The Witching Hour

“The doctor woke up afraid. He had been dreaming of the old house in New Orleans again. He had seen the woman in the rocker. He’d seen the man with the brown eyes.”

This is the first line of The Witching Hour, when Dr. Petrie’s interview with Aaron awakens his memories of the First Street house. Rice delays revealing the name of the doctor, which allows the reader to connect him to the other doctors, specifically Petyr and Rowan. This immediate focus on the house is a subtle allusion to classic horror novels that focus on gothic settings, such as Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House. By drawing the reader’s attention to the doctor’s fear regarding the house, Rice begins to develop a haunting atmosphere that prepares readers for the mystery and unsettling history of the Mayfairs.

“Deirdre was a beautiful girl now, beautiful as Antha and Stella had been. Beautiful they said as Miss Mary Beth.”

Rice has a fascination with beauty in many of her novels. This is most evident in her Sleeping Beauty series, but many of her characters in other works are also depicted as exceptionally beautiful. In this quote, beauty as part of the Mayfair legacy can be seen in the repetition of the word “beautiful,” which emphasizes the importance of beauty as an outward feature. The physical similarities between different generations of Mayfairs are partly due to the extensive incest in their family.