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Right, the final sentence points to Dr. Faraday. But when he first visits the house the maid Betty suggests that the house already has a spirit, and this is before his involvment with the family, other than his parents employment and one childhood visit. The parts of the book where Mrs. Ayers is being tormented by Susan are really creepy and I want to think that it is Susan all along but the maids and I think even Rod refer to it as a "he" for some reason.
I took Betty's talk of a spirit to be just a young girl who wasn't happy in her situation, and working in a rundown, creepy house. If I remember correctly, she offered no proof of anything other than bad feelings.
I also think Susan is the only ghost, but she needed Dr. Faraday to "complete the circuit" so to speak, so she could begin haunting. For me, the question is why is she unquiet? By all accounts, her parents adored her. Is she just mad because she's dead and they're all still alive?
(Maybe they say "he" to mean anybody...that sort of talk was more common in those days.)
I definitely think it is Dr. Faraday who was in the house, and the person from whom Caroline fled. The author very clearly laid out the timeline for us for a reason. As to the other incidents, that's still up in the air for me -- a ghost perhaps or perhaps it was really just a sort of family hysteria.
%100 Faraday. I mean, maybe Susan was there too a bit, but the damage was done by Faraday's sprite. Allow me to smugly say I knew this about 100 pages before the end, and was just hoping that Caroline would survive him
Waters tells you halfway through the novel - Caroline makes a comment about how the events never happen when Faraday is at the house. That was the moment I figured him out, unfortunately, which made the ending a bit of a slog. But if you missed that clue, excellent story telling. And, of course, he is dreaming of going to the house precisely when Caroline is murdered.
Building on what a prior commenter said... Remember how Faraday refers to Betty putting “ideas” in their heads. Perhaps it was Betty who put the idea into his head. When she was frightful and said the house had something off about it.. Interesting, isn’t it. This, of course assuming the theory there was no ghost and he used drugs to make them hallucinate. But I think it’s just as likely there was a presence. But, pennies for thought.
With respect to Eleanor Rigby's comment, I think the fact that Faraday visited the house when he was little and no doubt felt envious of those living there (AND cut off a bit of the plasterwork with a penknife) makes it plausible that he and he alone is the restless spirit.
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Eleanor
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Apr 04, 2015 04:09PM
Right, the final sentence points to Dr. Faraday. But when he first visits the house the maid Betty suggests that the house already has a spirit, and this is before his involvment with the family, other than his parents employment and one childhood visit. The parts of the book where Mrs. Ayers is being tormented by Susan are really creepy and I want to think that it is Susan all along but the maids and I think even Rod refer to it as a "he" for some reason.
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I took Betty's talk of a spirit to be just a young girl who wasn't happy in her situation, and working in a rundown, creepy house. If I remember correctly, she offered no proof of anything other than bad feelings. I also think Susan is the only ghost, but she needed Dr. Faraday to "complete the circuit" so to speak, so she could begin haunting. For me, the question is why is she unquiet? By all accounts, her parents adored her. Is she just mad because she's dead and they're all still alive?
(Maybe they say "he" to mean anybody...that sort of talk was more common in those days.)
I definitely think it is Dr. Faraday who was in the house, and the person from whom Caroline fled. The author very clearly laid out the timeline for us for a reason. As to the other incidents, that's still up in the air for me -- a ghost perhaps or perhaps it was really just a sort of family hysteria.
%100 Faraday. I mean, maybe Susan was there too a bit, but the damage was done by Faraday's sprite. Allow me to smugly say I knew this about 100 pages before the end, and was just hoping that Caroline would survive him
Waters tells you halfway through the novel - Caroline makes a comment about how the events never happen when Faraday is at the house. That was the moment I figured him out, unfortunately, which made the ending a bit of a slog. But if you missed that clue, excellent story telling. And, of course, he is dreaming of going to the house precisely when Caroline is murdered.
Building on what a prior commenter said... Remember how Faraday refers to Betty putting “ideas” in their heads. Perhaps it was Betty who put the idea into his head. When she was frightful and said the house had something off about it.. Interesting, isn’t it. This, of course assuming the theory there was no ghost and he used drugs to make them hallucinate. But I think it’s just as likely there was a presence. But, pennies for thought.
With respect to Eleanor Rigby's comment, I think the fact that Faraday visited the house when he was little and no doubt felt envious of those living there (AND cut off a bit of the plasterwork with a penknife) makes it plausible that he and he alone is the restless spirit.
