Opposites

We don't know whether or not Shirley Jackson was familiar with the Taoist symbol of the yin-yang, but we do know this symbol perfectly illustrates the novel's relationship with opposites. Opposites appear all over the novel, usually in conflict with each other. Each time, the opposites are connected: there's a little piece of one opposite in the other. Here are a few examples of what we mean:

1. Inside/Outside: Hill House has a strained relationship with the outside world. At one point, the characters even have a hard time remembering a world outside of the mansion. Hill House still maintains some qualities of the outside, though, especially in the library, a room that smells of "mold and earth" (4.75).
2. Mother/Daughter: Eleanor hates her mother something fierce, but she also carries a little of her around. Eleanor's mother required her daughter's care because she was an invalid. Like her mother, Eleanor is an invalid—socially speaking—and requires others to care for her.
3. Freedom/Confinement: As we mentioned in our discussion on the symbol of the car, freedom and confinement can be very difficult to separate in the novel. Often what appears to present a character with freedom only confines that character more.
4. Dreams/Reality: Hill House's paranormal manifestations often compound dreams and reality into a horrifying middle ground. During one haunt, Eleanor dreams she's hearing her mother pounding on the wall. The dream melds into reality, and Eleanor wakes up to discover herself in Hill House with Theodora, who is, in fact, pounding on the wall.
5. Love/Hate: Eleanor loves Theodora, she loves her not, she loves Theodora, and she loves her not. Eleanor keeps going back and forth with the whole love-hate thing when it comes to her BFF. Come on, get off the fence and choose already, Nell.
6. Warm/Cold: Hill House maintains several ghost spots, places where potential paranormal activity could strike. Originally, Eleanor finds warmth and escape from these cold spots in Theodora. As the novel progresses and Eleanor associates more and more with Hill House and not Theodora, though, the opposite becomes true. Theodora no longer provides Eleanor with warmth, but Hill House becomes "warm, drowsily, luxuriously warm" (9.2).

Did you find any opposites we missed? Do they contain a piece of their significant other tucked away within them?