The Haunting of Bly Manor may be considered a love story more than a ghost story but its lady in the lake leaves a haunting impression on all of its characters. As the tale unfolds, her history and connection to the manor are revealed to the audience and the lady in the lake's origins become clear.
Mike Flanagan's horror anthology series started in 2018 with Doctor Sleep and Gerald's Game. The Haunting of Bly Manor showcases Flanagan's ability to adapt several stories with one in particular as its framework.
Several cast from The Haunting of Hill House returned for its follow-up with Victoria Pedretti starring as Danielle "Dani" Clayton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen as Peter Quint, and Carla Gugino as The Storyteller. In the months leading to The Haunting of Bly Manor's release, it was rumored that Kate Seigel would make an appearance. In episode 8, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, her character Viola Willoughby, also known as the lady by the lake, was revealed and so was the origin of the ghostly woman who has haunted Bly Manor for nearly 400 years.
The Romance of Certain Old Clothes
In episode 8, "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes," the original owners of Bly Manor were introduced to the series. They are known as the Willoughby family, whose last remaining are Viola and Perdita and their story is not based on The Turn of the Screw. Instead, it is taken from the short story of the same name, which features both sisters and their resentments for one another. In The Haunting of Bly Manor, Viola marries Arthur Lloyd and has a child named Isabel, but shortly after giving birth, she grows ill and begins to die slowly. To rid herself of the burden of her sister, Perdita kills Viola but not before the eldest sister places her most expensive dresses, jewels, and linens in a trunk that is only to be opened by her daughter.
Perdita opens it without permission, which leads the spirit of Viola to choke her to death. After finding his second wife dead, Arthur believes the trunk is cursed and throws it in the lake with the eldest sister's spirit trapped inside. In the original Henry James story, their roles are entirely reversed and it is likely Flanagan made this change in order to better suit the source characters' characteristics. In both iterations of the sisters, Perdita is meek and Viola is outspoken and it feels far more likely that the sister who has a strong presence would become the horrifying spirit rather than the other.
Flora Uses The Doll To Track Viola
Viola has haunted the grounds of Bly Manor for nearly 400 years. It is unknown when Miles and Flora first encountered the spirit but the little girl is deeply aware of how dangerous she is and Flora uses a faceless doll in order to track where she is at all times. In her bedroom, she has an exact replica of the manor and the surrounding areas in her room represent the various locations on the property.
Her dresser represents the lake. When the doll is under the dresser, it means that Viola is in the lake but when she is in the middle of the room, it means she is on her way to the house. When Dani is walking the halls at night, the doll is seen heading towards the forbidden wing of the house. It is Flora's way of ensuring that the people she cares about stay safe from the woman who trapped several spirits in Bly Manor. In episode 1, "The Great Good Place," Miles and Flora lock Dani in the closet after she picks the doll up from the middle of the floor. They do so in order to keep her safe from Viola's malevolent spirit.
Why Viola Doesn't Have A Face
As "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" continues to tell the story of Viola and Perdita, it shifts towards solely focusing on the aftermath of the trunk being tossed into the lake. After Bly Manor is left vacant, she roams the house in search of the family that left her. As the years go by, she begins to sleep and her memories start to fade and over time, Viola's face begins to disappear just like her memories. It appears to take several decades for her features to fade but once they do, they are gone forever.
Why Viola Drags People Into The Lake
When Viola got sick, she was forced to be in a room alone and away from her child. She lived out her final years without anyone to comfort her and without the two people she loved by her side in the ways that she wanted them. The reason she roams the house is in search of her husband and daughter.
Every time she enters Bly Manor, she discovers they have not returned and Viola then takes whoever she encounters back to the lake with her turning them into Bly Manor's ghosts. The only explanation for why she drags people into the water is to soothe her loneliness. Perdita killed her, Arthur married her sister, and he left with their daughter. Everyone she loved left her or betrayed her in some way, resulting in her own resentment building over time but, even more than that, her loneliness. She supplements these feelings when she sees children. Every time she encounters a child, Viola believes that they are her daughter and proceeds to take them to the lake to stay with her forever. When she kills adults, it is likely out of malice and resentment towards Arthur and Perdita.
How Viola Keeps The Other Ghosts Trapped At Bly
Bly Manor has a similar ghostly gravitational pull to American Horror Story: Murder House. Everyone who dies on the property is forced to live out the rest of their afterlife wandering the halls. While AHS: Murder House does not necessarily explain how this is possible, The Haunting of Bly Manor uses Viola as a means of explaining how the ghosts are trapped at Bly Manor. After her spirit sinks to the bottom of the lake, her negative emotions grow so incredibly strong that they create a gravitational pull that keeps the dead with her.
As "The Romance of Certain Old Clothes" explains, Viola was a stubborn woman who refused to die and was strong willed. When her sister killed her, it wasn't her time to go. Her announcement to the vicar that she will not leave Bly as well as her stubbornness allowed for her to stay as a ghost on the property. It is the amalgamation of every way that Viola was wronged as well as what was forced on her that caused the gravitational pull to come to life. Only the au pair could stop her before she could take another innocent life. The lady in the lake featured in The Haunting of Bly Manor is the oldest ghost in the manor with enough power to keep every soul trapped on the property.
