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The turn of the screw summary
The turn of the screw summary
The turn of the screw summary
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Turn of the Screw by Henry James Was James' novel an allegory for corruption of the innocent, or a straight forward ghost story? The question of whether the ‘Bly Ghosts' existed or not in Henry James' ‘Turn of the Screw' has been a debate of literary criticism that has run on for most of the novel's existence. The ‘first person' narration of the novel means that, apart from the prologue, we see events from the Governesses's side only, and from the beginning, we are led to believe that she has had an uneventful life without her character being called into question. On first sight then, we have no reason to believe she might be unstable or of an hysterical nature, except possibly for her own admission to Mrs Grose early on in the story, when she tells her that she is ‘easily carried away', which suggests she is very impressionable and naive. James uses an ambiguous narrative throughout the book, particularly the conversations between the Governess and Mrs Grose, where things are continually left unsaid or their sentences are unfinished, leaving all the events open to interpretation. James uses this technique of the ‘unsaid' to mislead his characters, and readers alike, as in the scene after Quint has appeared at the dining room window: ‘Yet you didn't tell me?' ‘No - for reasons. But now that you've guessed -' Mrs Grose's round eyes encountered this charge. ‘Ah I haven't guessed!' she said very simply. ‘How can I if you don't imagine?' Does Mrs Grose fuel the Governess's perhaps vivid and obsessive imagination, or does the Governess's manipulative interrogation of the housekeeper, serve only to justify her curiosity and pre-conceptions about her predecessor's unnatural, sudden departure and subseq... ... middle of paper ... ...l evidence that the ‘ghosts' exist and no other witnesses. Although we only have the governesses word, her rational account of the events is convincing, especially when she suggests herself, that her suspicious behaviour and paranoia do seem absurd, and even insane in the normal course of things. It is only as the story draws to a close and the children's disconcerting behaviour can be seen as a reaction to the governess's own actions, that her story loses conviction. There obviously were inappropriate goings on at Bly before she came, and the uncle's aversion to any involvement with the children is strange, creating a mysterious aura around the story. But it is James' clever ambiguity throughout the whole novel that makes it impossible in the end to say for sure whether the ghosts were real or whether it was an allegorical tale about the corruption of innocence.
Through out the short novella, 'The Turn of the Screw,' by Henry James, the governess continually has encounters with apparitions that seem to only appear to her. As Miles' behavior in school worsens so that he is prevented from returning, and as Flora becomes ill with a fever, the governess blames these ghosts for corrupting the children, Miles and Flora, and labels them as evil and manipulative forces in their lives. But why is it that these ghosts only seem to appear to the governess even when the children are present at the time of the sightings by the governess? Evidence from the short story leads the reader to believe that the ghosts are not real but are merely the evidence of the fragmenting sanity of the governess.
For my Lenten spiritual reading, I chose to read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. This book is about a junior demon, named Wormwood, who is learning how to tempt his “patient” and capture his soul, and is mentored by his uncle, a senior demon named Screwtape. Throughout the novel, Screwtape instructs his nephew how to exploit vices and how to how to twist his values so he will stray from god and into damnation. I initially chose this book because I liked the author, and because I’ve been told the book was a good read.
As humans, we can’t help but to jump to conclusions, but the governess’s assumptions are too misguided and are taken too far without substantial proof. When she first arrives at Bly, she automatically infers that Ms. Grose, although not showing any hint of it, is relieved that the governess is there and simply “wish[es] not to show it” (7). This could be the case, or, as it would seem to any sane person, Ms. Grose could just be unmoved by the governess’s arrival. Her second assumption with Ms. Grose is when they agree on one thing and the governess assumes that “on every question [they should] be quite at one” (9). Some people can hope that a person may have similar ideas to them, but they wouldn’t expect to agree on everything all the time. People understand that we all have different views, but obviously the governess does not. Then, the governess goes on to guess that Miles got kicked out of school because “he’s an injury to others” (11). She has no specific proof that shows he was kicked out for any reason but she is quick to make the inference. She hasn’t talked to the school, the uncle, or even Miles himself to find out what happened, but instead goes along with her own imagination. She also makes many assumptions about the ghost when she hasn’t even been talking to them. She deduces the ghost of Peter Quint “was looking for Miles” but she only had a feeling to base that off of
Although this story is told in the third person, the reader’s eyes are strictly controlled by the meddling, ever-involved grandmother. She is never given a name; she is just a generic grandmother; she could belong to anyone. O’Connor portrays her as simply annoying, a thorn in her son’s side. As the little girl June Star rudely puts it, “She has to go everywhere we go. She wouldn’t stay at home to be queen for a day” (117-118). As June Star demonstrates, the family treats the grandmother with great reproach. Even as she is driving them all crazy with her constant comments and old-fashioned attitude, the reader is made to feel sorry for her. It is this constant stream of confliction that keeps the story boiling, and eventually overflows into the shocking conclusion. Of course the grandmother meant no harm, but who can help but to blame her? O’Connor puts her readers into a fit of rage as “the horrible thought” comes to the grandmother, “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee” (125).
with Mrs. Grose, she learns that they are ghosts and former employees of the Gentleman
Daru, the schoolteacher in a remote area of Algeria, is torn between duty and what he believes is the right thing to do when he is suddenly forced in the middle of a situation he does not expect. He must escort an Arabic prisoner to the nearest town. It is not that Daru has much sympathy for the man; in fact, he does not, and actually finds himself disliking the Arab for disrupting so many lives. "Daru felt a sudden wrath against the man, against all men with their rotten spite, their tireless hates, their blood lust." Unfortunately, Daru loves his homeland, and cannot bear to think of leaving, despite the chaos that is raging around him between France and the Algerian natives. I believe that Daru makes the right choice in letting the prisoner choose his own fate. Daru has reaso...
Leon Edel, in his biography of Henry James, tells of an instance after Alice James’ death when Henry James discovered a collection of letters he had written to her. James, aware that researchers would be all too interested in the details revealed in the correspondences to his sister, destroyed them. Writers who gain notoriety within their own lifetime become aware that every written word will be inspected. James knew that documents relating to an author can be important to prove intention in the author’s work, as well as to look at personal relationships, friendships, or simply to acquire the details of a specific event. He was fully informed that letters can reveal as much or as little as he chose to let them. This knowledge explains why he used papers, diaries, notes, documents, plans, letters, manuscripts, wills, messages, decrees, telegrams, and other written communications as tools to advance his stories. For ease of reading, I will call these, collectively, "writings." The frequency with which James utilizes these writings is surprising. A few examples of these in his texts are: the telegrams from In the Cage, the messages and papers in The Aspern Papers, the letters (obviously) from A Bundle of Letters, and the diary from The Visits. Evaluation of these writings, within James’s literature has, until now, been ignored. Within The Turn of the Screw, especially, writings tell a story about their own lives and deaths, about their readers, intended and unintended, and give clues to James’s own intentions and the intentions of the authors of the writings.
The governess constantly over reacts and admits of being the only one that sees ghost. However, this is false for the kids and even Mrs. Grose admits to noticing the ghosts as well. When the governess and Mrs. Grose has a conversation about Peter Quint, the governess asks if “[she does] know him?” and Mrs. Grose replies by describing “Peter Quint - his own man, his valet, when he was here!” (James 23). She secretly admits that she sees ghosts, making the governess not insane for encountering ghosts. Also, critics can argue that the governess is not a reliable narrator due to the fact that there is no proof indicating that her writing is the truth or hallucinations. She illustrates that “what arrested [her] on the spot…was the sense that [her] imagination had, in a flash, turned real” (James 15). Although this quote implies that she begins to see ghosts, that does not make her insane since other characters such as the kids contact ghosts too. She is a reliable narrator who only tries to help the children with her sane
At the time of its publication “The Turn of the Screw” was hailed as “a deliberate, powerful, and horribly successful study of the magic of evil” (book 170). It was, in essence, the perfect ghost story. In more recent years, critics have moved away from simply considering the “horror” of the tale. Instead, criticism has focused on the meaning or interpretation of the text. Overall, the accumulation of criticism can be classified into two distinct camps of interpretation.
One of the most critically discussed works in twentieth-century American literature, The Turn of the Screw has inspired a variety of critical interpretations since its publication in 1898. Until 1934, the book was considered a traditional ghost story. Edmund Wilson, however, soon challenged that view with his assertions that The Turn of the Screw is a psychological study of the unstable governess whose visions of ghosts are merely delusions. Wilson’s essay initiated a critical debate concerning the interpretation of the novel, which continues even today (Poupard 313). Speculation considering the truth of the events occurring in The Turn of the Screw depends greatly on the reader’s assessment of the reliability of the governess as a narrator. According to the “apparitionist” reader, the ghosts are real, the governess is reliable and of sound mind, and the children are corrupted by the ghosts. The “hallucinationist”, on the other hand, would claim the ghosts are illusions of the governess, who is an unreliable narrator, and possibly insane, and the children are not debased by the ghosts (Poupard 314). The purpose of this essay is to explore the “hallucinationist” view in order to support the assertion that the governess is an unreliable narrator. By examining the manner in which she guesses the unseen from the seen, traces the implication of things, and judges the whole piece by the pattern and so arrives at her conclusions, I will demonstrate that the governess is an unreliable narrator. From the beginning of The Turn of the Screw, the reader quickly becomes aware that the governess has an active imagination. Her very first night at Bly, for example, “[t]here had been a moment when [she] believed [she] recognized, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been another when [she] found [herself] just consciously starting as at the passage, before [her] door, of a light footstep.” The governess herself acknowledges her active imagination in an early conversation with Mrs. Grose, when she discloses “how rather easily carried away” she is. Her need for visions and fantasies soon lead her to believe that apparitions are appearing to her. It is from this point on that she begins to guess the unseen from the seen, trace the implication of things, and judge the whole piece by the pattern. After the first appearance of Peter Quint, the governess begins to make infe...
To those readers uninitiated to the infinite guises of critical literary theory, Henry James's The Turn of the Screw might be interpreted as a textbook case of an anxiety-ridden Governess fleeing an unpromising reality and running right into the vaporous arms of her imaginary ghosts. But to the seriously literate, the text is more than the story does or does not tell; it can be read in light of many - not just one - literary theories.
Right of the bat, James comes to a realization that life can be a rough road. For example, James sees a kitten in the woods all alone. But on top of that, the kitten is half dead. He feels instant sympathy for the poor little kitten. Another example from the text states , ‘ Don't worry,’ “I tell it rubbing its scaly head…” (P.1) This shows that James is instantly connecting with the cat, because he has more so much sympathy that when he sees this little kitten half dead, he can't help but to feel bad. For instance when he brings this little kitten home even his strict mom had some sympathy for the cat, because the cat was in such bad condition. Which was a surprise for me because of how they portrayed the
The two-day seminar was full of insight and very innovative comments. We discussed spectrum of themes, characteristics, meaning, etc. However, throughout the seminar, we did not acknowledge one character in the seminar. Sister James was a very crucial character within the play. She displayed characteristics that helped see a very clear contradiction between James and Aloysius. From the inception of the play, Aloysius characterized James as full of “innocence,” and that was evident throughout the play. This trait was especially exhibited when Father Flynn was able to convince James that he was innocent beyond doubt. And I feel the explanation for this is that James does not let doubt over take her. In the chapter with Father Flynn and James, she was beginning to exhibit the qualities of doubt like Aloysius. But, it was too painful for her to accept. So, she was convinced by Father Flynn, and attached herself to certainty. She would not allow herself to be overwhelmed with doubt the way Aloysius was in the end of the
The next unclear situation is when the Governess learns of Miles’ expulsion. This is one of the main mysteries within this story. The question, “What does it mean? The child’s dismissed his school,” is the only question that the reader has throughout the conversation between the Governess and Mrs. Grose (165). Even though their conversation does inform the reader that the school has “absolutely decline[d]” Miles, it doesn’t clarify what exactly he has done to be expelled (165). The Governess comments, “That he’s an injury to the others” and “to corrupt” are her own opinions as to why Miles was expelled (165, 166). Nevertheless, her comment does not help the reader in any way because the remark in and of itself is unclear. Her first comment suggests that Miles might be causing physical harm to other students but her second ...
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...