Death Theme Analysis

Though the concept of a “haunted house” assumes a certain degree of tragedy and horror—the death of the people who previously lived there and who have taken to harassing the house’s new residents—Woolf presents an entirely different depiction of death and haunting “A Haunted House.” Through the ghostly lovers that gently float through the house’s halls, reminiscing about their past life, Woolf suggests that death is not the tragic or terrifying end that most people assume it to be but simply the beginning of a new stage of existence.

While the very existence of the ghostly couple in the story speaks to Woolf’s suggestion that death is not as final as it seems, the things that carry over from the ghostly couple’s old life to their new “life” further suggest that death is simply the beginning of a new stage of existence rather than a true end. In the story, the ghostly couple appears quite human. Even though they’ve been dead for hundreds of years and are now ghosts, they’ve retained their respective genders, as the story refers to them as “she” and “he”: “‘Here we left it,’ she said.” And he added, ‘Oh, but here too!’” In addition, they still appear to be very much in love, as they finish one another’s sentences, haunt the house while holding hands, and speak with one voice just like they were a living couple. That these characteristics have carried over into death strips death of its finality—the ghostly man and ghostly woman, a couple even in death, are, in a sense, still living. With tenderness, they recall sharing “kisses without number” and “laughing, rolling apples in the loft.” The very fact that they are able to reminisce also renders death less of an end than a continuation, albeit in a new form, of their old existence. They seem to retain all memories of their life before death, and thus seem to be essentially the same people they were before they died. With this, Woolf crafts a nontraditional picture of death—one that doesn’t look too different from life.

Of course, this new “life” isn’t exactly the same as the old one, as the couple’s nostalgia for their old life suggests that they’ve moved on to a new kind of existence. Woolf depicts the couple almost solely in the act of reminiscing about their previous life and searching for an artifact of it, as though, rather than finding joy in new activities after death, their sole pleasure consists of nostalgia for their old life. They talk about themselves and their relationship almost wholly in the past tense—“Here we left it,” “Here we slept,” “Again you found me.” These memories emphasize that the ghostly lovers are leading a new kind of existence; if their life has simply continued exactly as it was before their death, their nostalgia would be pointless. Though the couple remains in love as ghosts, the “treasure” they are searching for, the “light in the heart,” seems to be the specific experience of love while one is alive. The reader can reasonably assume based on the ghostly couple’s search that there is something different and more meaningful about the love and joy of the living that leads the ghosts to pursue their treasure after death. The phrase “buried treasure” at the end of the story emphasizes this distinction—the couple’s “treasure,” their living love, was buried with them when they died, and although they find it reborn in the living couple, they can never regain it for themselves. Thus, even if death is a kind of continuation of life—a new existence in a new form—it pales in comparison to the richness and joy of living.

While Woolf’s depiction of death as a continuation rather than an end in “A Haunted House” is in some ways comforting, tucked inside the ghostly couple’s quest for their “treasure” is the idea that with death comes a heightened appreciation of life. While the ghostly couple still have one another and their memories, nothing measures up to the joy they experienced while they were alive.