Luke Crain

* Young
* Present

## CHARACTERISTICS

**Luke Crain** is a major character in *The Haunting of Hill House*.

One of the youngest of the Crain children, and the twin of Eleanor Crain, Luke struggled throughout his life with a heroin addiction. Luke checked himself into numerous rehab centers over the years — including those paid for by Steven and Shirley — but relapsed each time.

## History

### Background

Luke was born to Hugh and Olivia Crain on February 21, 1986. He is their second youngest child, being born after Steven, Shirley and Theodora but 90 seconds before his twin, Eleanor. In the summer of 1992, when Luke was six years old, he and his family had moved to Hill House.

Since a young age Luke has a habit of counting to seven to ease his anxiety and help him "safe". In childhood, he teaches this to Nellie, when she is frightened by the Bent-neck lady. He admired and looked up to his brother Steven and enjoyed the few times they played together in the family's "tree house". Despite being the twin of Nellie he often played alone and found solace in his imagination, drawing pictures of his encounters with the ghosts in the house and his friend Abigail.

### Drug addiction

Luke struggled with a heroin addiction for numerous years following the split of the Crain family. Numerous times, however, he attended rehab, including one time in which Steven and Shirley paid for the treatment; nonetheless, Luke relapsed each time, which only furthered the wedge between him and his family.

Luke's final time in rehab was difficult, especially for him and his sister, Nell. Luke befriended a young girl named Joey. During one of her relapses, however, Luke left the rehab center to look for Joey, but was disappointed to learn that Nell was dead; despite his families claims that Nell had committed suicide, Luke expressed that it wasn't like his sister and that she didn't do it.

## Appearance

As a child, Luke wore glasses. It is evident that he is farsighted as the glasses he wears make his eyes appear larger. He has dirty blonde hair. He is seen wearing normal children’s clothes

As an adult, his addiction lifestyle results in an unkempt appearance, with a scruffy beard and tattered clothing. He has short, dark blonde hair and facial hair the same color. Like Steven, he is tall and has blue eyes. He no longer wears glasses, but the issue is never addressed.

## Personality

As a child, Luke is shown to be more innocent and cheerier than most of the other siblings, much like his twin sister, Eleanor.

As an adult, like Nellie, he is also withdrawn and quiet. Because of his elder siblings' disapproval of his drug habits, Luke is known to be submissive under their gazes. He also rarely gives his opinion in family disputes, possibly because his siblings have never believed him about his trauma for most of his life and rarely listen to him. Despite his unintentional manipulation of his siblings to satisfy his addiction, Luke has best intentions at heart. He attempted to help Joey fight against succumbing to her addiction and was devastated when he realized he could no longer help her.

Luke has dealt with crippling fear for most of his life, which led to him falling onto heroin to cope. He has a habit of counting to seven to alleviate fear in the moment.

## Relationships

### Steven Crain

Steven is Luke's oldest sibling and only brother. Initially supportive of Luke, Steven quickly grows tired of his brother's addiction and is shown to be exasperated at the thought of dealing with him. At one point Luke breaks into Steven’s home and steals a camera and tablet; Steven catches him and offers him $200 for the tablet because he need it, and lets him leave with the cash and camera without argument. Although Steven seems burnt out at Luke’s addiction issues, he does go out looking for Luke anytime he goes missing and was willing to pay for Luke's first month in rehab.

### Eleanor Crain

Eleanor (Nell) is Luke's younger twin. Although he is 90 seconds older than Nell, he speaks about feeling like she was always his older sister because she took primary care of him. Nevertheless, as children, Luke shows Nell his trick for feeling safe: having seven objects or counting to the number 7- the number being the number of people in their family. Both Nell and Luke are shown counting to seven when upset

Nell and Luke also have the biggest emphatic bond with each other, telling others, "It's a twin thing" to explain how they can empathize with each other's emotions. Nell has stated that she feels ill when Luke feels ill during withdrawals; Luke says that one time when he broke his ankle, Nell called him shortly after because she felt the same pain. On the night Nell dies, Luke wakes up suddenly clutching at his throat at the moment that Nell’s neck is broken, and later tells Steven that Luke is feeling cold and stiff in his limbs- presumably because he is empathetically feeling Nell being a corpse.

Even throughout Luke's addiction, Nell is his biggest supporter and is the only one that does not turn away from him when he relapses. At one point she buys Luke heroin after Luke requests to “get well” before taking him to detox because she maintains an almost naive outlook on Luke’s addiction and wants to help him

### Shirley Crain

Shirley is, at first, very supportive of Luke and his rehabilitation efforts. She pays for a lot of his stays, but eventually cuts him off and refuses to pay for any more stays.

### Theodora Crain

As children, Theo is shown to be caring and protective of her brother when he tells her that his parents don’t believe him. In a flashback To Hill House, he expresses his desire to ride the dumbwaiter and Mrs. Dudley, grabs a hold of his arm to stop him, lecturing him on the dangers of it. Theo steps in, telling Mrs. Dudley to let him go, and that she did not need to get physical. Later that evening, she sees Luke get into the dumbwaiter, and agrees to send him upstairs. The dumbwaiter takes him downstairs into an unknown basement area. Luke quickly becomes frightened, and then notices that there is something other than rats moving around. In a panic, Theo is trying to get the elevator working, while a decaying corpse crawls towards Luke as he screams. Hugh and Olivia arrive and manage to get Luke back up into the kitchen, and Luke has tears in his shirt. Olivia blames Theo for the incident and sends her to her room. Luke later tells Theo what he saw and how their parents don’t believe him about the monster or Abigail- the little girl he claims to be friends with but no one has seen.

in later life, Theo lectures Nelly for giving Luke heroin and tells Nelly that she should have called Theo to properly handle it, as she is a clinical psychologist.

### Abigail Dudley

Whom his siblings call his 'imaginary friend,' though in fact she is the daughter of the Dudley's. He plays with her, typically meeting near the edge of the property. Her parents predominantly keep her at home and do not want her at Hill House. On the last night the Crain family is in the house, Luke attends a tea party in the red room with Abigail, Nell, and his mother Olivia. Under the house’s influence, Olivia has poisoned the tea served to the children. Abigail ends up drinking the tea and dying as a result. Her parents refuse to let Hugh Crain destroy the house to that they can visit Abigail’s ghost.

## Quotes

> "*Big Boys know the difference between what's real and imaginary.*"
> ― Luke reminds Hugh Crain
>
>

## Trivia

* He was born 90 seconds before his twin sister Nell.
* He and his sister Nell shared some kind of link between each other, wherein each was able to feel when the other was in danger.

## References

1. ↑ Eulogy