Eleanor Vance is the isolated, fanciful, and disturbed protagonist of The Haunting of Hill House. A thirty-two-year-old woman who has spent the last eleven years—the majority of her adult life—caring alone for her invalid mother, Eleanor is desperate to find where she belongs in the world. Once at Hill House, Eleanor recognizes the evil and danger within immediately—but she is so determined to establish her independence, make some friends, and exist on her own in the world that she stays on. As the disturbances within the house increase in frequency and intensity, the house seems to be communing with or calling for Eleanor—writing addressed to Eleanor appears on the walls of the house in chalk and in blood, and Eleanor feels herself fracturing and slipping, tempted by the desire to “surrender” to whatever haunts the house.