Critical Response to the Turn of the Screw

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 chilling and eerie novel known as The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James; bring about questionable doubts with its main character. The Governess, plays “The Protector” for Miles and Flora, but often seems to need a little protection when it comes to her own self. The Governess claims ghosts have infiltrated the children throughout the story, yet can never seem to fully prove it. Giving leadway to the harsh reality that the Governess is an unreliable narrator throughout her tail through instances that she fully admits to not remembering time past, her wild over emotion that she lets control her, and through her growing obsession to be a “Hero” for the children. Throughout this story, the Governess often goes off to clear her head or for

When one looks at Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw it can be seen as a deceivingly simple plot of a Gothic novel. Are the children haunted or consorting with a pair of malevolent spirits? Is the governess who she says she is? Respectable young woman, who tried her best to protect the children, but later admitted that her best was not good enough? Or is she a sexually suppressed neurotic, hallucinating supernatural projections of her despotisms and harms the wards while trying to work out her internal psychodrama?

Macbeth, out of guilt starts seeing specters, his wife sleepwalks through the castle speaking of the spot on her hand that will not wash away, and the dirty deeds the couple has committed. Which shows that the earliest murders affected them in some way to make them feel regret, guilt, and fear. Just to compare, Anakin did the exact same thing. Due to the prophecies in each of these stories caused both flawed characters with their wild ambition to attempt to stop or change the prophesized events, and the way that they acted destroyed everything that they were before. Macbeth in the end was so detached from reality that when lady Macbeth died he didn’t blink an eye, and I do not believe that in the end of the play the Macbeth we met in the beginning was

Downfall of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James In the governess's insane pseudo-reality and through her chilling behavior, she managed to bring downfall to Flora and Miles, the children of Bly. With compulsively obsessive actions, irrational assumptions, and demented hallucinations, the governess perceived ghosts bearing evil intentions were attempting to corrupt and destroy the children she had taken the role of care for. In reality, the governess herself brought tragedy to the children through her own selfishness and insanity. From the first interactions with the young children, the governess's infatuation with their uncle, her employer, eventually proved to be her own failure in every fashion. In talk with the head maid, Ms. Grose, the governess explained her meeting with her employer and how she had fallen in love with him on their first meeting.

Henry James’ Turn of the Screw is one of the most engrossing ghost stories of all time. On the surface, James creates a typical ghost story with a mysterious mansion, a young, innocuous governess, two seemingly innocent children, and two enigmatic ‘ghosts’. Upon closer observation, the plot may not be as simple as it seems. The ghosts only appear to the Governess, leading one to believe that they are simply a figment of her imagination and not actually ‘ghosts’ as they are originally characterized by the Governess. If the ghosts are hallucinations, the governess maybe suffering from some form of mental illness, more specifically, schizophrenia.

Trapped in her own home and mind, she is haunted by something other than ghosts and demons, and that, is more terrifying than could even be imagined. Watching the narrator lose her sanity can be more terrifying for the readers than simply looking for an otherworldly being or a logical explanation. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” she is aware of her revulsion to the wallpaper, and yet, is unaware of the haunting consequence it has on her mind. “He thought I was asleep first, but I wasn’t, and lay there for hours trying to decide whether that front pattern and the back pattern really did move together or separately” (Gilman). Most stories try to terrify in a predictable, more traditional manner, “The Red Room” by H.G.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James can be interpreted in two main ways; as a psychological thriller or a ghost story. In the book, the central character and one of the narrators, the governess, has convinced herself that the children, Miles and Flora, are seeing apparitions. Another explanation is that she herself created these images through her madness. The governess desires so much to be loved that she drives herself insane. The author also does a good job of convincing the reader that the ghosts of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint are “real.” Yet, I believe differently.

The reason he was sent home from school would be linked to the ambiguous letter announcing Miles was expelled from school. This is a strange mixture of attraction and repulsion between Miles and the governess’ sexuality. One of the most challenging ideas of The turn of the screw is if the ghosts are real or purely the governess’s imagination. As haunting as the ghosts appear, the real fear is what society feared. Each one of the relationships between the characters indicates the violation of social class and hidden sexuality.

Throughout the Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, ambiguity is used purposely in respect to the reality of the ghosts. Without certainty the reader must guess and assume in order to determine if the ghosts are real or if they are conjured in the governess's mind. In this book there is more proof for the imagination of the ghosts. One source of evidence is the preparedness of the governess. At the beginning of the book the governess is being thrown into a situation that she is unprepared for.