Haunting Words
Helen M Walters looks at the effects of language in a ghostly story by Virginia Woolf
Helen M Walters
VISIT
https://writ.rs/ahauntedhouse TO READ THE STORY
I’ve chosen this month’s story because of its effective and pleasing use of poetic language. A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf is, on the face of it, a ghost story. But there is so much more to it than that. An interesting narrative style, and language that is every bit as beautifully nuanced as you could expect from a poem, lift it to another level. Read it here: https://writ.rs/ahauntedhouse
The story is somewhat ethereal and hard to catch hold of. I would recommend reading it more than once, both for increased understanding of the meaning and maximum enjoyment of the well-chosen wording. It really isn’t very long, and your time will definitely be well spent. Let’s look at the narrative style first. This could be characterised as experimental. The story tells of two couples, one living and one ghostly, co-existing in the same house. The narrative slips back and forward between the two couples, with the ghosts’ actions and words constantly crossing over the lives and storyline of the living couple.
Other things to note are the ‘stream of consciousness’ style of writing whereby the writer encompasses the thoughts, impressions and feelings of the viewpoint character in a way that represents an internal monologue words with all the flitting and floating from subject to subject that you’d expect. In some ways this narrative technique can make the story hard to follow, which is one of the reasons I suggest reading it at least twice, but it also gives it an immersive sense of realism which works very effectively as it tries to combine the real with the unreal.