The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-17

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Importance of Friendship

Each of the characters in The Old Willis Place grapple with loneliness or isolation of some kind, be it enforced solitude (such as that of Diana and Georgie), or one of their own making (Miss Lilian). The need for human relationships is what drives the story forward, and it is through this theme that Mary Downing Hahn reminds readers that who you spend your life with is just as important as how you spend it.

Diana and Georgie have always had each other. However, Diana craves friendship from someone other than her brother. She misses people from school, including her “favorite teacher, Miss Perry, and [her] best friend, Jane, and a red-haired boy named Stephen” (13). Diana’s daydreams of a friendship with Lissa often revolve around seemingly simple things in life, such as when Lissa sits on a lion bench that Diana frequently used before she died. When Georgie asks Diana if she minds, she shakes her head, as “Seeing Lissa in [Diana’s] favorite place made [Diana] feel closer to her, as if [Lissa] was truly [her] friend” (41). Diana’s loneliness and longing to meet a girl her age are almost too much to bear, which is why she breaks the rules for a chance at friendship.

Miss Lilian’s solitude is something of her own creation. Aside from demeaning, reprimanding, and eventually killing Diana and Georgie, Miss Lilian fires the nurse hired to help her after her stroke, claiming “[s]he didn’t need anyone looking after her” (131). She then fires Diana and Georgie’s parents, insisting she could take care of herself. Eventually, Miss Lilian is left alone with only her cats for company. When she dies at “Almost a hundred years old,” there isn’t “a soul to mourn her” (136). Her bitterness and cruelty drove people away, leaving her completely and utterly alone.

Lissa and Mr. Morrison’s loneliness mirrors that of Diana and Miss Lilian. Like Diana, Lissa has no desire to be isolated from her peers. However, with all their moving (Mr. Morrison’s response to his wife’s death), the Morrisons never live anywhere long enough to plant roots; both Mr. Morrison and Miss Lilian are seemingly content in their solitude. In the end, each character looks towards the future with their loved ones—whether they be parents (as is the case for Diana and Georgie) or a potential community in a new place (the Morrisons).

Sibling Loyalty

For Diana and Georgie, being loyal to each other has never been an issue—that is, until Lissa arrives at Oak Hill Manor. Suddenly, the siblings’ relationship is threatened by Diana’s desire for a friend. Georgie has no interest in befriending Lissa, even going so far as to tell her “I don’t need friends, and neither does Diana. We have each other” (88). Diana’s growing negligence of Georgie’s well-being causes the roles of older and younger sibling to flip: Georgie becomes a responsible rule-follower to make up for Diana’s recklessness.

Diana sometimes takes Georgie’s trust for granted, assuming “[w]hether [she] apologized or not, he’d get over his anger. He always did” (93). In her excitement at the prospect of a new friend, Diana consistently lies to Georgie and puts her own needs above his. However, when Diana’s irresponsible behavior (indirectly) leads to Miss Lilian’s escape, she regains her protectiveness of Georgie. Lissa isn’t in danger of Miss Lilian’s wrath, but Georgie is. In the cave, Diana comforts him as he cries, saying “I won’t let her hurt you. […] I’m your big sister. I’ll take care of you” (125). Diana reclaims her role as caretaker, the siblings’ story ending much like it began—not with Diana and Lissa, but with Diana and Georgie. It ends with family.

Forgiveness and Making Peace with the Past

Though it isn’t clear at first, forgiveness is the key to Diana, Georgie, and Miss Lilian leaving Oak Hill Manor. The three ghosts spend most of the novel loathing each other. According to Diana, the feeling is, and always has been, mutual: “We hated her and she hated us” (135). Diana and Georgie (rightfully) resent Miss Lilian for leaving them to die in a cellar. They assume Miss Lilian is “eager to punish [them] for the pranks [they’d] played on her” (153). In life and death, the three never get along and are quick to blame each other.

When Miss Lilian is released from her parlor, Diana and Georgie spend most of their nights hiding, petrified that she will find them. When she finally catches up to them, Diana and Georgie are shocked to learn that she isn’t interested in punishment, but a chance to tell her side of the story: Miss Lilian says killing the children was an accident, that she “didn’t mean to hurt [them]” (189). The siblings absorb this information, and Diana instinctually knows the three must forgive each other in order to move on with their lives.

Diana conveys this revelation to Georgie and Miss Lilian, who are reluctant to do as she says—despite knowing it to be true. The girl makes everyone join hands and apologize. Suddenly, a bright light appears at the front gate: Diana and Georgie’s parents are waiting for them. The siblings “[break] away from Miss Lilian and [shove] the gate open […] free at last from the farm and its rules” (193). Just as they are about to move on as a family, Miss Lilian begs them to wait for her. Diana commits a final act of forgiveness and asks her father to let Miss Lilian come with them. Forgiveness ultimately sets the ghosts—and the grounds—free.