Turn Of The Screw: Deranged Governess

1259 Words3 Pages

Deranged Governess Can ghosts make people that are sane go insane? Throughout the novella, Turn of the Screw, written by Henry James, the governess continually encounters apparitions, or ghosts, which only appear to her. From Miles being expelled from school, Miles and Flora miss behaving, to Flora becoming ill, the governess saw the ghosts the entire time. The governess is the only one able to witness the ghost that she claims possess the children. Evidence from the text proves that her psychological state due to the apparitions was declining as the novella went on. After accepting a job offer, the governess first arrived in the house of Bly to begin her job as educating and upbringing her employer’s niece, Flora, and his nephew, Miles. …show more content…

While strolling through the yard she had thoughts about her employer and her attraction to him, and says, “...it would be as charming as a charming story to suddenly meet someone.”(15) Then, “Someone would appear there at the turn of the path and would stand before me and smile.”(15) The governess then froze and stared into the tower’s window and looked right into a man’s face and became excited and nervous, but scared because she did not know if it is a real person or a shadow dressed in all black. Later, the governess described her encounter to Mrs. Grouse. Mrs.Grouse stated that the man she described is Mr. Peter Quint, who has passed away. This confused the Governess because she was able to see him and observe every detail of him. The governess’s psychological state started to decline, because she became alarmed of her surroundings and became spooked at every ghost sighting later to come for she feared for the …show more content…

This time, however, he was in the dining room, causing her to doubt her sanity even more. “He appeared thus again with I won’t say greater distinctness, for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented a forward stride in our intercourse and made me , as I met him, catch my breath and turn cold” (20). She was seeing Mr. Quint again; however she did not believe it. The governess then runs outside to where he was, and he is no longer there. She then speaks to Mrs.Grouse again who became concerned for the governess and her

Show More
Related

  • The Governess In Henry James's The Turn Of The Screw

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main character, the Governess, is the perfect example of a morally ambiguous character. It is impossible to label her as purely good or evil, and much debate of this novel is on the trustworthiness of her narration. The Governess is a twenty year old daughter of a country parson who accepted the job of caretaker of two children. She's something of a romantic, being swept off her feet by her employer and viewing her job as a kind of calling. However, behind the innocent young woman, there are two ways of viewing her character. Some defend her as a sane heroine, while others claim she is an insane anti-hero...

    Read More

  • Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw": Are The Ghosts Actually Real?

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the governess first arrives at the small town of Bly to begin her assignment over the niece and nephew of her employer, she describes her self as having gone through many ups and downs in terms of her emotional and possibly mental state. She says, "I remember the whole thing as a succession of flights and drops a little see saw of write throbs and the wrong" (page 121). It appears evident even from the beginning of the story that the governess is not in an 'even keeled' state of mind, neither stable nor calm enough to hand the task set before her in any means.

    Read More

  • The Governess In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Innocence In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Peter Quint and Miss Jessel were alive, they destroyed the innocence of Flora and Miles as well. It is suggested many times throughout the book, that Miss Jessel, the former governess, and Peter Quint, the vallette, were having an affair. Because this novella was written in the Victorian Era, it was not proper to write about subjects such as sex or intimacy period; therefore it is unclear about what really happened. However, it is clear that the children witnessed this affair and corruptness between their governess and vallette because Henry James confirms it through this passage, “What it was most impossible to get rid of was the cruel idea that, whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora had seen more - things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse in the past” (James, 76). Although the governess could not fix the innocence that had already been destroyed by the inappropriate affair between Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, she certainly tried her hardest to save what innocence was

    Read More

  • Gender Criticism and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Delusional Governess in Henry James' The Turn of the Screw

    2431 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Maternal Instinct in The Turn of the Screw

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Psychosis In The Turn Of The Screw

    1817 Words  | 4 Pages

    She immediately falls in love with Flora, the youngest child and is excited to meet Miles, the older child. When she sees Flora for the first time, she says “She was the most beautiful child I had ever seen.” (30). She also asks Mrs. Grose, “And the little boy – does he look like her?

    Read More

  • The Turn Of The Screw Argumentative Essay

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Ambiguity In The Turn Of The Screw

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, the governess first begins the novel as a young woman who is portraited to the reader as a good person, if naïve and dramatic. The reader’s judgement of the governess is first defined when the second narrator, Douglas, describes her as “awfully clever and nice” and “the most agreeable woman I’ve ever known in her position” (12). To this effect, the reader begins the story seeing the governess as a good, respectable person who is completely sane and normal, contrasting to the conclusion of the book.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Governess In The Turn Of The Screw

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    The governess is insane because the apparitions are just figments of her imagination. More specifically, they are a result of her lust for companionship. According to PsychologyToday, hallucinations form as a result of unconscious wants or desires. Likewise, the unnamed narrator in the prologue notes that the employer seduces the governess, but she never sees her employer again. As a result of this, she begins to conjure up images of other people in her mind. These hallucinations begin when she takes a stroll outside and imagines someone flirtatiously smiling at her. It was not long, however, until she felt "the sense that [her] imagination… turned real” (James 15). When describing this man to Mrs. Grose, she refers to him as a remarkably handsome gentleman, indicating that she felt attracted to him. Mrs. Grose believes that the ghost is Peter Quint; however, neither the man nor the encounter is real because the governess later finds out the man is dead. Because she is unable to distinguish reality from her desire-driven fantasy, she is insane. This is not the only encounter

    Read More

  • Theme Corruption In Henry James's The Turn Of The Screw

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    a bachelor hires to take care of his niece and nephew. Shortly after the governess arrives in

    Read More

  • Supernatural Events in Henry James's "Turn of the Screw"

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Governess in The Turn of the Screw

    1116 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • An Unrequited Love in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...comes obsessed with and starts seeing his ghost. Finally, at the end of the novel she begins to look to Miles for a sense of belonging. It may even seem as if she wants to find love so badly that she smothers him to the point of death and kills him. He also may have died because she frightened him to death. In the last few scenes, the governess seems to frighten the boy so badly, they he starts sweating and breathing hard and she even starts to shake him. She longs for love so terribly that she believes Miles is Peter Quint. Finally, the governess has a "victory" at the end of the novel and she finally is able to control and manage everything she wanted to know before. The governess and her unreliable narrator poses far too many questions for answers but all the clues point to her infatuation being so strong in Bly, that she needs to have a feeling of belonging.

    Read More

More about Turn Of The Screw: Deranged Governess

Open Document