Throughout the movie from the outdoor scenes she kept looking up to that tower with the two long windows, and I expected the movie to move into that room at some point towards the end but it never happened.. I'm disappointed with that really, and with her death in general. It should have been better.
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I believe you're spot on there Grayseph. It was a huge manor house (uh castle!) but I don't think any room below the top floor would have had a tall spiral staircase from floor to near ceiling leading to a hatch in the ceiling (attic access?) except if it was a tower. Though I don't recall any shots from inside the library showing those distinctive windows.
shareI've never thought about this before, but why would someone put a huge metal circular stairway in a library, leading up to a trap door? I suppose I only went as far as thinking stairs, steps, and sliding ladders are common in libraries, but the purpose of that one was to reach the trap door.
I'd always assumed the trap door lead to the attic, but that doesn't make a lot of sense either. Attics are used for storage, so had to be accessed fairly easily, which almost always meant by a stairway in those big old houses.
Unless there was another way to get into whatever the trap door led into -- tower or attic -- the doctor's wife would have had to get up there by the circular stairs. BTW, it's been a long time since I've watched it. Did the doctor or his wife ever say what happened, why she'd disappeared and was above the trap door?
I suppose it's possible it was the tower, used primarily for storage, including storing extra books, and that's why the trap door, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense.
I don't know if this circular stairway was mentioned in the novel, or the trap/access door above it. It could have just been done for the film- for dramatic effect. I was just guessing as far as an "attic" being up there- it could just as well been a belfry/viewing tower. As I recall the Doctor's wife was confused as to how she ended up there- but I believe it was through the library and up those stairs.
shareYeah, just what I was thinking, that the doctor's wife somehow ended up there when she got lost, so maybe it was an attic or something, but whatever it was, she would've had to have gotten there by a different way than going up the spiral staircase.
Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie.--Stephen King
The Dr.'s wife could have gotten up there using the staircase in the library- before Nell did. After all wasn't the wife sleeping in the library that night- the cold dark heart of Hill House? (she had been cautioned against it remember). Going along with board conjecture on whether the house or Eleanor or a combination of the two were causing all the "hauntings" during the "experiment"- hmmm could it stand to reason that Eleanor was upset and jealous over finding out the Doctor she was smitten with had a wife (and the wife was right there in the same house) so what happened to the wife was at least partially caused by Eleanor?
shareDidn't the doctor's wife sleep in the nursery?
so what happened to the wife was at least partially caused by Eleanor?
Yes you're right it was the nursery. But she still could have gone up the spiral staircase in the library during her lost spell. I mean she was a wreck when she encountered Eleanor!
shareYes, she could have.
I'd always thought she'd wandered around upstairs in confusion, scared by something in the nursery, found herself in the attic, and in trying to find a way out, opened the trap door, startling Eleanor. But none of this is spelled out, to the best of my knowledge.
It was such a long time ago I read the novel, I don't recall if the stairway was mentioned in it either, or if it was, if the doctor's wife suddenly appeared to Eleanor through the trap door or not.
I'd always assumed it was an attic up there, but I really don't know.
It was such a long time ago I read the novel, I don't recall if the stairway was mentioned in it either
or if it was, if the doctor's wife suddenly appeared to Eleanor through the trap door or not.
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Another thing to remember is, as far as I recall, all the interior shots in the film were done on sets in a studio in England- not inside the actual English "house" (Ettington Hotel now) used for exterior shots. So the filmmakers may not have tried too hard to replicate those windows we see in the upper floor of the (now) Ettington Hotel. I can't recall if that building was still a private residence at the time of filming or been converted into a hotel. For all we know the actual windows may have been in a room (attic) that we never see on film anyway.
shareYes, that's a great point.
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