and Luke try to measure the cold spot while Eleanor and Theodora take notes for them. After the miserable work is done, the doctor, over lunch, suggests they all spend some time outside. Eleanor wonders if there is “still a world somewhere”—she is having trouble remembering the outside world. Luke agrees, saying that he feels as if he is marooned on an island. The doctor says that the outside world will soon be coming to them—his wife, Mrs. Montague, is arriving the day after tomorrow to join the group.

After lunch, Theodora and Eleanor head upstairs, planning to take naps. Shortly after entering her room, though, Eleanor hears Theodora scream. Eleanor hurries out to the hall to find Theodora staring “aghast” in the hall. Eleanor peers into Theodora’s room to find that there is red paint everywhere, all over Theodora’s things. Eleanor remarks that the room smells awful—Theodora, swooning, realizes that her room has been covered in blood. Both girls realize, at the same time, that there is more writing on the wall, but don’t step far enough into the room to see what it says. Eleanor suggests they call for Luke and Montague; Theodora implies that Eleanor is responsible for the damage, asking if she doesn’t want to keep the massacre a “secret just for the two of us.”

Theodora runs into her room and opens up the wardrobe to find that all her clothes are torn and stained with blood. Eleanor calls calmly for Montague and Luke, who come upstairs to find Theodora sobbing and kicking on the floor of her room in a full-on tantrum. Eleanor, entering the room for the first time, sees that the writing on the wall reads, once again, “HELP ELEANOR COME HOME ELEANOR.”

Eleanor urges Montague and Luke to take Theodora into Eleanor’s own room to get her away from the horrible smell. Eleanor wonders what is happening, and why her name has again appeared on a wall of Hill House. The doctor returns from Eleanor’s room and tells Eleanor that Theodora will have to stay in there a while, and share Eleanor’s clothes, too. Eleanor tells the doctor that she’s not as frightened as she should be, and keeps thinking the writing must be paint, or even toenail polish—not blood. The doctor suggests they close up the room for the time being, and only return to study the writing on the wall once everyone has calmed down.

Eleanor returns to her room where she helps Theodora clean blood off her face and hands. Theodora laments to Montague that she and Eleanor will have to share a room and clothes—they’ll be, she says, “practically twins.” Eleanor says “cousins” quietly, but no one hears her.

Later, in the parlor, Eleanor finds herself disturbed by cruel and even violent thoughts about Theodora. She is angry with Theodora for having accused her of being responsible for the writing—and hates seeing her new roommate dressed in all her clothes. Theodora has tenderly apologized to Eleanor for behaving so irately and cruelly earlier, and Eleanor has pretended to accept Theodora’s apology.

The group muses on the nature of fear—Montague posits that people are only afraid of themselves, and Luke adds that what people truly fear is seeing themselves “clearly and without disguise.” Theodora, sitting on the floor at Eleanor’s feet, adds that people are afraid of knowing what they “really want,” and presses her cheek against Eleanor’s hand, but Eleanor pulls her hand away. Eleanor remarks how violated she feels at the thought of whatever haunts Hill House using her name against her. She feels she’s splitting in half, she says, between her fearful self and her rational self, and wishes she could “surrender.” The others seem perturbed by this comment, and Eleanor apologizes, but they assure her she has nothing to be sorry for.

That night, another bed is moved into Eleanor’s room for Theodora. The two of them sit up in their pushed-together beds, holding hands—they can hear the sound of a low voice in Theodora’s room. It laughs and warbles, and the two women hold hands in the dark, clutching each other for comfort. Eleanor drifts in and out of sleep, clinging all the while to Theodora’s hand, and believes that the sounds from the next room are the cries of a tortured child. Eleanor squeezes Theodora’s hand tightly and calls for whoever is torturing the child to “STOP IT”—then wakes with a start to find the lights in the room on, and Theodora, in her own bed, asking what the matter is. Eleanor wonders with a fright whose hand she was holding.