Published in a short stories collection in 1944, ‘A Haunted House’ by Virginia Woolf narrates a story of a young couple, particularly the woman, and her experience with a “ghostly couple” who have come in search of a “treasure”.
Written in the stream-of-consciousness style, Woolf lays emphasis on every detail- physical or not- to make the story engrossing; for example, she writes, “Trees stoop and bend this way and that” and the candle that is burning and how its flames are still.
The “ghostly couple” is having a conversation about a “treasure”. They float from room to room, they are constantly talking to each other where one cuts off the other amidst speech- this showcases a fundamental aspect of modernist writing that is fragmentation.
“The treasure buried;...the pulse stopped short. Oh, was that the buried treasure?” Here, the writer brings attention to the fact that this treasure, the one that causes the pulse to stop, is love. The “ghostly couple” is revisiting this house to rediscover their love and the memories they made together. And that the setting, “haunted house”, which lends itself to the title, is a testament of their love. While in search of this treasure, each part of the house serves as a reminder of their love- the rooms are equated to the “the light of the heart”. In essence, therefore, the house symbolises the heart.
By employing the theme of love and “ghostly couple”, Woolf illustrates that love exceeds time- it is eternal. And that love is not conditioned to death or illness. The story itself has an underlying fleeting emotion which makes the reading of it feel calming and serene. The emphasis, here, is not laid on the plot or the characters but on the theme of the story and the feeling it evokes.
Since I read this story along with Yukta from @anxiousfirstdraft, she shared some insightful details- she states that since the living couple is in a subconscious state i.e. they were sleeping (the woman having been awake due to the sounds of the doors shutting), the whole ordeal may be simply a figment of the narrator’s imagination. Therefore, everything she observes in relation to the “ghostly couple” is merely her imagination in the subconscious state.
This made me think- maybe the narrator’s subconsciousness is trying to portray a relationship unlike one she has with her husband: an eternal love.
This is, obviously, our perspective.
A must-read, “A Haunted House” is 700 words story that is complex yet tranquil. Woolf has repeated various words to accentuate what they symbolise. This is signature Woolf’s style of writing; she never presents anything as is- the reader has to read between the lines to understand her works.
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