Wilde’s trial fixed not only the public’s attention, but also James’s. He followed the Wilde’s trial with great interest, saying “Our earthquake, here, has been social–human–sexual (If that be the word when it’s all one sex)” (Matheson 713). James’s fascination with the trials affected his writing and the scandal allowed him to explore other areas of human sexuality in The Turn of the Screw: For James the ambiguity and dissonance of the significations generated by the trials seem to present an opportunity. His brilliant rhetorical resources, the subtlety and suppleness of his figurative language, and his abiding interest in queer meanings and identities make him a writer especially well placed to explore the rich field of allusion and euphemism taking shape around the trials. . . . His oblique erotic figurative language in The Turn of the Screw enables him not only to engage with the representations of nonnormative sexuality publicized by the trials but also to reframe and defamiliarize the relations of authority and transgression they exemplify and even to restage these relations in terms of surprising complicities between …show more content…
Though ghosts in The Turn of the Screw don't physically harm anyone, they have a great psychological effect on the governess. The governess is the only one who admits seeing the ghosts which implies that the other characters may be hiding something from her or that the ghosts are in fact not real and she is becoming more and more obsessive of the children’s pasts. This creates a mistrust between the governess and the other characters. The dark horrors of the novel also represent guilty pleasures and sexuality (Matheson 710). According to Matheson, “The Gothic plot of Turn of the Screw provided him with an apt language for representing the complex significations and charged affects surrounding same-sex sexuality made especially salient by the Wilde trials” (Matheson
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.
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.
Ever since the new governess shows up to the household, Bly, in The Turn of the Screw, the story of the residents’ lives change forever. Things go from peaceful, beautiful, and orderly to chaotic, ugly, and messy. Every step the governess makes seems to worsen things, but why? Is it the children making things go awry? Or could it be the ghosts messing with the balance of the peace? Or maybe, is it the one person who you would expect to trust the most who is doing the most damage. The protector is the destroyer. The savior is the killer. In The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, the governess is insane because all her actions from sleeping and sensing demons, to assuming far-fetched notions and being the hero in every situation demonstrates
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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James has been the cause of many debates about whether or not the ghosts are real, or if this is a case of a woman with psychological disturbances causing her to fabricate the ghosts. The story is told in the first person narrative by the governess and is told only through her thoughts and perceptions, which makes it difficult to be certain that anything she says or sees is reliable. It starts out to be a simple ghost story, but as the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the governess has jumps to conclusions and makes wild assumptions without proof and that the supposed ghosts are products of her mental instability which was brought on by her love of her employer
The purpose of tone is to express the author’s attitude toward elements of a story, such as characters, setting, or a situation. This literary device sets the mood of the story for the reader. Henry James uses tone effectively in the novel, The Turn of the Screw. The mood of the story shifts three times as the story progresses. It begins by being cheerful, then hostile and ends being depressing. The tone shifts due to the changes in the attitude and actions by the governess.
The Turn of the Screw "I must take my horrid plunge" from the opening line sets the tone of the passage. The novel's gothic form is revealed very early on in the passage. There is a distinctive differentiation between horror and terror derived from the studies of Radcliffe. "Terror" is when one induces to action and "horror" is when one is "powerless" and "freezes" as a result of it. The Governess' horrid plunge is a forced action, as she is powerless to combat the supernatural forces that oppose her.
In The Murder of Helen Jewett, Patricia Cohen uses one of the most trivial murders during the 1800’s to illustrate the sexiest society accommodations to the privileged, hypocritical tunneled views toward sexual behavior, and the exploitation of legal codes, use of tabloid journalism, and politics. Taking the fact that woman was made from taking a rib from man was more than biblical knowledge, but incorporated into the male belief that a woman’s place is determined by the man. Helen had the proper rearing a maid servant, but how did she fall so far from grace. Judge Weston properly takes credit for rearing her with the proper strictness and education. Was Helen seduced at an early age and introduced to sexual perversions that were more persuasive that the bible belt life that the Weston’s tried to live? Was Helen simply a woman who knew how to use what she had to get what she wanted? Through personal correspondence, legal documentation, census reports, paintings, and newspapers we are able to make our own determinations. Cohen provides more than enough background and history to allow any one to make their own opinion how the murder of a woman could be turned into a side show at a circus.
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.
...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.
One of the Internet’s most trusted medical sources, WebMD, reports that hallucinations, strong emotions, and excessive fear are three common symptoms of insanity. The governess exhibits all three of these symptoms in Henry James’s novel The Turn of the Screw. Thus, many readers have been correct in identifying her character as insane and unreliable. Her various unstable behaviors qualify her as clinically insane: she hallucinates about ghosts; she is extremely emotional; and she displays an excessive fear regarding the ghosts.
In The Turn of the Screw, the author portrays the governess as young, innocent, and naive, which encompasses the ideal of how a young woman should act in the Victorian era. The governess has no outlet to release her sexual desires, causing her to feel emotionally trapped. Her sexual feelings are forced to revolve around Miles, the young boy leaving adolescence and entering puberty whom she is put in charge of governing, directing much of her affection toward his company. The governess expresses her fondness of Miles by embracing him and kissing him, attempting to gain a closer ...
In his 1948 essay, Robert Heilman explores the suggestion that The Turn of the Screw is a symbolic representation of the conflict between good and evil. Heilman interprets the apparitions of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel as evil forces. He explains that the ghosts only appear to the governess because evil lurks in subtlety before it strikes. It is the duty of the governess to "detect and ward off evil." She must protect the children from the awful ghosts. The governess describes Miles and Flora as beautiful little cherubs whose only fault is their gentleness (James, 18-19). Heilman views the children's beauty as a "symbol of the spiritual perfection of which man is capable." Heilman explains the ghosts' attempts to reach the children by explaining that evil forces will always try to conquer and possess the human soul. Heilman continues to draw from the descriptions of Miles and Flora to support his theories. He points out that the two children are described as having an "angelic beauty" and a "positive fragrance of purity" (James 9, 13). The governess describes them as if they are perfect and beautiful in every way. This repeated vision of beauty, radiance, and innocence parallels the image of Eden. The house at Bly also resembles this image, "I remember the lawn and the bright flowers..." (James 7). The governess makes mention of the "golden sky" and of Flora's "hair of gold," which Heilman believes connects Bly and Flora with these images of golden hues (James 7, 9).
In The turn of the Screw, the characters often communicated very indirectly with one another, hinting toward certain situations but never explaining them fully. At the beginning of this story, one of the first vague quotes, “he had been left, by the death of their parents in India, guardian to a small nephew and a small niece” depicts that Miles and Flora’s parents died in India (James 158). However, the details around their death are unknown and mysterious.
With each turn of the figurative screw, more screws were loosened in the governess. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a story about a governess that slowly went insane. She saw the “ghosts” of deceased workers and her reactions to these visions made the children and Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, fear and distrust her. The governess began showing signs of mental instability and throughout the book her condition worsened, until she was completely insane.