The September House

Hal is a writer who struggles for many years with his career. Eventually he does begin to publish his work, but Margaret notes that his primary source of income for much of their marriage was the odd class he was able to teach here and there. He is characterized in part by his identity as a writer and his intellectualism, although it is interesting to note that he does not appear to be smarter or more analytical than his wife. It is Margaret, not Hal, who accurately points out that horror reveals to society the nature of its fears and anxieties. Hal is unable to move past his own experience of fear and discomfort during the movie, and it is striking how much more insightful Margaret is than Hal.

Hal is primarily characterized, however, by his violent behavior. He is physically abusive towards Margaret and both emotionally and verbally abusive towards Katherine. The author is a clinical psychologist whose work examines psychological issues within families, and Hal in many ways speaks to the nature of abuse and real-life abusers. His trajectory within the narrative reflects the way that abuse often escalates within families: Initially he only subjects Margaret to verbal tirades. She recalls of their early years together: “He could come up with the most creative insults to hurl your way” (143). But there is a progression to his behavior and he ultimately resorts to physical violence. He also isolates his wife and daughter, not allowing them to even have short conversations with men. Hal is also characterized by his addiction. He has alcohol use disorder and alternates between periods of sobriety and bouts of drinking. He keeps his addiction secret when he can, and often hides his liquor bottles so that his family will not discover them. Hal’s own father is revealed to have shared many of Hal’s struggles, and Hal is thus additionally characterized by his own status within a broader, multi-generational cycle of trauma.

Katherine is characterized initially through her troubled familial relationships. Although she can be combative with her mother, Katherine is particularly distant from her father. Margaret glosses over much of the family’s troubled history, but even she admits early in the narrative that Katherine had “never been particularly close” to her father Hal (21). Although not physically abusive in his relationship with his daughter, Hal did subject Katherine to emotional and verbal abuse, and Katherine’s desire to leave for college and not return to her family home should be read as a reaction to Hal’s abusive parenting. Katherine is also characterized through her anger issues. Margaret recalls that: “When she was a child, Katherine’s tantrums had been legendary, both in strength and in power” (80). Rage continues to be a struggle for Katherine in adulthood, and her liberal use of curse words and tendency to lose her temper are key aspects of her character that the author depicts at many points in the narrative. Katherine also struggles with addiction. She herself notes her tendency toward alcohol use disorder, and both she and her mother keep constant tabs on what (and how much) Katherine is drinking. The rage and the addiction should be read as manifestations of generational trauma, inherited not only from her father but also from her grandparents’ generation. Katherine’s struggles echo those of her parents and grandparents, and she struggles to manage a set of behaviors which she recognizes as unhealthy coping mechanisms but cannot find alternatives for. However, Katherine is also characterized by her commitment to her family, in spite of their difficulties. She searches tirelessly for her father and does her best to address her mother’s mental health condition with empathy and an eye towards solutions. She might not have had a particularly close or healthy relationship with her parents, but she does ultimately care about them and want them to have the best possible outcomes.

Edie “is a squat, motherly woman with close-cropped hair and a beaming smile” (36). She is Hal and Margaret’s neighbor and is characterized primarily by her empathy and her close friendship with Margaret. She listens to and believes Margaret’s fantastical claims about her house’s many ghosts and eerie hauntings, and she becomes the only friend that Margaret has as Hal increasingly isolates her, not allowing her other friends or even to have real conversations with anyone other than him. Hal dislikes Edie because of how close she is with his wife, and in that dislike it becomes even more apparent that Hal is an abusive partner. Ultimately, Edie is revealed to have been a figment of Margaret’s imagination. She is one of this novel’s use of traditional horror tropes in order to discuss complex issues of trauma, psychology, and mental health: She represents Margaret’s desire for friendship and connection and her extreme loneliness and is part of Margaret’s vast array of coping mechanisms. The author has experience with domestic abuse and abuse survivors, and she is aware of how common it is for abusers to isolate the abused. Edie thus speaks to the real-life experience of many domestic abuse survivors and combines this novel’s interest in supernatural and psychological horror with the reality of abuse in families.

Margaret and Hal’s home is haunted by a wide cast of characters who, although mostly visible to Margaret, also appear to Hal. The ghosts are part of the novel’s use of horror tropes, images, and figures to engage with a complex set of psychological issues stemming from Hal’s violent, abusive behavior. Fredricka is the most benevolent of the ghosts. A housekeeper, she is characterized in part by her helpful nature. She enjoys cooking and cleaning for Margaret and is always brewing her soothing cups of tea. “A tall woman and grand as the house itself, “ she is a kind and thoughtful presence in Margaret’s life (11). Like Edie, Fredricka speaks to Margaret’s intense loneliness and isolation at the hands of her abusive husband. Hal does not allow Margaret to have friends or even to leave the home except to go grocery shopping. Fredricka appears to Margaret as a figure of friendship and solace within the house, the only space that she is allowed to occupy. The house is also a space of hardship for Margaret: it is the site of all of Hal’s abuse. That Fredricka would appear to her in their own home signal’s Margaret’s need for comfort in the very place where she is subject to violent outbursts and emotional mistreatment.

Master Vale stands in stark contrast to Fredricka. The most dangerous of the ghosts, Margaret locks and boards up the basement door in order to keep him from entering the rest of the house. He is revealed to be the abused son of George Vale, but he is also himself an abuser. In one of the novel’s most graphic scenes, Master Vale is shown in the act of torturing one of these house’s many “prankster” ghost children. Master Vale is a complex figure who operates on multiple axes of interpretation. He is in part an embodiment of the cycle of abuse; subject to mistreatment at the hands of his father, he in turn preys upon young children. He also stands as a moment of engagement with one of the most traumatic aspects of real-life abuse, and the author’s own research interests in The Cycle of Domestic Abuse are apparent in his characterization. Margaret herself provides another critical aspect of Master Vale’s characterization. In her response to The Exorcist, she notes society’s interest in horror as a way to reflect on its own fears and anxieties. Master Vale abuses children, and Margaret is terrified that her own husband will turn his attention away from Margaret and begin subjecting their daughter Katherine to physical abuse. Master Vale thus embodies Margaret’s own fears and anxieties. He is a stand-in figure for Hal himself, and this dynamic becomes evident in the repeated chorus of “He’s down there!” that Margaret hears from the pranksters. Initially the author indicates that it is Master Vale who is in the basement, but ultimately it becomes evident that it is actually Hal’s corpse that “haunts” the house’s unfinished cellar.