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Henry James’ novella the Turn of the Screw is a highly ambiguous piece of fiction. Set in Edwardian England, a very naïve woman is left in charge of two young children. The beautiful Bly however appears to be hiding a few dark secrets. The appearance of two ghosts plays on the governess’ mind, she comes to the conclusion the children are in danger and being possessed by these two horrors. Throughout the novella James successfully creates a mystical atmosphere, his ambiguous style forces us to think twice about what is written and decide for ourselves whether or not this is purely a ghost story or something far more sinister. However after several reads and a close look behind the words, it becomes clear that the ‘ghosts’ that haunt the house of Bly are nothing more than hallucinations and may be the result of a serious case of sexual repression in the governess. The governess is a hopeless romantic, that becomes clear at the very beginning. The daughter of a poor parishioner, the governess has had a very sheltered life, making her into quite a naïve woman, but no doubt very curious. The governess had only once had a position involving children before she accepted the position at Bly. She was quite nervous and unsure in regards to her own abilities. Yet she took the job. Why? She believed the employer to be the most handsome of men, with a most kind and generous nature. This opinion was formed over one very short meeting. As the governess arrives at Bly she mentions “I had expected something quite dull and dreary, so this place was a wonderful surprise. I wondered why he (employer) had failed to mention it”. The governess is also quick to tell the housekeeper Mrs Grose “I am carried away quite easily. I was carried away in Londo... ... middle of paper ... ...ce was close and he let me kiss it” and her description of Miles saying “oh you know what a boy wants” are all unnecessary. The plot of the ghosts corrupting the children is what the governess’ tales is supposed to be about, just a ghost story. So adding in constant little sentences like these makes us question whether this is really a ghost story at all, or something more vindictive. The ambiguity of this novella shows that the ghosts cannot possibly be real and are a mere figure of the governess’ imagination. Her romantic, whimsical state of mind, strange and elaborate use of words and clearly shown indecency with Miles gives sufficient evidence to say she was suffering a severe case of sexual repression, brought on by her sheltered childhood and lonely position in society. However these circumstances are no excuse for the damage she caused those poor children.
The classic ghost story, the Turn of the Screw, is filled with loose-ends and ambiguity. Are the ghosts real or imagined? Is the Governess a heroine or anti-heroine? Are the children really as innocent as they seem? In the novel, Henry James rarely provides an in-depth character that the reader actually gets to know. From the young romantic governess, to the intelligent ten year old, James keeps his characters morally ambiguous in order to further the “Unsolved mystery” style.
In conclusion, it is not the ghosts, as the governess suspected, that are corrupting the children, but the governess herself, through her continually worsening hysteria that is corrupting the children. Both Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are not real ghosts that have the peculiar habit of appearing before the governess and the governess alone but they are merely the signs of the fragmenting mental state of the governess.
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
One issue which, like the rest, can be answered in more than one way is why Mrs. Grose believes in 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 equal 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 were ghosts....
The childhood of Frances Piper consists of inadequate love, loss of innocence and lack of concern, ultimately leading to her disastrous life. As a six year old child, she encounters several traumatic events, explicitly the death of her loved ones and the loss of her innocence. Over the course of one week, there have been three deaths, two funerals and two burials in the Piper family. “Frances was crying so hard now that Mercedes got worried. ‘I want my Mumma to come ba-a-a-a-ack.’”( McDonald 174). As a young child, there is nothing more upsetting than losing a mother. A family is meant to comfort each other to fulfill the loss of a loved one; however, this is not the case in the Piper family. Mercedes, only a year older than Frances, tries to console her even though she herself is worried. The loss of motherly love and affection has a tremendous impact on her future since now her sole guardian, James, expresses no responsibility towards her. Instead, he molests Frances on the night of Kathleen’s funeral to lessen the grief of his lost daughter. As a result “These disturbing experiences plague Frances with overwhelming feelings of low self worth and guilt that haunt h...
Toward the end of the novel, the governess sees Ms. Jessel and tries to point her out to Flora and Mrs. Grose. However, Mrs. Grose questions the governess by wondering “[w]here on earth does [she] see anything?” (James 70). Even though Mrs. Grose claims that she does not see any figure, it is not certain that she is telling the truth. It is obvious that she is overwhelmed in this scene because Flora is fearful of the governess’ behavior. Mrs. Grose is merely trying to be rational and appeal to Flora’s anxiety over the governess’ temperamental and persuasive attitude. Another argument that could appeal to the governess’ insanity is that she is love struck by the master, causing her to be delusional. This is exemplified through her imagining that the master “would appear…and stand before [her] and smile and approve” (James 15). Nonetheless, she is not imagining any people because in the last scene of the novel, Miles recognizes Peter Quint’s presence by implying to the governess that he is in the room. If the governess was creating the ghosts in her mind, Miles would not verbally notice Peter Quint’s presence in the room. The governess is clearly sane and does not simply imagine the
The governess sees a woman on the other side of the lake and jumps to the conclusion that Flora has seen her and is choosing to act like she didn’t. The child was playing with a boat and had her back turned to the lake. Why would she think that she had to have seen her? There is no proof and does not even ask the child if she saw anything. She automatically assumes it’s Miss Jessel, the previous governess who died and that she is after Flora. She tells her story to Mrs. Grose drawing her in more deeply into believing her crazy hallucinations and Mrs. Grose asks her if she is sure its Miss Jessel and the governess replies “Then ask Flora—she’s sure!” and then immediately comes back to say “no, for God’s sake don’t! She’ll say she isn’t—she’ll lie” ((James 30). She comes to the conclusion that the child will lie about it when there is no reason to suspect that she would. Again, this is her jumping to conclusions, because there is not any proof to say that the children have seen or know anything about the ghost’s. “Thus a very odd relationship develops between the governess and the children, for the more she loves them and pities them and desires to save them, the more she begins to suspect them of treachery, until at last she is convinced that they, in league with the ghosts, are ingeniously tormenting her’ (Bontly 726). “The ghosts appear, thus, when the governess is both aware of the corruption which threatens the children and convinced of her own power to preserve them untainted” (Aswell 53). It’s the governess fabricating all this up in her mind again so she can play the part of
During the first 20 paragraphs, Williams is simply recalling the events as they had taken place. Never revealing the death of the child. We are led to believe that the child never dies, but Williams gives us clues into her death when he states in paragraph 31, "I have seen at least two children lying dead in bed of neglect." His guilt of how he handled the situation plunges his imagination down a dark, immoral path. The pivotal point between reality and his vivid imagination becomes clear when he states, "I explained the danger but said that I would not insist on the throat examination so long as they (her parents) would take the responsibility." This is where his imagination takes over. Instantly, his adoration and love for the young girl turns to utter loathing. He goes on to describe her as a "savage brat."
Turn of the Screw written by Henry James tells the story of a governess and her recollection of events at the country home of Bly. The story begins at a Christmas gathering where everyone is sharing different ghost stories around the fire. One man has a manuscript or diary of a former governess which details her experience at a “haunted house (302).” The audience begs for him to read it, and so he does. As soon as he begins to read the story, the book’s point of view shifts to the governess’s. Over the course of the governess’s interviews with her employer, she immediately falls in love with him. In an attempt to win her master’s approval, she becomes extremely protective over the children. She views herself as their guardian or rather their “hero” in shielding them from the ghosts that she assumes the children are communicating with. The question that strikes every reader is whether the ghosts perceived by the governess are real or not. This also questions the credibility of the governess’s narration. In reading Turn of the Screw, the governess is proven to be an unreliable narrator through her recollection of events at Bly. Because of the governess’s loves for the master and quest for heroism, her insanity is exposed through her hallucinations.
Throughout this novel, the reader is left with the task of putting the pieces together to a highly complex puzzle. While solving this puzzle, the reader learns valuable information about Mrs. Ross’s harsh past, which greatly influences her entire life. The root of Mrs. Ross’s troubles ultimately lies within the shocking death of “Mrs. Ross’s only brother, a boy called Monty Miles who had been killed while walking home…A wayward trolley left the tracks to strike him down” ( ). According to the narrator “The mourning had gone on for years”() and this event truly traumatized Mrs. Ross as “the world was full of trolley cars and Mrs. Ross ...
...t want to be the only one who does. It is another feeble attempt to prove her sanity to herself and to others. However, because she “is so easily carried away”, she soon believes that the children do in fact see the ghosts by reading into their every remark and behavior. By piecing all of this together, the governess proves to herself that she is not insane. The governess in The Turn of the Screw, is a highly unreliable narrator. From the beginning of the story, her energetic imagination is displayed to the reader. With this knowledge alone, it would not be irrational to conclude that she had imagined the appearances of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. However, these facts in addition to her unsubstantiated inferences allow the reader to intelligently label the governess as an unreliable narrator. Works Cited Poupard, Dennis. “Henry James.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism: Volume 24. Ed. Paula Kepos. Detroit: Gale research.; 1990. 313-315.
Many readers believe this piece of fiction to be a ghost story, but it is one that is about a woman with acute psychological delusion, portrayed through the use of characterization and occasion. Bowen begins her dramatization by defining the woman’s psychological delusion through the characterization of her anxiety and isolation. She establishes the woman’s anxiety in the beginning and closing of the third paragraph when she subtly narrates how, “she was anxious to see how the house was”(Bowen 160) and “she was anxious to keep an eye”(Bowen 160). To believe that it is impossible to imagine a letter, is someone who does not know the mind of a person plagued with psychological delusion.
This story, although somewhat unique in its exact plot, contains many elements that make it a typical and traditional ghost story. These elements suggest common fears in today’s society of people in general, and children specifically.
... through her hug, squeezing the life out of him because of her own fears of the supposed ghosts. Miles response is so ambiguous it leaves the reader with only theories with no way of knowing for a fact what really happened.
...or them. She then asks him “will you leave me alone now?” (Line 179), meaning that he now has found the other ghosts. And therefore doesn’t need the company of the living anymore. The protagonist doesn’t need to hold on to his memory, because she knows he is safe and in good hands with the rest of the family. First when she knows her father is safe, she can get closure, and not only let go of him, but the entire family. The story ends with her saying: “I’ll se you then” (line 185) and her father replying: “you know where we are” (line 186), as if he reassures her that she will rejoin them when she dies.