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the turn of the screw summary
the turn of the screw summary
the turn of the screw summary
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Turn of the Screw by Henry James Was James' novel an allegory for corruption of the innocent, or a straight forward ghost story? The question of whether the ‘Bly Ghosts' existed or not in Henry James' ‘Turn of the Screw' has been a debate of literary criticism that has run on for most of the novel's existence. The ‘first person' narration of the novel means that, apart from the prologue, we see events from the Governesses's side only, and from the beginning, we are led to believe that she has had an uneventful life without her character being called into question. On first sight then, we have no reason to believe she might be unstable or of an hysterical nature, except possibly for her own admission to Mrs Grose early on in the story, when she tells her that she is ‘easily carried away', which suggests she is very impressionable and naive. James uses an ambiguous narrative throughout the book, particularly the conversations between the Governess and Mrs Grose, where things are continually left unsaid or their sentences are unfinished, leaving all the events open to interpretation. James uses this technique of the ‘unsaid' to mislead his characters, and readers alike, as in the scene after Quint has appeared at the dining room window: ‘Yet you didn't tell me?' ‘No - for reasons. But now that you've guessed -' Mrs Grose's round eyes encountered this charge. ‘Ah I haven't guessed!' she said very simply. ‘How can I if you don't imagine?' Does Mrs Grose fuel the Governess's perhaps vivid and obsessive imagination, or does the Governess's manipulative interrogation of the housekeeper, serve only to justify her curiosity and pre-conceptions about her predecessor's unnatural, sudden departure and subseq... ... middle of paper ... ...l evidence that the ‘ghosts' exist and no other witnesses. Although we only have the governesses word, her rational account of the events is convincing, especially when she suggests herself, that her suspicious behaviour and paranoia do seem absurd, and even insane in the normal course of things. It is only as the story draws to a close and the children's disconcerting behaviour can be seen as a reaction to the governess's own actions, that her story loses conviction. There obviously were inappropriate goings on at Bly before she came, and the uncle's aversion to any involvement with the children is strange, creating a mysterious aura around the story. But it is James' clever ambiguity throughout the whole novel that makes it impossible in the end to say for sure whether the ghosts were real or whether it was an allegorical tale about the corruption of innocence.
...d longs for her elder sister and mother. Frances is a good person – at heart – and is always looking out for her younger sister. Moreover, even though she has different views that her father and will always do the opposite of what is expected of her, it is seen that this insecurity is caused by James indeed. Frances feels that in order to gain security in her life, she must perform these actions. She feels compelled to live her life the way she does. Frances’s naughty and mischievous behaviour can be viewed as a weakness she possesses, and she longs to correct these weaknesses by her actions. She is not a role model by any means, but she is by no means the Devil’s advocate. A sincere heart – compelled by circumstances – does its best to make the situation turn out for the better than the worse, and Frances, through her love for her mother, inevitably does just that.
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.
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.
This is just like in the story, Everything Will be Okay, how James is trying to be just like his brothers and his father. For example, he was going to go hunting with his dad, not because he wanted to, but because he wanted his father to like
...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.
How successfully does the black-and-white film version of The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961), render the ambiguity of James' original text? Ambiguity, the art of deliberately creating something that can have more than one meaning, lends itself to the written word without difficulty. A written story can involve ambiguity in the characters, plot, narrative - every factor in the story can have to it a sense of uncertainty. However, uncertainty concerning ambiguity is subtly different from uncertainty involving vagueness; the former is a deliberate ploy by the writer to leave interpretation open to the reader's own imagination, whereas the latter comes about due to a lack of detail delivered on the part of the writer, probably due to lack of talent or attention.
The governess constantly over reacts and admits of being the only one that sees ghost. However, this is false for the kids and even Mrs. Grose admits to noticing the ghosts as well. When the governess and Mrs. Grose has a conversation about Peter Quint, the governess asks if “[she does] know him?” and Mrs. Grose replies by describing “Peter Quint - his own man, his valet, when he was here!” (James 23). She secretly admits that she sees ghosts, making the governess not insane for encountering ghosts. Also, critics can argue that the governess is not a reliable narrator due to the fact that there is no proof indicating that her writing is the truth or hallucinations. She illustrates that “what arrested [her] on the spot…was the sense that [her] imagination had, in a flash, turned real” (James 15). Although this quote implies that she begins to see ghosts, that does not make her insane since other characters such as the kids contact ghosts too. She is a reliable narrator who only tries to help the children with her sane
As critics bat these two different readings back and forth some have come to the conclusion that Henry James wrote with the intention that the story could have two simultaneous readings. According to Cook and Corrigan, “The governess-narrator uses language to confirm the reality of what she thinks she sees, and thus she makes her suspicions “real” not only to herself but to the rest of her audience” (56). The text is what the reader (and the other characters in the novel) rely on in order to make sense of the tale. Her telling relies on the gothic elements and the reality of the ghosts. In her telling, there exist ambiguities that create suspicion of her to accurately relate the events. In this way, the novel supports simultaneous interpretations. James is able to create “cracks in the façade of her account, without ever destroying its cre...
To those readers uninitiated to the infinite guises of critical literary theory, Henry James's The Turn of the Screw might be interpreted as a textbook case of an anxiety-ridden Governess fleeing an unpromising reality and running right into the vaporous arms of her imaginary ghosts. But to the seriously literate, the text is more than the story does or does not tell; it can be read in light of many - not just one - literary theories.
Since it was written, Henry James' The Turn of The Screw has been acclaimed by numerous critics to be one of the most immaculate, engrossing and terrifying ghost stories ever produced. Harriet Waters Preston described it as, "a sheer mortal horror, like the evil dream of a man under the spell of a deadly drug"1, and Gertrude Atherton said, "[it] is the most horrifying ghost story ever written!"2
The two-day seminar was full of insight and very innovative comments. We discussed spectrum of themes, characteristics, meaning, etc. However, throughout the seminar, we did not acknowledge one character in the seminar. Sister James was a very crucial character within the play. She displayed characteristics that helped see a very clear contradiction between James and Aloysius. From the inception of the play, Aloysius characterized James as full of “innocence,” and that was evident throughout the play. This trait was especially exhibited when Father Flynn was able to convince James that he was innocent beyond doubt. And I feel the explanation for this is that James does not let doubt over take her. In the chapter with Father Flynn and James, she was beginning to exhibit the qualities of doubt like Aloysius. But, it was too painful for her to accept. So, she was convinced by Father Flynn, and attached herself to certainty. She would not allow herself to be overwhelmed with doubt the way Aloysius was in the end of the
Henry James's Turn of the Screw was written in a time when open sexuality was looked down upon. On the surface, the story is simply about a governess taking care of two children who are haunted by two ghosts. However, the subtext of the story is about the governess focusing on the children's innocence, and the governess trying to find her own sexual identity. Priscilla L. Walton wrote a gender criticism themed essay about the Turn of the Screw, which retells certain parts of the story and touches on the significance they provide for the sexually explicit theme. Walton's essay is accurate because James purposely put an undertone of sexuality and identity confusion in the Turn of the Screw.
Rhys divides the speaking voice between Rochester and Antoinette, thus avoiding the suppression of alternative voices which she recognises in Bronte's text. Rochester, who is never named in the novel, is not portrayed as an evil tyrant, but as a proud and bigoted younger brother betrayed by his family into a loveless marriage. His double standards with regards to the former slaves and Antoinette's family involvement with them are exposed when he chooses to sleep with the maid, Amelie, thus displaying the promiscuous behaviour and attraction to the ...
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.
In Turn of the Screw by Henry James, there is a question of whether the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are real. They seem to only appear to the governess and she is the only one who admits to seeing them. F. W. H. Myers recognized apparitions as "a manifestation of persistent personal energy, --or an indication that some kind of force is being exercised after death which is in some way connected to a person previously known on earth." (P. 141) This fits the story perfectly for the ghosts appear to be nothing, just a "manifestation." The governess swears that Miles and Flora see the ghosts too, but that they refuse to admit it. She says, "whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora saw more-- things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse in the past." (P.53) They are scared or intimidated. Some of the places the governess appears show many parallels to the sightings of the ghosts as well. The governess sees Quint in the glass door and up on the tower, a place where Mrs. Grose notices the governess. And the governess sees Miss Jessel sitting at her desk. She recalls, "In the presence of what I saw I reeled back upon resistance. Seated at my own table in the clear noonday light I saw a person" (P. 59) These reflections of herself upon the ghosts portray an idea that she is a ghost or it is in her conscious and Bly is driving her mad.