essay on the haunted house

Essay on Haunted House

Students are often asked to write an essay on Haunted House in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Haunted House

What is a haunted house.

A haunted house is a place where people think ghosts live. These houses are often old and broken. People say they hear strange noises and see weird things in these houses. Ghost stories are often linked to these houses.

The Fear Factor

Haunted houses can be very scary. People usually feel a chill when they enter. Some say they feel as if someone is watching them. Others claim to hear whispers or footsteps when no one is around. This fear can make people run away from these houses.

Haunted Houses in Stories

Haunted houses are popular in stories and movies. They make the story more exciting. The heroes often have to enter these houses to solve a mystery or save someone. These stories can be fun but also very scary.

Are Haunted Houses Real?

Whether haunted houses are real is a big question. Some people believe in ghosts and say they have seen them. Others say it’s all made up. Scientists say there’s no proof of ghosts. So, it’s up to you to decide.

250 Words Essay on Haunted House

Stories about haunted houses.

Many stories and movies are about haunted houses. In these stories, people often move into a new house. Then, they start to notice strange things happening. They might hear footsteps when no one is there. Or, they might see shadows moving in the dark. These stories can be scary, but they are also very exciting.

Why People Think Houses are Haunted

There are many reasons why people think a house is haunted. Sometimes, it’s because the house is very old. Old houses often make strange noises. People might think these noises are ghosts. Other times, people think a house is haunted because something sad happened there. For example, if someone died in the house, people might think their ghost is still there.

Visiting a Haunted House

Some people like to visit haunted houses. They want to see if they can experience something strange or scary. It can be fun to feel a little scared in a safe way. But remember, it’s always important to respect the place you are visiting. Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, other people might.

In the end, haunted houses are a part of our culture. They are a fun way to feel a little scared and to tell exciting stories. But whether you believe in ghosts or not, it’s always important to respect other people’s beliefs.

500 Words Essay on Haunted House

A haunted house is a building that people believe is filled with ghosts. These are spirits of people who have passed away but are said to still be present in our world. People often say that these spirits are not at peace, and so they stay in these houses. These houses often look scary and run-down, which adds to their spooky image.

Why are Houses Believed to be Haunted?

There are many stories about haunted houses. These stories often include scary events and unexplained happenings. For example, some people say they have seen ghostly figures, heard strange sounds, or felt a cold breeze even when all the windows and doors were closed. These stories can be very exciting and scary, and they are often told around a campfire or at sleepovers.

This is a tough question. Some people truly believe in ghosts and haunted houses, while others do not. Many scientists say that there is no proof that ghosts exist. They think that the strange things people see or hear in these houses can be explained by natural causes. For example, a creaky floor could be due to the house being old, not because of a ghost.

Haunted Houses as Entertainment

Haunted houses can be very interesting. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, the stories about haunted houses can be fun to hear. They can give you a good scare, make you think, or even make you laugh. Even though we may not know for sure if ghosts are real, the idea of haunted houses continues to fascinate us and capture our imagination.

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“The Haunted House”: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf has crafted a highly abstract narrative titled “The Haunted House,” which presents challenges to comprehension upon initial reading.

Introduction : “The Haunted House”

Table of Contents

Virginia Woolf has crafted a highly abstract narrative titled “The Haunted House,” which presents challenges to comprehension upon initial reading. The story employs intricate narrative techniques, contributing to its complexity. Set within a home occupied by a contemporary couple, the narrative reveals that the same house was previously inhabited by another couple a century ago. The underlying thematic exploration centers on life, death, and love, ultimately emphasizing the enduring nature of love despite changing circumstances. The story posits that love transcends time and space, persisting even in haunted places.

Couple in “The Haunted House”

In the opening passages of “The Haunted House,” Virginia Woolf intricately weaves a sense of mystery and intrigue as the contemporary couple residing in the house perceives doors closing, suggesting the presence of a ghostly couple moving throughout the rooms. This phenomenon sparks speculation that the spectral pair is in search of something left behind, perhaps years earlier. Woolf subtly hints at the enduring bond between the ghostly duo, despite their ethereal existence, as they navigate the space together.

Furthermore, as the narrative progresses, the ghostly male figure expresses a sense of emptiness, symbolizing his loss and yearning for something elusive. His dialogue hints at the profound impact of his lover’s passing, which left him emotionally adrift and physically separated from his home. This loss is poignantly illustrated through his journey “North, went East,” symbolizing a physical and emotional departure from his former life, only to return to find it irrevocably changed.

Meanwhile, the contemporary couple observes the ghostly wanderings with a mixture of curiosity and empathy, recognizing the ghostly pair’s quest for joy and fulfillment in their eternal bond. Woolf masterfully explores themes of love, loss, and longing, inviting readers to contemplate the enduring power of love beyond the constraints of time and mortality.

These elements from the story emphasize Woolf’s skillful use of narrative technique to evoke a sense of mystery, while also delving into profound themes of human experience and emotion.

Love in “The Haunted House”

In a brief exchange, the ghostly couple conveys their enduring love, rooted in their shared history within the house. The current occupants sense they are searching for something lost, possibly a valuable item like gold or currency. Despite their efforts, the elusive nature of their quest persists, driving them onward. Upon entering the bedroom, their undisturbed presence suggests a serene connection to their love.

Interpreting the spectral dialogue, the current residents discern phrases like “death between us,” “hundreds of years ago,” “here we slept,” and “kisses without numbers,” revealing the depth of affection between the ghostly pair. This profound love seems to be the very essence they seek. Ultimately, the revelation of “the light in the heart” resonates with the living couple, signifying their shared understanding and discovery.

This mutual comprehension underscores the absence of animosity between the living couple, allowing them to grasp the essence of the ghostly couple’s quest. Unafraid and attuned to the mystery of love, they welcome the spectral visitation as a testament to its enduring power. Indeed, the presence of the ghostly couple reaffirms the notion that love transcends time and space, returning to the places it once thrived.

Works Cited: “The Haunted House”

• Cassigneul, Adèle. “ Virginia Woolf’s Haunted House of Fiction .” Journal of the Short Story in English. Les Cahiers de la nouvelle 70 (2018): 73-86.

Relevant Questions about “The Haunted House”

• How does Virginia Woolf utilize the motif of the haunted house to explore themes of memory and trauma in her work?
• What symbolic significance do the various rooms and elements within the haunted house hold in Virginia Woolf’s narrative, and how do they contribute to the overall atmosphere of the story?
• In what ways does “The Haunted House” reflect Virginia Woolf’s modernist style and experimental narrative techniques, particularly in its exploration of consciousness and perception?

Poetic Comments on “The Haunted House”

In the haunting whispers of the ghostly pair,

Echoes of love, timeless and rare.

Lost treasures sought in shadows deep,

In the bedroom’s embrace, their love did keep.

Through murmured words of “death between us” they spoke,

Centuries past, where love awoke.

“Here we slept,” they reminisced in delight,

With kisses unnumbered, their love took flight.

In the heart’s gentle glow, the truth did gleam,

Love’s essence found, a radiant beam.

For in the embrace of love’s sweet art,

The living couple discovered the light in the heart.

Unafraid, they welcomed the ghostly embrace,

For love’s eternal presence, time cannot erase.

Thus, in the house where love’s echo resounds,

The visit of ghosts, in love, abounds.

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A Summary and Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Haunted House’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Haunted House’, by Virginia Woolf, both is and is not a ghost story. In less than two pages of prose, Woolf explores, summons, and subverts the conventions of the ghost story, offering a modernist take on the genre. ‘A Haunted House’, which first appeared in Woolf’s 1921 short-story collection Monday or Tuesday , can be read here .

‘A Haunted House’ is at once easy and difficult to summarise; how we analyse the story depends on which aspects we emphasise. In summary, the narrator describes the house where she and her partner live. Whenever you wake in the house, you hear noises: a door shutting, and the sound of a ‘ghostly couple’ wandering from room to room in the house. The narrator (whom we can assume, tentatively, is female) claims to be able to hear this ghostly couple talking to each other. It’s clear they’re looking for something:

‘Here we left it,’ she said. And he added, ‘Oh, but here too!’ ‘It’s upstairs,’ she murmured. ‘And in the garden,’ he whispered. ‘Quietly,’ they said, ‘or we shall wake them.’

Next, the narrator describes reading a book outside while hearing the ghostly couple, in the background, hunting for this mysterious thing around the house. But as soon as she drops the book and goes to look for them, there is no sign of the ghostly pair – just the sound of the wood pigeons and the threshing machine.

The narrator confides that you could never see the ghosts, just reflections of apples and leaves in the sunlit windows. The house itself seems to be speaking, saying something about buried treasure. The light is fading, and the rooms are darkened. The narrator imagines the male ghost leaving the female one behind for some reason. It is now night-time, and the ghostly coupling continue to ‘seek their joy’. They appear to reminisce over the bed (where the living, present-day couple now sleep) where they once slept, centuries ago.

The narrator then imagines the ghostly couple standing over her as she sleeps, and, holding a lamp over the bed of the living couple, the ghosts pause, still seeking ‘their hidden joy’. Then, the narrator wakes up and feels that she has solved the mystery, and now understands what this ‘buried treasure’ is what the ghostly couple have been seeking: ‘the light in the heart’.

‘A Haunted House’ seems to be Woolf’s attempt to convey the feeling of sensing something just on the edge of hearing or sight: something you cannot see head-on but which you sense in the house with you, just on the periphery of your vision. We can probably all relate to the experience of being alone in a house and feeling that every creak, every hum, every far-off sound betokens something – a ghost, or an intruder, for instance.

Woolf’s story seeks to encapsulate that experience. That title, ‘A Haunted House’, is ripe with potential irony. And it is only ‘potential’ – for all we know, there may have been a ghostly couple in the house with the story’s narrator.

But it’s suggestive that the narrator seems most attuned to the presence of the ‘ghosts’ when she’s in states of semi-consciousness or her mind is somewhere else: just waking up, or engrossed in a book, for instance. Consider the very first sentence of the story: ‘Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting.’

Three things suggest themselves here, at least. First, the use of the second-person pronoun ‘you’ attempts to involve us in the narrator’s experiences, as if to suggest that we have all felt something similar to this, things on the margins of our conscious experience. Second, the fact that she begins by talking about just waking from sleep – something that will come again at the end of the story – suggests waking from a dream.

Third, the fact that she mentions waking at any hour is indicative of someone who might fall asleep at any moment – someone who daydreams in the most literal sense, falling asleep during daytime, and therefore (arguably) more prone to confusing dreams with reality.

‘A Haunted House’ might be described as a short story – and, in one way, as a ghost story – but its language is almost that of a prose-poem. The rhythmical prose beats like a heart with the repeated refrain: ‘“Safe, safe, safe,” the pulse of the house beat softly.’ This mantra reappears later, with ‘softly’ changed to ‘gladly’, and then again in the final paragraph as the couple are reunited, with the adverb changed to ‘proudly’ and ‘pulse’ upped to ‘heart’ – and, suggestively, the tense shifted from past to present, as ‘beat’ morphs into ‘beats’:

‘Safe, safe, safe,’ the heart of the house beats proudly. ‘Long years—’ he sighs. ‘Again you found me.’ ‘Here,’ she murmurs, ‘sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling apples in the loft. Here we left our treasure—’ Stooping, their light lifts the lids upon my eyes. ‘Safe! safe! safe!’ the pulse of the house beats wildly. Waking, I cry ‘Oh, is this your buried treasure? The light in the heart.’

Was it all a dream? The pulsing sound that beats through the prose in its almost poetic rhythms could almost suggest the quickening heartbeat of the narrator as s/he awakes. The accumulation of active present participles, of ‘sleeping’, ‘reading’, ‘laughing’, ‘rolling’, and ‘stooping’, only intensifies the here-and-now of the moment being crystallised in prose.

That final phrase, ‘The light in the heart’, looks back to the use of both ‘heart’ and ‘light’ earlier in the same paragraph. Woolf’s ‘story’ positions itself neatly between dream-vision and ghost story, reinventing both using the new style of modernism and that movement’s interest in shifting tense and perspective. As with much modernist fiction, perception, rather than objective reality, is foregrounded.

In an essay on Henry James’s ghost stories, published in 1921 – the same year as ‘A Haunted House’ – Virginia Woolf called for new writers to find fresh and original ways of arousing fear and terror in readers of ghost stories:

To admit that the supernatural was used for the last time by Mrs. Radcliffe and that modern nerves are immune from the wonder and terror which ghosts have always inspired would be to throw up the sponge too easily. If the old methods are obsolete, it is the business of a writer to discover new ones. The public can feel again what it has once felt—there can be no doubt about that; only from time to time the point of attack must be changed.

Woolf sought to do this with ‘A Haunted House’, a story which is both a ghost story and a riposte to, or analysis of, the conventional ghostly tale. But, given that final phrase, ‘The light in the heart’, it is also a love story, and – given its relative plotlessness, its brevity, and its prose-poetry style – barely a ‘story’ at all.

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4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Haunted House’”

I hadn’t read this before and thought when it started that it was going to be the narrator herself taking on a male and female persona and looking for love. Because it seems like to me if she only hears them when she wakes or when she’s reading that they only exist in her mind and not in “reality.”

Reblogged this on Greek Canadian Literature .

Oh, this is definitely going on my TBR list. Thanks! I wonder that she suggests Radcliffe, rather than Poe, as the last “supernatural” horror writer, though. I suppose didn’t much go in for ghosts, per se, but it still seems an odd oversight.

I loved this story. I discovered it last year and read it several times, then featured it on my blog as well. I had never read a ghostly story like this before and it truly stands out. One of the lines that has remained with me was ‘Death was the glass; death was between us …’ Love the brevity of the story too—kind of like being given a private glance into the other side of reality.

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A Haunted House

Virginia woolf, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

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Haunted house narrative writing. The house stood on the top of lonely hill. There was no chance of taking the way through roads. I had to take the shortcut.

13 Redwood Villa

It was cloudy and the first few specks of the rain were exploding on the dark gravel. I was in the park and I knew that I was going to get drenched if I didn’t make my way quickly from there. A major storm could be heard on the distance echoing through the silent night.

I had to reach there, as quickly as possible. Just a few moments ago, I had got the message from my friend, Lucy, to go there – 13 Redwood Villa. She had asked me to reach there by 7 pm and it was already half past six. Thunder clapped overhead and the clouds burst on the horizon.

The house stood on the top of lonely hill. There was no chance of taking the way through roads. I had to take the shortcut. “What shall I do”, I pondered over it the second and decided I’d go the hill way to the top. So, I moved forwards. It was dead chilling cold and the rain had made it even more difficult to walk. The cloud had obscured the moon in the dark night and the whole way filled with sense of anger and malice.

I took a deep breath of the cool night air and walked faster towards the house. My curiosity was already beyond its limits. Now, I was almost to the top. The flickering light of the house could be seen nearby.

Finally, I reached there – 13 Redwood Villa.

The house stood, 3 storeys high, with boarded up windows and a broken chimney, giving the house a menacing look. Its door had been boarded up too but you could easily push it open between the planks at the bottom.

“Am I sure this is the house”, I thought to myself. Lucy hadn’t told me about why she wanted to see me. I was not really excited now, not after the dreadful smell and the abandoned look the house gave. “Well, I couldn’t turn back now, after all I’ve come till here”. I was stuck between fear and excitement.

But at last, a crack of thunder, a flash of lightning and slowly I pushed the door open. The rusty hinges gave a scary creaking noise. I took one last look at the outside of that fearsome house. The rain was splashing down around me. And then I had ducked under the planks of wood and was inside, peering about in the darkness.

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As my eyes adjusted in the darkness, the room slowly came into the view, the long bare corridor with doors leading to unknown rooms. I then started even forwards. Suddenly I heard a squeak. I was totally daunted. And then I heard some footsteps as if someone was wandering around me.

My heart was accelerating. Thud, thud, thud... The rain was still pattering dismally on the window panes. Although petrified, I went to the door to see who it was. No one! I again heard the noise. I looked down. Thank god it was just a cat, an abandoned little black cat.

But its look was enough for me to give a fright. I had looked at the cat’s face in the gloom and I could see its dark hair, its perfect features and a ghastly eyes staring back at me. I slammed the door close and made a run. I could hear the cat meowing back as if trying to break inside. It all seemed stupid now. I should’ve never come to this house.

I was still running and just at the moment I saw a big door on the corner of the corridor. I went inside and entered a large bare room. It was all dark and smelled of sodden clothes and rotten fruits. Running through the side of the room I noticed a flight of stairs ahead of me. I could hear someone muttering on top of stairs.

Hurriedly, I ran up the stairs and reached the second floor. The windows upstairs were covered with large, black curtains which flapped along as the gust of wind rushed inside the windows. All the walls were covered with cobwebs. The floor creaked under my feet. That corridor had even more doors that led to unknown rooms. And I could still hear the voices.

Just then I saw someone hurrying inside one of the doors. It might have been the same person of whom I had heard footsteps of. I was shocked and shivered with frightfulness. “Who else could be inside? Was it Lucy?” I decided to follow the person. But the dim light of the moon flickered and the person darted away. I missed. That must have been my imagination.

Slowly I entered the room standing just behind me. That room was such a mess, as if someone had torn it apart in rage. All the things were tipped over on the floor. Through the bars of windows I could see the sky slowly clearing up. I looked at my watch. It was already ten to seven.

I still hadn’t seen Lucy yet. “If this was her trick to scare me then I would’ve never forgiven her, but what if she wasn’t playing a trick. She should’ve been here by now!”

I left the room and marched towards another room, and another. Through more doors and up another staircase and I realised I was totally lost. I swore I was. But I knew I was now on the topmost floor.

As I stood there, stiff, I heard the owl hooting and outside and also the rustling of leaves. But beneath all the noise, was the terrible silence that overpowered every other sound.

The voices were getting louder.

I checked through almost all of the rooms until I was really exhausted. I paused for a second and went towards the windows. I needed fresh air. Outside the windows I could see the whole city as dead as doornail. There was no trace of any sound, not even a single muttering or laugh. I again turned towards the corridors. I only had two more rooms to check.  

I stepped up to one door and slowly reached for the handle. Just as I was about to enter inside, a group of bats hovered outside from the room. That was scary. I screamed with terror. I closed my eyes and ducked down until every bat had flown away. Luckily it was all quiet again.

Hastily I grabbed out the torchlight from my pocket and set it alight. In the flashlight I saw a puddle of liquid on the floor. Drops were splashing into it. “Was that a blood?” I frowned.

As I looked up, I saw a large chunk of wood that had fallen out of the ceiling. The rain was seeping into through the crack. I sighed with relief. The puddle on floor was just a rain, not the blood.

Just then I noticed some white thing on the floor. I focused the light on the floor. The light shone vividly at a large pair of sharp fangs. My head snapped up. I tried to scream but no sound came up. I stumbled back, clutched my stomach and fell over on the floor. I was unable to rip my eyes away from the sight. It couldn’t have been a real Dracula!

Startlingly, I crawled forward to touch the fangs. It came off onto my hand. It was just a fake pair of fangs. I was confused for a moment. Was it any trick!

It was now already five past seven and I was still wandering around the house. I still had to check in through one more room. The door stood on the farthest corner of the corridor. It looked creaky and intimidating. The illusion made it look even more sinister. Standing there, watching the quiet patience of the door, I knew it was more than a fright inside. I knew something was there. Not evil or malicious, simply dangerous!

The muttering voices were now gone. The whole house stood dead quiet. The only thing I could now hear was my own breath. Through the windows, the pale light of the moon shone beneath the dark deep clouds. Everything seemed so ghastly and unrealistic. I got up and slowly made my way towards the final door. My knees were now too weak, I had to bend and walk.

Lastly, I reached it. I grabbed the door handle and pushed myself inwards.

Oh my God! The room was so dark and so creepy. No windows, no light, nothing! I stood there in the silent darkness for a moment, holding my breath. I knew there was something hidden behind this darkness. I was now too much scared. So, I started backing away. Suddenly, something touched my back. I swore it was a human hand. “I must run away”. All these creepiness was now too much for me to bear.

But a noise behind me made me stop. I turned around slowly and tried to adjust my eyes in the darkness. Bare feet hit the floor loudly as I heard someone running towards me. “Hello, who’s there”, I shrieked with fear.

Silence! But suddenly the lights flicked open and the balloons popped out. I saw all the faces I knew. Before I could even realise anything, everyone shouted “Happy Birthday, James!”

English coursework                               Asmita Dhakal         Page  of 4

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The Haunted House, Essay Example

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Have you ever wanted to do something so bad that it kept you up all night thinking about it?  But, for some reason something is stopping you from doing that thing. That’s a common problem; a lot of people hesitate or are scared to do things for the first time. You can never over come your fears unless you face your fears.

When I was 15 years old I thought of not going to school, so I skipped school and decided to have a walk around the  area. Out of nowhere, a big, old, gray building grabbed my attention as I stood across the block. At that moment, my mind was distracted by how old it seemed. As I got closer, the more curious I became of what was hidden behind those paled rusted doors. In that silent moment, I felt the wind blowing and heard the sound of the tree leaves hitting against each other. The building attracted me, questions began to pop in my head, why is it spooky? What made it different? Is there anyone living there? So I began to research to try to find answers to my questions I began with asking people around the neighborhood about the house.

I found out that it was the first kings’ palace that was built in Kuwait and it was called Bayan Palace. It was abandoned, and no one had lived in it for 100 years. Some of the people I talked to told scary stories about it and some believed that it was haunted with ghosts and evil spirits. As I studied the palace I took a lot of pictures of it. The next day, I couldn’t keep it out of my thoughts, so I went to our history teacher to show him the pictures and find out more about the palace. I was not the only one with questions, at the same time there were two boys asking the teacher about the palace too. We talked a lot about the palace. Sharing a common interest the boys and I continued to talk and get to know each other.

The first guy was named Ali, he is a short and white. Ali’s father owned a lot of companies and he was the Minister of Education back in Kuwait. The other guy is named Abdullah; he is a free runner and gymnast. He has had a lot of adventures in haunted houses.

After that day we hung out together a few times. We made the decision to go the palace and to investigate what is inside.  Later, as we sat in Starbucks arguing over when would be the best time to begin our adventure, an old man came over to the table. His face felt familiar like I had seen him before and I felt a strange, eerie feeling about him. He said, “Hi young gentlemen were you talking about Bayan palace?” We all looked at each other and answered “yes, why?” he whispered “didn’t you hear about the missing man that went inside and never came back again?” We all were shocked. Abdullah said “what do you mean by that he didn’t come back, because it’s a haunted house? Huh, I don’t believe that can you prove it to me?” he laughed softly and responded “It’s just my advice to you stay away from that place. I don’t recommend that you go.” That’s the last thing he said and then he walked away.

We decided to give up and thought it was best not to go to that place any way. But, we all know that inside we were curious and we all want to discover what was in the palace. So we met together and logged on to a computer finding a chat room about the palace and chatted with someone about that house. We were all shocked when he said that he had entered Bayan palace! We all asked if we could meet him and if he would call us and tell us more about his experience. He just answered with a “yes anytime”. His name is Nasser, he was 22 years old and he is from Lebanon. He is a business man that works for two companies, one of them in Lebanon and the other one in Kuwait.  He motivated all of us and rekindled our curiosity to enter that palace. Nasser said that when he entered the palace he did not feel anything strange and that there was nothing to be afraid of.  He had only entered into the palace for few minutes and then stormed out immediately. At that point we said that it wasn’t worth it to go to that haunted palace, we were busy and all had our final exams and decided we would not go until we had finished our school work.

Then came the  we were finally ready to explore the palace, we got our tools, we charged our mobile phones, made sure we got lights, snacks, and everything we needed. We then started to walk to Bayan Palace. We were all both afraid and excited at the same time. No one spoke or said anything from the moment we moved, we were all nervous. We arrived and we looked at each other’s faces, we all had nervous and scared expressions. We went inside because from the gate it was too dark and we couldn’t see anything. I turned the hand light on and began to feel the breeze on my face and it was cold, although it wasn’t cold outside.

I noticed on the wall there were a lot of paintings and marks. I touched the wall it was rough and a thick layer of dust covered the ground. From outside the building seemed smaller but inside we found out it was bigger than we thought so we decided to split into groups. Each group went their own way and we would meet again and call each other if there is something creepy. We went to the basement floor it looked like a jail. All I heard is the wind blowing and my footsteps we didn’t find anything creepy yet we searched the whole basement. I had no idea why my heart was racing, I felt scared every footstep I took the thoughts of what the people said about the palace it gave me chills and I started to believe it too. We decided to go back upstairs. As I was walking up the stairs I stopped and heard a movement coming towards me from behind. I began to rush up the stairs and started to panic my friend rushed behind me, all I wanted was to get out.  My friend came to me asking, “did you see anything? Why did you run? Are you okay?” I felt somewhat embarrassed and said “I was just joking with you guys” he got angry and pushed me and said “don’t do it again and let’s continue searching and put an end to the myths.” So we continued on.

I felt better with him beside me and started to convince myself that it’s all a myth. As we walked upstairs there was this huge sealed door marked with an X my friends got together and tried to open the door but we couldn’t, we gave up, it was starting to get late so we decided to end it and leave.

I had to go back home so I left and started to walk by home. As I was walking I was feeling a huge disappointment that I didn’t get to see what was behind the sealed door. This thought made me more curious and I wanted to know why it is marked with an X.

The next morning I got a text from Ali telling me to come to the neighborhood park. I got up, washed my face, got dressed, and left the house heading to the park. I arrived at the park and I saw the whole gang there waiting for me so I went to greet them.  While I was greeting them I noticed Nasser wasn’t with them and I saw Ali holding a Hammer in his hand.  He told me now we can open that sealed door I smiled and started to think is it worth it?  I know I was curious and disappointed that I didn’t get to see what was there so I needed to choose. The whole gang was waiting for my answer and I nodded “ok let’s go”.

As we were walking back to the abandoned palace I asked about Nasser and why he didn’t show up, they told me you “didn’t talk to him?” He was to fly to Lebanon, he was too busy and still needed to pack his bag. I felt the group wasn’t complete without him. I wondered if the real reason he did not come was fear.

When we arrived to the palace I looked at my friends with a smile and said “let’s do it!” We entered together and headed to the sealed marked door. Ali said “move away”, as he got the hammer and started to pound the chains on the door. He was surprised that he didn’t have to hit too hard before the chain fell off. The door was opened we went inside and suddenly we thought that we saw something move at the end of the corridor. We were running trying to search and wanted to find out what was that. I thought it was a small child running; we’ve turned off our flashlights in order not to scare whatever that distracted us. All of the sudden, I felt something crawling around my left leg but, thankfully when I focused the light on it and it turned out to be a cat.  I had faced my fear and realized that in the end there was nothing to be afraid of, it was all in my mind.

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Home — Essay Samples — Geography & Travel — Haunted House — Descriptive Paper On A Haunted House

Descriptive Paper on a Haunted House

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“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf Essay

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The title of the poem “A Haunted House” brings out bad events that are associated to the house. The poem brings out how the dead are associated to the living; they do not want to wake them up. The poem explains several themes, which include love, positivism, death, and the living. Symbolism has been utilized in this poem.

“A Haunted House” being the title of the poem draws the attention of the reader to dreadful issues associated to the house. The poet talks of the couple as ghostly (Woolf, stanza 1, line 2); this explains why the house haunts many people. The writer of this poem is the occupant of the house, who acts as the owner. The poet explains on a first persona scenario, “…whispering not to wake us…” (Woolf, stanza 6, line 3). The use of the noun “us” brings out an individual point of view. It also shows that more than one person occupies the house.

The poet brings out several themes, for instance, the theme of love. The ghostly couple, as stated by the poet was in love. The fact that they go round the room holding hands is a sign of affection. The ghostly couple remind themselves of the good moments they spent in the house. The poet also talks of them kissing, sleeping, and waking up in the morning together (Woolf, stanza7, line 1). A lot of love is blowing in the air because the poet has brought it out in several occasions “sound asleep. Love upon their lips” (Woolf, stanza 8, line 3). Death is the other theme the poet has brought out diligently. The fact that the center of interest revolves around a ghostly couple affirms that death struck earlier occupants of the house. Life after death is another aspect that the poet has vitally talked about it; the couple could whisper and talk to themselves (Woolf, 2011). The dead still have a brain to remember where they left their valuable goods. For instance, the treasure, which the ghostly couple keeps referring to in the poem, is a clear indication, “Oh, is this your buried treasure?” (Woolf, last stanza, line 4). The apples and roses the poet talked about in stanza 4, line 2 is a symbol of nature and aesthetic value. The ghostly couple talked of spending time in the garden; this would further affirm their beauty affiliation.

The use of the phrase “Safe, safe, safe” in the poem asserts safety and enough security. It indicates that the ghostly couple is not harmful to the living occupying the room. The fact that the man went to all directions before coming back and to his surprise found her shows safety. The poet is talking broadly on the buried treasure, which explains the security in the house although it haunts.

Woolf, V. (2011). A Haunted House . Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, February 2). "A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf/

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IvyPanda . 2022. ""A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf." February 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf/.

1. IvyPanda . ""A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf." February 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-haunted-house-by-virginia-woolf/.

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › British Literature › Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s A Haunted House

Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s A Haunted House

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on September 21, 2022

In 1921 Virginia Woolf published her first collection of short stories, titled Monday or Tuesday , which included “A Haunted House” as the opening piece. Although she continued to publish short fiction, this proved to be the only collection of such work published in her lifetime. Leonard Woolf, her husband, later chose the story for inclusion in the posthumous A Haunted House and Other Stories (1944).

Just 10 paragraphs long, “A Haunted House” depicts an unnamed, ungendered character who perceives (or perhaps dreams) that a loving but long-deceased couple haunts the country house he or she inhabits. Centuries ago, a woman died there, and her lover left for faraway lands, returning only in death. Reunited, the pair now wander around the rooms and the surrounding gardens, reminiscing to each other about the past, searching for “their joy.” This search disturbs the contemporary couple currently in residence: As they try to sleep or read, they sense movement—doors opening and shutting, the ghosts walking, the house beating as if it were a human heart.

Formally, the story resembles a prose poem more than a traditional narrative. Several repeated lines (“safe, safe, safe”) act as refrains, and repeated phrases (“treasure buried”) serve as poetic conceits, or unifying metaphors. The structure also prefigures the stream-of-consciousness style and seamless use of multiple points of view that Woolf perfected in novels like Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and The Waves (1931). As in these other texts, here she creates a collage of bits of dialogue, forcing the reader to unravel the identity of each speaker or pronoun. Sometimes the ghosts speak to each other; sometimes they speak to the inhabitants of the house. Likewise, sometimes the couple speaks to each other; sometimes they speak to the ghosts; sometimes they speak directly to the reader.

George Charles Beresford

The action, however, occurs not in the plot but in the thematic amalgamation. Concerns more fully explored in later Woolf works, including sensual perceptions of the natural world, the relationships between individuals, and a preoccupation with mortality, gestate in “A Haunted House.” Our inability to decide conclusively whether the narrator imagines, dreams, or actually witnesses any supernatural phenomenon echoes The Turn of the Screw (1897), a novella by Henry James in which an interpretation of the story hinges on an evaluation of the protagonist’s sanity and trustworthiness. Like James, Woolf reacts against the constricting social mores of Victorian society: In contrast to the repressive atmosphere of late 19th-century England, an exuberant sexuality infuses this story, from its descriptions of light altering the colors of apples, leaves, and roses, traditional symbols of carnal love and knowledge, to the ghosts’ recollections of their “kisses without number.”

These traces of romantic pleasure may stem from the house’s real-life inspiration—Asheham, an estate in Sussex rented by Woolf and her sister in 1911. Virginia and Leonard courted along its grounds, and they spent their first night as a married couple beneath its roof. But Asheham itself iterates Talland House, where Woolf summered happily as a child and to which she imaginatively returns throughout her oeuvre (Lee, 25). However, an unease permeates the story, reminding us that the house is, after all, haunted.

“A Haunted House” concludes with the narrator waking in the night, frantic, crying out. Indeed, Woolf rented Asheham after her doctors advised her to leave London to recuperate from a mental breakdown, and the story might therefore be read as a portrayal of someone suffering from psychological torment. Published just two years after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, the story also reflects a very real loss: Close to 3 million soldiers suffered casualties, almost 1 million fatally, during the socalled Great War. A whole generation of European men and women lay buried, and their ephemeral sacrifice haunted the country.

Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s Stories

Analysis of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw

Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s Novels

BIBLIOGRAPHY Benzel, Kathryn N., and Ruth Hoberman. Trespassing Boundaries: Virginia Woolf’s Short Fiction. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan, 2004. Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. London: Vintage, 1999. Woolf Virginia. “A Haunted House.” In Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories. 1921. Reprint, New York: Dover, 1997.

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Haunted House Adventure: Confronting Fears and Unexpected Twists

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Tricked into the Haunted House

Unexpected turn of events, realization and betrayal, haunted house experience, unexpected twist, mixed emotions.

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How Britain’s Labour Party Became Electable Again

In less than five years, the opposition Labour Party has gone from massive defeat to the favorite to win next month’s election. How did they do it?

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By Mark Landler

Reporting from London

Two weeks before an election that is expected to catapult him into 10 Downing Street, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, Keir Starmer, is tiptoeing on the campaign trail, the latest practitioner of the “Ming vase strategy.”

The phrase, which refers to a politician gingerly avoiding slips to protect a lead in the polls, is credited to Roy Jenkins, a more freewheeling British politician, who likened a previous Labour candidate, Tony Blair, on the eve of his 1997 landslide, to a man “carrying a priceless Ming vase across a highly polished floor.”

In truth, Mr. Starmer has been carrying the vase for a lot longer than this six-week campaign. He has nursed his party’s double-digit polling lead for more than 18 months, methodically repositioning Labour as a credible center-left alternative to the divided, erratic, sometimes extremist Conservatives.

It’s the culmination of an extraordinary four-year project , in which Mr. Starmer, 61, purged his left-wing predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, and his loyalists; went after the anti-Semitism that had contaminated the party’s ranks; and pulled its economic and national security policies closer to the center.

“When he first became leader in 2020, he made it his business to take away all the negatives that prevented people from voting Labour in 2019,” said Steven Fielding, an emeritus professor of political history at the University of Nottingham. As a result, “He’s been able to expand the pool of voters.”

Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said, “Four years ago, Keir Starmer was basically offering Corbynism with a human face — and he’s ditched all that. He’s moved to the center because the incentives have moved there, and the audience has moved there.”

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