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The Role Of The Governess In The Turn Of The Screw 1
Gender Roles in Literature
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Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is one of the more disputed texts in all of literature, as it is famously known as an ambiguous text. The primary uncertain element of is whether there are ghosts scaring the governess and the children, or whether the governess is actually going insane. Even though a certain portion of the text is ambiguous, there are other portions of the text that are much more black and white. For example, the relationships in this novella are nothing close to normal. There are three key relationships in The Turn of the Screw: the Governess and Mrs. Grose, the Governess and Miles, and the governess and Flora. All of these relationships show how the governess’s maternal instinct influences her interactions and decisions with each of the characters. The first way in which all three of the interactions will be abnormal is due to the governess’s employed position: head of the house. At the historical time period in which The Turn of the Screw was written, society was predominantly patriarchal and women were rarely put into positions of authority. Abnormality is called exactly that for a good reason: it is not normal and it usually makes others very uncomfortable. Thus it is logical to assume that since the people living at Bly estate are not used to having a woman being in charge, they are not likely to view the governess in a typical, and hardly authoritative light, with extra emphasis added onto Mrs. Grose. Since she has been maintaining the house as the head servant since before the governess was there, Mrs. Grose is very familiar with the history of the entire situation, both of the family and of the estate. Therefore, whenever something important happens, Mrs. Grose is going to know more than the governess... ... middle of paper ... ... The appearance of the correlation is hardly coincidental and should have been seen from a mile away. All in all, the governess definitely has good intentions, and absolutely means the best for the children; however good intentions do not always translate into proper action. The governess’s maternal instincts are heavily present, but they are nowhere near competent, since the governess failed to keep one of the children alive. Therefore, the governess should not have been put into the position at Bly estate with so little experience. If someone else had been put into the governess’s position, it is highly likely that the outcome would have ended up vastly different, and Miles would still be alive. Works Cited James, Henry. “The Turn of the Screw,” The Turn of the Screw ED. Third Edition. Ed. Peter G. Biedler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 22-120. Print.
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 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.
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
Mrs. Dubose was sitting on her porch when Jem and Scout went by. She stopped them on their way for playing hooky. “It is noon and hot outside, so both of you go inside your house otherwise I will call you principle” # said, Mrs. Dubose. Jem and Scout told that they have been alone to town, but she never believed them. In a sense, Mrs. Dubose worried for the children and at the same time, she was angry at them. She came to know in the morning that Jem broke down Ms. Maudie’s
this point of view that Mrs. Grose somehow also had a hand in Ms. Jessel's
and tries to protect them. In the classic novel, The Turn of the Screw, the governess and the
The governess in the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has a questionable character. She explicitly states that she sees apparitions of past Bly residents, making her an honest narrator; however, there are times when her rationality is uncertain. The governess is insane because the ghosts she sees stem from her hallucinations, her excessive anxiety drives her to madness, and the other residents cannot see the ghosts.
In “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, a woman, who is known as the governess is swooned by the handsome Master. She ends up taking care of Flora and Miles, his niece and nephew, in his country home. When the Governess gets there she is worried that the children would be smarter than her, but she ends up fawning over them. During her stay at Bly she ends up confiding in the head servant Mrs. Grose about the former governess and the children in her stead. Later on in the book the Governess ends up confiding solely to Mrs. Grose about the supposed spirits, at first Mrs. Grose believes her about the spirits because how else would she have known what they looked like, but who’s to say that Mrs. Grose is telling the truth about Mr. Quint and Mrs. Jessel.
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.
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.