The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story

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).