Stones

Stones: the natural homewrecker. At least, that's the case in Hill House. As a symbol, the stone makes an appearance every time someone needs to take a potshot at a house, glass or otherwise.

Stones first appear when Dr. Montague learns of Eleanor's history. During her childhood, an unexplained incident occurred, during which stones rained upon her house for three days. At first this seems like an oddball origin story, but then rocks begin appearing all over the novel.

Theodora recounts a time she threw a brick (the brick here being the stone's second-rate cousin) through a greenhouse roof and loved the sound of the crash made so much that she did it again (3.106). Dr. Montague even discusses the tendency of poltergeists to attack homes with stones: "[T]hey throw stones, they move objects, [and] they smash dishes" (5.32).

There's a pattern here. Stones are used to attack houses, and houses in this novel often symbolize the family. The stone, in turn, becomes a symbol for someone or something that wishes to attack the family. It comes full circle when Eleanor gets mad at Theodora—her "cousin" (2.148) and the closest thing she has to a familial bond. As Theo lies by the fire, Eleanor thinks to herself how she would "like to batter her with rocks" (5.158). She doesn't do it, but the urge is clearly to destroy the home Eleanor has built with her fellow ghost hunters.