Notice the continuation and repetition of the phrase "what is it?"
What is the jar, and what is with Charlie's complete and utter fascination with it? Fear fascinates us.. shown by the mere fact millions have watched this episode or indulge themselves every once and a while on a horror movie. This episode plays into this fascination. I think the jar helps represents and triggers fear in the individuals that view it. Remember, the child who said it was the "boogeyman" in the jar? Or the man who thinks the kittens he drowned are the jar's inhabitants? What is IT!? That's why I love this show, it creates a lasting and terrifying question into the minds of its audience.

When we see something dimmed in the dark, we do at times take it for something else. Then we turn on the light to find that it's only broomstick or a lamp. We also turn the light back off to create the mood or further the feeling even if it was a sad one. This story is truely an amazing combination of intamacy and how our inner conceince can spark up a memory with just trinket. I at first questioned as to why a cute little young woman would be married to an old coot in the first place, only to discover that her dependence on him is that of a father that she never had or once loved and lost. She herself is psychologically questionable regarding her behavior which enhances more interest and unusual realism to the story.

What is in the jar, maybe the fear and imagination of the viewer.

On viewing "The Jar" in 2008, one can't approximate the impact it had when watching as it originally aired in the 1960's. Gathering around the black and white TV set, much like the group in Wilder's Hollow, a newly formed ritual back then. Like the characters in the story, we speculated what might be in the jar during the commercial breaks (cause you couldn't fast-forward through them back then). And when the story reached its chilling and ultimately satisfying climax, well, let's just say that it was very hard to sleep that night (and for many nights after). The look on Pat Butram's face gives me shivers even now.Today, we can view the brilliance of the story and the acting: the foreshadowing of the drowned kittens and the boy lost in the swamp, the projection of each viewer of his or her own thoughts or fears, the need to NOT know what lies behind the curtain as a way of maintaining a sense of importance and dignity. All the actors are exceptional, from Pat Butram as the hapless lead, Collin Wilcox as his young, faithless wife, Jane Darwell, William Marshall, George Lindsay, Slim Pickens -- each have their moment to shine. Norman Lloyd's direction is subtle and evocative. This is absolutely my very favorite Hitchcock hour episode, one that is highly recommended.

This is my favorite episode to date. The characters are all very intriguing, the the subject matter "what's in the jar?" could have been very cliche, but somehow this short story had all the right punches of suspense at all the right moments. AND unlike some of Hitchcock's episodes, this one has a real ending... not a pointless cliff hanger, or a wimpy anticlimax. It's good. I dig it.

All of the actors were good, but I didn't know George Lindsay could act that well. He broke my heart when he talked about the kittens. He was so believable. And that Collin Wilcox-she is such a changeling! She can act any character. I still didn't get the story-what was so mesmerizing about that thing in the jar? Was it because this was a small, backwoods town, and the folks in it didn't have a lot of education or smarts? It was a very strange story indeed.

...although it goes in too many directions. It's a story about an ominous face floating in a jar and what it means to each of the people in Wilder's Holler. How it comes to represent their hurts and...maybe too, their dreams. Some of the dialogue is a little trite and the ending didn't really seem to fit the rest of the story but just the monologues in it are worth sitting through the rest. I often watch this episode to imagine it's potential. Pay particual attention to three characters and what they have to say about the jar: grandpa, grandma, and jhadou. Pretty deep for hitchcock.