“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream.” 

In the first paragraph of the novel, the narrator states that absolute reality is not a tenable state for any sane being and that Hill House is “not sane” (1), suggesting that Hill House represents, somehow, “absolute reality.” The full meaning of this quotation will not become clear until readers meet Eleanor Vance, the protagonist, who exhibits excessive imagination. This imagination is in part a defense against the abuse and repression she has suffered for most of her adult life. As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Eleanor has trouble discerning the difference between fantasy and reality: Eleanor goes to Hill House to take steps toward creating her own life, to the point where she invents details that aren’t true and doubts herself almost to the point of losing her identity. Although she hopes to escape the shadow of her abusive mother and to feel part of a loving family, Hill House offers her nothing but a new version of the misery from which she has escaped. Despite the hopes her imagination offers, at Hill House, she must face the reality that the shadow of her mother, and of loneliness, will follow her.