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Light and Darkness
Throughout the story, the titular house of "A Haunted House" represents safety, contentment, and the recovery of lost things, and in particular the ability of love to offer all of these things. From the beginning, it is clear that whatever the ghosts are searching for is somewhere in or associated with the domestic space of the house—"It's upstairs," "And in the garden"—indicating the symbolic significance of the house as a place that protects and safeguards important things like the "treasure." Also, before the reader learns what the ghosts are looking for, Woolf uses the house and its safe and comforting atmosphere to reassure the reader that this ghost story is not a frightening one: "the house all empty [...] only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm." The house seems to "pulse," "beating softly.” This pulse is not at all malevolent. Quite the opposite, it connects the house to the beating of a heart, and, further, to the love that is commonly believed to be associated with the heart. In fact, it is notable that when, in the distant past, the husband of the ghost couple loses his love because of the loss of his wife, he leaves the house, symbol of all that love has been to him, to go travel. And he can only be reunited with his love and achieve contentment again when he returns to the house and to his love.
The House Quotes in A Haunted House
The A Haunted House quotes below all refer to the symbol of The House. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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A Haunted House
Quotes
Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure—a ghostly couple.
"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."
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"They're looking for it; they're drawing the curtain," one might say, and so read on a page or two. "Now they've found it," one would be certain [...] And then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for oneself, the house all empty, the doors standing open, only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm.
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So fine, so rare, coolly sunk beneath the surface the beam I sought always burnt behind the glass. Death was the glass; death was between us; coming to the woman first, hundreds of years ago, leaving the house, sealing all the windows; the rooms were darkened. He left it, left her, went North, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky; sought the house, found it dropped beneath the Downs.
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The wind roars up the avenue. Trees stoop and bend this way and that. Moonbeams splash and spill wildly in the rain. But the beam of the lamp falls straight from the window. The candle burns stiff and still. Wandering through the house, opening the windows, whispering not to wake us, the ghostly couple seek their joy.
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"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."
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Get the entire A Haunted House LitChart as a printable PDF.
The House Symbol Timeline in A Haunted House
The timeline below shows where the symbol The House appears in A Haunted House. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Haunted House
"Whatever hour you woke" there are doors closing in the house. Holding hands, "a ghostly couple" works their way through each room in the house, rifling...
(full context)
...one would abandon one’s book and go “see for oneself.” However, one would find the house empty and doors thrust open, "only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum...
(full context)
...sounds of birds and watches flitting of the bird’s shadows. Meanwhile, “the pulse of the house beat[s] softly,” "Safe, safe, safe." Someone—or something—says, “The treasure buried; the room…” With this, the...
(full context)
...the ghostly couple, who lived "hundreds of years ago." The woman died first, "leaving the house, sealing all the windows; the rooms were darkened." After her death, her husband left the...
(full context)
...howls, trees thrash around, and “Moonbeams splash and spill wildly in the rain." In the house, though, a beam of light from a lamp "falls straight from the window," and the...
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...her husband adds, "Kisses without number." They list their fond memories of life in the house to one another: "Waking in the morning—" "Silver between the trees—" "Upstairs—" "In the garden—"...
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The house’s heart “beats proudly,” "Safe, safe, safe." With a sigh, the husband of the dead couple...
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