NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... rate a psychological thriller, and that the governess was insane, the apparitions being only figments of her imagination. Krishna Baldev Vaid is one of the critics who believe that James wrote The Turn of the Screw, as a great ghost story, and that the governess is a truthful and reliable narrator. Vaid notes that "James's narrators, as a rule, are endowed with a fine intuitive awareness" He also notes that "James repeatedly employs the intuitions of the governess to maintain suspense and to deepen the mystery. " Other critics believe that the governess is mentally disturbed, which causes her to see the ghosts. For Edmund Wilson "there is never any evidence that anybody but the governess sees the ghosts. She believes that the children see them but there is never any proof that they do.
The housekeeper insists that she does not see them; it is apparently the governess who frightens her. The children, too, become hysterical; but this is evidently the governess's doing too. " Wilson concluded that "the young governess who tells the story is a neurotic case of sex repression, and the ghost are not real ghosts at all but merely hallucinations of the governess. " The ghost are also thought of as imagined evils on the part of the governess whose inappropriate sexual attraction for her employer is repressed, and who requires some melodramatic situation which will allow her to act out a heroic service to him. (Tompkins p. 66) The theory that states that James intended The Turn of the Screw to be a great ghost story seems to be the most reasonable. When the governess described the ghosts to Mrs. Grose, she recognized the immediately. How else would the governess have known what they looked like if she hadn't really seen them? Both of them had been dead one year before the governess's arrival.
The theme of the novel, as well as the meaning of its title, depends on its interpretation. As a ghost story, its pessimistic and tragic theme focuses on the battle of good intentions versus evil forces (Vaid p. 118), with evil evidently triumphing, since the governess is unable to save either of the children. (Vaid p. 121) As the governess gradually recognizes the depth and intent of the evil forces surrounding the children and struggles to protect them, every event in the novel becomes another turn of the screw in the intensifying horror. If read as a psychological analysis, The Turn of the Screw has a social theme. According to Goddard, "The reaction upon a sensitive and romantic nature of the narrowness of English middle-class life in the last century: that from the social angle, is the theme of the story. The sudden change of scene, the sudden immense responsibility placed on unaccustomed shoulders, the shock of unrequited affection -- - all of these together -- - were too much. The brain gives way.
And what follows is a masterly tracing of the effects of repressed love and thwarted material affection. " (Tompkins p. 85) Each stage of the governess's lapse into hysteria or insanity becomes another turn of the psychological screw. The governess, who is the main narrator of the story, is an easy character with whom to identify. She is described very positively by the first narrator, Douglas, in the prologue of the novel as "a most charming person... the most agreeable person I've ever known in her position; she'd have been worthy of any whatever. " (James p. 2) James give the reader a sympathetic understanding of the governess's background and current situation, when Douglas describes her further as "the youngest of several daughters of a poor country parson... at the age of twenty... taking service for the first time in the schoolroom. " (James p. 4) In this way, James presents the governess as a person of good character, although young and inexperienced.
The reader does not resist empathizing and identifying with the governess while she tells her story throughout the remainder of the novel. The Turn of the Screw is a gothic thriller, which has inspired different levels of interpretation. It would be interesting to read various works by Edgar Allan Poe as well as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, and compare the authors' techniques, style, and possible social and psychological themes. The most memorable part of the story was the conversation between the governess and the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, in which they first discuss the first ghost, which the governess has seen.
The governess gives a detailed description of the stranger she had seen outside the window. "He has red hair, very red close-curling, and a pale face... with straight good features and rather queer whiskers that are as red as his hair... His eyes are rather sharp, strange -- - awfully... "My companion's face blanched as I went on; her round eyes started and her mild mouth gaped... " The housekeeper identified the apparition as Peter Quint, the deceased valet of the children's uncle. (James p. 23) "'And became of him?' She hung fire so long that I was still more mystified. 'He went too's he brought out at last. 'Went where?' Her expression, at this, became extraordinary. 'God knows where! He died. ' 'Died?' I almost shrieked. She seemed fairly to square herself, plant herself more firmly to express the wonder of it. 'Yes. Mr.
Quint's dead. '" The Turn of the Screw is enjoyable and highly recommendable reading because of the author's ability to build suspense through scenes like the one above, and through his effective use of irony in contrasting apparent goodness with actual evil. The governess's first impression of the children made her later discovery of their deception and evil especially shocking. Flora seemed "the most beautiful child I had ever seen... a beautiful... radiant...
angelic beauty" (James p. 7) When she met Miles, she felt she "had seen him on the instant, without and within, in the great gloss of freshness, the same positive fragrance of purity, in which I had from the first moment seen his little sister... everything but a sort of passion of tenderness for him was swept away by his presence. What I had then and there took him to heart for was something divine... his indescribable little air of knowing nothing in the world but love. " James p. 13) Gradually, she accepts the fact that evil forces have corrupted the children.
She realizes that "their more than earthly beauty, their absolutely unnatural goodness" is only "a game... a policy and a fraud. " (James p. 47) As Vaid points out "the contrast between the apparent innocence and the real contamination of the children... is the keynote of the terror produced by The Turn of the Screw. " (Vaid p. 113) Works Cited Heller, Terry. The Turn of the Screw: Bewildered Vision. Boston: Twayne Publishers 1989.
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. New York: W. W. Norton & Company 1999.
Tompkins, Jane P, ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of the Turn of the Screw. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Vaid, Krishna Baldev. Technique in the Tales of Henry James. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press 1964.
James, Henry. Appendix. The Turn of the Screw. By Harold C.
Goddard. New York: W. W. Norton & Company 1999. James, Henry. Appendix.
The Turn of the Screw. By Edmund Wilson. New York: W. W. Norton & Company 1999.
Free research essays on topics related to: york w w norton amp, turn of the screw, edmund wilson, w w norton amp company, evil forces
Research essay sample on York W W Norton Amp W W Norton Amp Company
