Archetype Myths in Turn of the Screw
In one surface reading of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, the governess appears to be a victim of circumstance. Some critics however, say that she is not without blame in the turn of events that characterizes the story. They claim that leading to her demise are certain character flaws, such as envy and pride. In categorizing her character as such, this novella resonates several themes found throughout literature. In Northrop Frye’s essay The Archetypes of Literature, Frye suggests that there appears to be a relatively restricted and simple group of formulas in literature. These formulas or converging patterns seem to correlate with the natural cycle. Frye considers criticism that searches for these forms, “a kind of literary anthropology”(Frye,480). In the essay, he identifies the archetype central myth of all literature as the quest-myth. Using his essay on archetypes, The Turn of The Screw, can be read and understood as a quest-myth.
The Turn of The Screw is really two myths in one. The first story would be that of the friends who are gathered on Christmas Eve telling stories. The second story would be the tale of the governess. Frye categorizes myths in phases. The second story can be interpreted in terms of these phases (Frye,483).
Phase one is “the dawn, spring, and birth phase”(Frye,483). In The Turn of the Screw, the story begins with Douglas’s background on the governess. This is the creation of the new story. The governess is young and we learn that she has,“at the age of twenty, on taking service for the first time”,so she is at the beginning of her adult life.(James,25)
Next the story moves on to her narration. She arrives at Bly and is pleasant...
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...ch could be interpreted as Miss Jessel, for she is female, evil, and conniving.
There are surely countless other archetypes present in this work aside from the myth quest, however it is interesting to note how similar Frye’s description of the myth quest is to the actual story. Frye’s phases seem to directly follow the story line from the new beginning to the fatal end. The governess perfectly fits the role of the hero on a quest. Finally the tragic vision of the human world is apparent throughout the story. The similarities and presence of these seem to confirm Fry’s theory that these archetypes are a collective dream of humanity, and thus they are innately present in literature.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Frye, Northrop. “The Archetypes of Literature.” Criticism Twenty Major Statements. Ed. Charles Kaplan. Bedford/St. Martins. 2000. 476-486.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James continues to stir up an immense amount of controversy for such a short novel. Making a definite, educated decision on the actual truth considering the countless inquiries that develop while reading this story proves more difficult than winning a presidential election. That being understood, taking one particular side on any argument from a close reading of the story seems impossible, because the counter argument appears just as conceivable. Any side of the controversy remains equally disputable considerably supported by textual evidence from the novel. One issue which, like the rest, can be answered in more than one ways is why Mrs. Grose believes the Governess when she tells her about her ghost encounters. Usually one would second-guess such outlandish stories as the ones that the governess shares throughout the story, yet Mrs. Grose is very quick to believe our borderline-insane narrator. One of the explanations for such behavior could be the underlying fact that Mrs. Grose and the governess have a similar socio-economic background, therefore making them somewhat equals even if the governess does not always seem to think that way. This fact makes them susceptible to trusting and believing each other, and to believing that the ghosts are there, for the people that the ghosts are presenting used to be servants and therefore from a similar socio-economic background. To add on to that, Bruce Robbins proposes in his Marxist criticism of The Turn of the Screw that the idea of a ghost is synonymous to that of a servant, subconsciously making the two lower-class workers of Bly more vulnerable to believe that the ghosts were real; in other words, servants we...
The existence of the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw has always been in debate. Instead of directly discussing whether the ghosts are real or not, this essay will focus on the reliability of the governess, the narrator of the story. After making a close examination of her state of mind while she is at Bly, readers of The Turn of the Screw will have many more clues to ponder again and to decide to what extent the governess can be believed. While critics like Heilman argue that there are problems with the interpretation that the governess was psychopathic, textual evidence incorporated with scientific research show that the governess did go through a period of psychical disorder that caused her insomnia, out of which she created hallucinations.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
Bibliography:.. Works Cited Meyer, M., Ed., (1999). Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin.
Archetypes bring order to everyday life- without them there would be chaos. Human use them to predict what may happen, and to empathize with people all around the world. Homer’s the Odyssey has several of these archetypes. The Odyssey is an epic poem, said to have been written down in the time of Ancient Greece. Archetypes are characters, actions, or situations that are generally a prototype of human life. Today, readers can gain insight through the archetypes in the Odyssey. Three main archetypes are: the hero, the monster or villain, and the crossroads.
Guerin, Wilfred L., et al., eds. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1992.
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is usually read as a ghost story in which the central character, the governess, tries to save the souls of two children possessed by evil. However, the short-story can be also analyzed from many different perspectives, as we come upon a number of hints that lead to various understanding of certain scenes. One of the possible interpretations is the psychoanalytical one, in which we interpret the events either from the point of view of the governess or from the perspective of the two children. I will concentrate on the problem of the governess who, restricted by her own problems and moral dilemmas, projects her fears on her pupils and in this way harms the children. What causes her moral corruption and gradual maddening lies deep in her psyche. Both the Victorian upbringing and the social isolation of a poor village tell her to restrict her sexual desires evoked by the romance reading. The result is tragic. The governess becomes mad and the children psychologically destabilized and scared of the adults. The story ends with the governess strangling the boy in a hysteric fit. The Turn of the Screw is a very popular work of literature, with reach history of critical interpretations where not much can be added, therefore my essay is mostly based on The Turn of the Screw. A History of Its Critical Interpretations 1898 1979 by Edward J. Parkinson.
In conclusion, the evidence clearly points to the fact that the governess is not quite right in the head when looked at from an analytical perspective and looking at James’ writing techniques and the pressure of Victorian era women only firmly cements what is going on at the manor for most. However, after over a century of debates, it is pretty clear that there will never be a definite answer to the questions that have plagued scholars and readers since the publication of The Turn of the Screw.
In the famous novel, The Turn of the Screw, Henry James tells a story of a governess who
Countless quest narratives – ranging from modern texts all the way back to ancient texts – have all conformed to a certain archetypal structure. Christopher Vogler writes:
Guerin, Wilfred L., Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne C. Reesman, and John R. Willingham. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. 125-156.
I will argue that it is the narrative frames enclosing The Turn of The Screw that are largely responsible for the reception the book has received. They serve two main purposes; one, to build up an element of suspense and tension before the governess's account actually begins, thus heightening the potential for horror and terror in the text; and two, to cast uncertainty on the reliability of the narrators and hence to increase the ambiguity and scope for interpretation of the text. In fact, I will argue that these frames do not assist the reader in interpreting the action, but are actually used by James to deliberately confound the reader and foster an ambiguous atmosphere.
There are many different ways to interpret The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James. Many critics over the past century have voiced their opinions about the story. Each critical analysis of the story disagrees with the beliefs expressed in another. Robert B. Heilman is a critic who wrote in the mid-twentieth century. He interprets The Turn of the Screw to be a representation of the conflict between good and evil. Heilman's points are clear and obviously well thought out, but there are flaws in his argument that make his interpretation questionable.
Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Longman, 2011. Print.
- - -. “Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800.” http://go.galegroup.com. N.p., 1988. Web. 9 Dec. 2010. .