The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a gothic novel about two kids verses their governess, who is possibly experiencing the supernatural or who is insane. How is she insane one might ask? There is a controversy between the governess actually experiencing the supernatural and the kids are aware of it or the governess is completely insane. In the beginning of the novel, the two kids, Flora and Miles, were introduced as these unusual kids. Flora is perfectly well behaved for an eight year old, while Miles, a ten year old, was mysteriously kicked out of his school for something the headmaster did not mention in the expulsion letter. Already these kids are creepy and suspicious. But there is no proof to where they are actually hiding their knowledge of the supernatural that is going on in the house. The governess on the other hand was introduced as a woman who was really into taking care of the kids due to the infatuation she has with their uncle. There was no sign of insanity from the governess in the beginning. Later, throughout the novel, the governess would encounter several supernatural events where the kids would denial the events ever taken place. She later believes that they are hiding information from her and that the kids are working with the ghosts. The importance of the ambiguity of the novel, which is whether or not the governess is actually seeing these ghosts, keeps the readers on their toes and keeping them in fear of the unknown.
The unexplainable events that happen in the novel develop a gothic sense using its elements such as the unknown, which creates this fear of not knowing what’s going to happen or predict what’s going to happen next in the novel. Because of the ambiguity, the novel leads the readers to askin...
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...he ghosts in his house. James made it seem like Miles was aware of the ghost, yet he is terrified as if he was terrified that it was true. This jaw dropping ending makes the readers frustrating. The fear that was built into this very last passage was not explained or relieved so the story ended leaving the readers haunted.
Overall, there is no way of telling what really happened in Bly with the governess, Miles, and Flora. There are so many ways to interpret this book; it makes it hard to know exactly what has happen. The unknown leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied because of the suspense that was built from the beginning to the very end was never relieved. The fear still lingers to the very end of the book because of how Miles just suddenly died and no one knows how and why. There was no explanation, no hard evidence that the supernatural evens were real.
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.
...eives nothing from the children. It should be obvious to the reader at this point that the children are obviously in no way doing any wrong and are telling the truth to the best of their knowledge. The continual obsession of the governess over maintaining the protection and innocence of the children gets so severe that it causes Flora to come down with a serious fever and Miles grows seemingly weaker and sicker without his sister there with her.
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 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.
left with ambiguity. Miles is a wonderful boy, withal he could not have done this
She believes she is actually protecting the children against an outside evil, which happens to coincide with her drive to demonstrate heroism and devotion to the master. According to Purdy, the governess conjures up ghosts because she invited them and willed them to come. Purdy feels the housekeeper plays her trump card and the governess' concern is not for the children but for all that would become of her, her bargain with the master, her relationship, and her passion for him. Purdy finds the following quotes to show her passion for the master and show that this serves as the motive of action.
The death of Miles (presuming he is dead and not just unconscious) has a number of possible interpretations, too - he could have died from his fall, from Quint's extended hand or from some other cause. However, it omits the most important possibility as shown in the book, as a consequence of the removal of the strangulation subtleties; that of whether the governess herself killed him. Without this, the book's stunningly powerful ending, whereby the reader is left reeling from shock and subsequently disbelief (as the other possibilities come to the surface, such as the line "and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped• is referring to an emotional heart rather than a physical one, and that the child is, in fact, still alive) is disappointingly absent. Whilst the žlm's ending is effective, it lacks the sheer power of the book's žnale. As with many book-to-žlm adaptions, a desire to change the ending is the žlm's
Through Miles, Angus recovers some of his architectural drawings and part of his memory. While Angus insists on knowing about the death of their loved ones, Morgan reveals that the story was a lie and far from the truth. This clearly indicates the engagement of fantasy in order to portray reality. Morgan confessed he was the source of Angus’ mental problem and was destined to keep their friendship and companionship strong, therefore choosing to use lies to cover up the
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.
By investigating the emotional resonances of historical narratives, the Gothic novel questions how we as readers might arrive at a particular version of history. If the Gothic novel locates authentic historical representation in the archive, however, the act of interpreting the archive is almost never fully realized; interpretation in the Gothic novel is always a partial, interrupted, obscure process. This tendency indicate...
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).
The governess only hardly indicates that she is scared the ghosts will physically destroy or kill the children. In fact, Miles’s death comes as a surprise to us as readers. This is because we are unrehearsed in the book to think of the ghosts as a physical threat. Till she sends Flora away, the governess does not seem to consider removing the children from the ghosts. She even does not try to scare away the ghost from the house. Instead, the governess’s abilities focus on the ‘corruption’ of the children by the ghost. Before she could realize about quint, the governess thinks that Miles has been corrupting other kids. Although the word corruption is an understatement that permits the governess to remain unclear about what she means. The clear meaning of corruption in this text means exposure to information of sex. According to governess, the children’s exposure to knowledge of sex is a far more dangerous aspect than confronting the living dead or being killed. Therefore, her attempt to save the children is to find out what they know, to make them admit rather than to forecast what might happen to them in the future. Her fear of innoce...
... 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.