haunted house - virginia woolf

8/18/2019 Haunted House - Virginia Woolf

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LA CASA ENCANTADA A HAUNTED HOUSE

A cualquier hora que una se

despertara, una puerta se estabacerrando. De cuarto en cuarto iba,

cogida de la mano, levantandoaquí, abriendo allá,cerciorándose, una pareja de

duendes.

Whatever hour you woke there

was a door shutting. From roomto room they went, hand in hand,lifting here, opening there,

making sure--a ghostly couple.

«Lo dejamos aquí», decía ella. Y

él añadía: «¡Sí, pero tambiénaquí!» «Está arriba», murmuraba

ella. «Y también en el jardín»,

musitaba él. «No hagamosruido», decían, «o les

despertaremos.»

"Here we left it," she said. And

he added, "Oh, but here tool" "It's

upstairs," she murmured. "And inthe garden," he whispered.

"Quietly," they said, "or we shallwake them."

Pero no era esto lo que nosdespertaba. Oh, no. «Lo están

buscando; están corriendo la

cortina», podía decir una, paraseguir leyendo una o dos páginas

más. «Ahora lo han encontrado»,

sabía una de cierto, quedando conel lápiz quieto en el margen. Y,

luego, cansada de leer, quizás unase levantara, y fuera a ver por símisma, la casa toda ella vacía, las

puertas quietas y abiertas, y sólo

las palomas torcaces expresandocon sonidos de burbuja su

contentamiento, y el zumbido de

la trilladora sonando allá, en lagranja. «¿Por qué he venido aquí?

¿Qué quería encontrar?» Teníalas manos vacías. «¿Se encontrará

acaso arriba?» Las manzanas sehallaban en la buhardilla. Y, enconsecuencia, volvía a bajar, el

jardín estaba quieto y en silencio

como siempre, pero el libro se

había caído al césped.

But it wasn't that you woke us.

Oh, no. "They're looking for it;they're drawing the curtain," one

might say, and so read on a pageor two. "Now they've found it,'

one would be certain, stopping

the pencil on the margin. Andthen, tired of reading, one might

rise and see for oneself, the house

all empty, the doors standingopen, only the wood pigeons

bubbling with content and the

hum of the threshing machinesounding from the farm. "What

did I come in here for? What did

I want to find?" My hands wereempty. "Perhaps its upstairs

then?" The apples were in theloft. And so down again, the

garden still as ever, only the book

had slipped into the grass.

Pero lo habían encontrado en lasala de estar. Aun cuando no se

les podía ver. Los vidrios de laventana reflejaban manzanas,

reflejaban rosas; todas las hojas

eran verdes en el vidrio. Si ellosse movían en la sala de estar, las

manzanas se limitaban a mostrar

su cara amarilla. Sin embargo, enel instante siguiente, cuando la

puerta se abría, esparcido en el

suelo, colgando de las paredes, pendiente del techo... ¿qué? Yo

tenía las manos vacías. La

sombra de un tordo cruzó laalfombra; de los más profundos

pozos de silencio la paloma

But they had found it in thedrawing room. Not that one could

ever see them. The windowpanesreflected apples, reflected roses;

all the leaves were green in the

glass. If they moved in thedrawing room, the apple only

turned its yellow side. Yet, the

moment after, if the door wasopened, spread about the floor,

hung upon the walls, pendant

from the ceiling--what? Myhands were empty. The shadow

of a thrush crossed the carpet;

from the deepest wells of silencethe wood pigeon drew its bubble

of sound. "Safe, safe, safe" the


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torcaz extrajo su burbuja desonido. «A salvo, a salvo, a

salvo...», latía suavemente el

pulso de la casa. «El tesoro estáenterrado; el cuarto...», el pulso

se detuvo bruscamente. Bueno,¿era esto el tesoro enterrado?

pulse of the house beat softly."The treasure buried; the room . .

." the pulse stopped short. Oh,

was that the buried treasure?

Un momento después, la luz sehabía debilitado. ¿Afuera, en el

jardín quizá? Pero los árbolestejían penumbras para un

vagabundo rayo de sol. Tan

hermoso, tan raro, frescamentehundido bajo la superficie el rayo

que yo buscaba siempre ardía

detrás del vidrio. Muerte era elvidrio; muerte mediaba entre

nosotros; acercándose primero a

la mujer, cientos de años atrás,abandonando la casa, sellando

todas las ventanas; las estancias

quedaron oscurecidas. El lo dejóallí, él la dejó a ella, fue al norte,

fue al este, vio las estrellas

aparecer en el cielo del sur; buscóla casa, la encontró hundida bajo

la loma. «A salvo, a salvo, asalvo», latía alegremente el pulso

de la casa. «El tesoro es tuyo.»

A moment later the light had

faded. Out in the garden then?But the trees spun darkness for a

wandering beam of sun. So fine,

so rare, coolly sunk beneath thesurface the beam I sought always

burned behind the glass. Death

was the glass; death was betweenus, coming to the woman first,

hundreds of years ago, leaving

the house, sealing all thewindows; the rooms were

darkened. He left it, left her, went

North, went East, saw the starsturned in the Southern sky;

sought the house, found it

dropped beneath the Downs."Safe, safe, safe," the pulse of the

house beat gladly. 'The Treasureyours."

El viento sube rugiendo por laavenida. Los árboles se inclinan y

vencen hacia aquí y hacia allá.Rayos de luna chapotean y se

derraman sin tasa en la lluvia.

Rígida y quieta arde la vela.Vagando por la casa, abriendo

ventanas, musitando para no

despertarnos, la pareja deduendes busca su alegría.

The wind roars up the avenue.

Trees stoop and bend this wayand that. Moonbeams splash and

spill wildly in the rain. But the

beam of the lamp falls straightfrom the window. The candle

burns stiff and still. Wandering

through the house, opening the

windows, whispering not to wakeus, the ghostly couple seek their

joy.

«Aquí dormimos», dice ella. Y él

añade: «Besos sin número.» «El

despertar por la mañana...» «Plataentre los árboles...» «Arriba...»«En el jardín...» «Cuando llegó el

verano...» «En la nieve

invernal...» Las puertas siguencerrándose a lo lejos, distantes,

con suave sonido como el latido

de un corazón.

"Here we slept," she says. And he

adds, "Kisses without number."

"Waking in the morning--""Silver between the trees--""Upstairs--" 'In the garden--"

"When summer came--" 'In

winter snowtime--" "The doorsgo shutting far in the distance,

gently knocking like the pulse of

a heart.

Se acercan más; cesan en el

pasillo. Cae el viento, resbala

plateada la lluvia en el vidrio. Nuestros ojos se oscurecen; no

oímos pasos a nuestro lado; no

vemos a señora algunaextendiendo su manto fantasmal.

Las manos del caballero forman

pantalla ante la linterna. Con un

Nearer they come, cease at the

doorway. The wind falls, the rain

slides silver down the glass. Oureyes darken, we hear no steps

beside us; we see no lady spread

her ghostly cloak. His handsshield the lantern. "Look," he

breathes. "Sound asleep. Love

upon their lips."


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suspiro, él dice: «Míralos, profundamente dormidos, con el

amor en los labios.»

Inclinados, sosteniendo la

linterna de plata sobre nosotros,nos miran larga y profundamente.

Larga es su espera. Entra directo

el viento; la llama se vencelevemente. Locos rayos de luna

cruzan suelo y muro, y, alencontrarse, manchan los rostros

inclinados; los rostros que

consideran; los rostros queexaminan a los durmientes y

buscan su dicha oculta.

Stooping, holding their silverlamp above us, long they look

and deeply. Long they pause. The

wind drives straightly; the flamestoops slightly. Wild beams of

moonlight cross both floor andwall, and, meeting, stain the faces

bent; the faces pondering; the

faces that search the sleepers andseek their hidden joy.

«A salvo, a salvo, a salvo», latecon orgullo el corazón de la casa.«Tantos años...», suspira él. «Me

has vuelto a encontrar.» «Aquí»,

murmura ella, «dormida; en el' jardín leyendo; riendo, dándoles

la vuelta a las manzanas en la

buhardilla. Aquí dejamos nuestrotesoro...» Al inclinarse, su luz

levanta mis párpados. «¡A salvo!

¡A salvo! ¡A salvo!», late

enloquecido el pulso de la casa.Me despierto y grito: «¿Es esto

vuestro tesoro enterrado? La luzen el corazón.»

"Safe, safe, safe," the heart of thehouse beats proudly. "Long

years--" he sighs. "Again you

found me." "Here," she murmurs,"sleeping; in the garden reading;

laughing, rolling apples in the

loft. Here we left our treasure--"Stooping, their light lifts the lids

upon my eyes. "Safe! safe! safe!"

the pulse of the house beats

wildly. Waking, I cry "Oh, is thisyour buried treasure? The light in

the heart."

Type of Work

......."A Haunted House" is a short short story in the fantasy genre about a ghost couple and a living

couple occupying the same dwelling.

Publication

.......Hogarth Press published the story in London in 1921 as part of a collection of Woolf storiesentitled Monday or Tuesday . In the same year, Harcourt, Brace, and Company, Inc., published thecollection in New York City.

Setting

.......The action takes place in a coastal region of Southeastern England at a house in an

unidentified locale where there is a farm. The time is the late nineteenth century or the earlytwentieth century.

Characters

Living Couple: Current occupants of a house.Ghost Couple: Past occupants of the house.

Point of View

.......The living man and woman tell the story in first-person point of view, reporting the conversationand activity of the ghost couple.


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Tone

.......The tone is playful and lighthearted. The reader realizes that the ghosts—who are conducting asearch—pose no threat to the living couple.

Plot Summary

.......A man and woman who occupy a house hear male and female ghosts wandering about thedwelling as they talk about a finding a treasure. The living man and woman have no knowledge of atreasure, such as gold or money, hidden on their property........ When they were alive, the ghosts had occupied the house more than a century before thecurrent residents. The woman died first, and the man left the house and traveled. "He . . . wentNorth, went East, saw the stars turned in the Southern sky; sought the house, found it droppedbeneath the Downs," the narration says. The Downs are a range of chalk mountains along thesoutheastern coast of England........After the man died, he rejoined the woman ghost at the house they once occupied, the samehouse where the living man and woman now dwell. As the ghosts search for their treasure, theyroam the house, opening and closing doors and drawing curtains back. Although they try not todisturb the living couple, the latter can hear them now and then........And what is the treasure the ghosts seek? The narration reveals that it is the rediscovery of theplaces in and around the house where the ghosts spent little moments expressing their love foreach other. The female ghost says, "Here, sleeping; in the garden reading; laughing, rolling applesin the loft. Here we left our treasure." After an encounter with the ghost couple in their bedroom, the living couple realize what the ghostsare seeking.

Theme: Love

.......In the second sentence of the story, the phrase "hand in hand" hints that the ghosts are in love.The author then leads the reader to believe that the story is about finding a treasure, perhaps goldor money. In fact, the story is about treasure—the treasure of love. As the ghosts wander about thehouse, they are rediscovering places full of memories of their love for each other.

Climax

.......The climax occurs at the end of the story, when the narration reveals that the treasure is "the

light in the heart"—

love.

Wharton's Style

.......Wharton's style in this story has a poetic touch.

.......In the second sentence, for example, she uses a commonplace poetic device, inversion, whenshe writes "making sure a ghostly couple" instead of "a ghostly couple making sure." This is thesame device that Edgar Allan Poe uses in the first line of "The Raven," his most famous poem:"Once upon a midnight dreary (instead of once upon a dreary midnight). Another example ofinversion occurs in these two sentences: Stooping, holding their silver lamp above us, long theylook and deeply. Long they pause........Wharton also repeats a phrase—"Safe, safe, safe—" in way that makes it resemble a refrain ina ballad........In addition, Wharton uses the kind of finespun imagery that occurs frequently in poetry.Examples of this imagery appear under Figures of Speech.

http://cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides9/Haunted.html


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A Haunted House Themes

Themes and Meanings (Comprehensive Guide to Short

Stories, Critical Edition) print Print

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“A Haunted House” employs several themes that became the focus of Virginia Woolf’s

later fiction. The permanence of love, the difficulties of marriage, the inevitability of death,

and the connections between all souls, living and dead, are concepts that Woolf treats withgreat complexity in the ten paragraphs of this short story, as well as in the many pages of

her best-known novels. She attempts to uncover the profound, unspoken aspects of human

relationships.

Love endures in “A Haunted House.” Not even cruel fate can keep the ghostly lovers apart.By locating their old sense of joy in the living couple that shares their house, Woolf raises

the hope that both this life and the afterlife will be kingdoms of the heart. This is as

optimistic a vision of human relationships as Woolf will ever offer. Although many of thecharacters in Mrs. Dalloway (1925) can never forget the first, most enduring loves of their

lives, there is no suggestion in that novel that lost love can be recovered, even in the

afterlife, as it is in “A Haunted House.” In Woolf’s novels, love, particularly love expressedthrough the institution of marriage, rarely runs a smooth course.

The interruption of the ghostly lovers’ marriage by death forecasts many such occurrences

in Woolf’s major fiction. Her first heroine, Rachel Ambrose of The Voyage Out (1915),

dies before her wedding. Septimus Smith commits suicide in Mrs. Dalloway,...
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