Cierra Roller Wilson AP. English IV 21 November 2016 The Turn of the Screw, is an 1898 novel written by Henry James about a woman who aids a rich, mysterious man in taking care of his niece and nephew Flora and Miles. It starts off as a group of people telling stories when one person in particular, Douglas, offers up a manuscript of a story which is that of the governess. The book is full of twists and turns as things quickly escalate for the governess. One of the more intense ideas in the book is the concept of ghosts, as they are mentioned frequently throughout the story. The Turn of the Screw is written in such a way, that it is up to the reader to decide how they interpret it. There are generally two interpretations. One …show more content…
At first, the governess believes the ghosts want to take the children so she confronts them. When she confronts Flora, she does so rudely and does not speak to her ahs she should speak to a child of eight. Flora becomes greatly distressed and then suddenly falls ill. She stops talking to the governess and tells her she hates her. The governess sends her away with Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper so she can be alone with Miles. The governess believes she can save him, but that Flora is too far gone. The governess pushes Miles too hard for answers when Quint shows up in the window. She screams at him to look at Quint and to say his name. Only ten years old, Miles becomes overwhelmed, and his heart stops. (James, 1991) The governess blames most of the happenings on the ghosts, which also causes the reader to question her reliability. (Davis, 2009) Even the things she has done, such as singling the children out and treating them too harshly, she turns back to the ghosts as an excuse. She does apologize and gain back some of her credibility, but it is clear that the governess has developed issues far beyond repair. Mrs. Grose and the governess formed a friendship throughout the tale and they sometimes confided in each other for means of venting or getting things off their chest. This is how the governess acquired most of her …show more content…
She kisses them a lot (probably on the cheek) and adores them so much that when Miles gets thrown out of school, she is absolutely horrified and assumes the school only did so because Miles is too much of an angel to handle. She has Flora move into her room, which could be seen as a way of keeping an eye on her, but could also be perceived as creepy because the child is eight years old. She has gotten so attached to the children, that she had a hard time letting go, thus letting her imagination go wild causong her to overreact to the point of Flora’s mental breakdown and Miles's
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...
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.
When being introduced to the characters, sometimes we learn about their appearance, personalities, profession, or history. Miles is a single man who does not have a successful love life. His first love, Carla Carpenter, was a distant girl (by choice) who ended up marrying Miles’ brother Dale. When Anna Thea Hayworth came along, Miles seems to fancy her but never did anything about it. He has nicknamed her Thanatopsis, but she married Wayne Workman, Staggerford’s principal. Miles does not get along with Wayne, probably due to his liking of Anna Thea. As for nonromantic relationships, Miles has is a friendship with the librarian Imogene Kite. Miles describes her as “too tall and bloodless to be attractive” (Hassler 29). On impulse, Miles kisses Imogene for no reason; this proves that Miles is desperate, lonely, and incapable of having clear feelings.
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
The issue whether the governess was insane or not may never be solved. Not only because critics seem to be able to find as much evidence as possible to prove their arguments but also, the reliability of the account of the governess colors the whole story with great ambiguity. We are not certain of the state of mind of the governess when she wrote down the story and when she related the story to Douglas. However, as we closely examine the state of mind of the governess, her reliability does appear to be in question. Beidler provided two readings of The Turn of the Screw and in the second one he declared: ¡§the governess saw only what she wanted to see¡¨ (Beidler 9). She was so exhausted from her prolonged insomnia that she envisioned a story with ghosts for herself to fulfill her growth as a governess.
Toward the end of the novel, the governess sees Ms. Jessel and tries to point her out to Flora and Mrs. Grose. However, Mrs. Grose questions the governess by wondering “[w]here on earth does [she] see anything?” (James 70). Even though Mrs. Grose claims that she does not see any figure, it is not certain that she is telling the truth. It is obvious that she is overwhelmed in this scene because Flora is fearful of the governess’ behavior. Mrs. Grose is merely trying to be rational and appeal to Flora’s anxiety over the governess’ temperamental and persuasive attitude. Another argument that could appeal to the governess’ insanity is that she is love struck by the master, causing her to be delusional. This is exemplified through her imagining that the master “would appear…and stand before [her] and smile and approve” (James 15). Nonetheless, she is not imagining any people because in the last scene of the novel, Miles recognizes Peter Quint’s presence by implying to the governess that he is in the room. If the governess was creating the ghosts in her mind, Miles would not verbally notice Peter Quint’s presence in the room. The governess is clearly sane and does not simply imagine the
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.
The governess’s inability to make a speedy decision leads to her own distress. After witnessing the ghost of Peter Quinn, a former valet at the Bly estate, the governess describes herself as “stricken with death” (James 16). These emotions escalate consistently through the course of the novel, causing her to ponder more seriously whether or not she should tell the owner of Bly of these strange sightings. Due to the shaken mental state the governess develops because of the ghosts, and because one of the children under her care died during her time of service, the governess soon relieved herself of her duties at the country home estate. Conversely, had she written to the owner of Bly, detailing her concerns about
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.
There is no reason for the governess to be afraid. The existence of the ghosts has not even been confirmed. However, because she is insane, she overreacts. In addition, the governess wrongly convinces herself that the “ghosts” have corrupted her charges. While conversing with Mrs. Grose, she worriedly exclaims that Miles and Flora are “his and they’re hers!”
The gothic novel Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, famously divides critics over the story’s ambiguity and faith in the narrator. This psychological thriller forces the audience to either accept the Governess’s accusation that ghosts have corrupted the children under her care, or acknowledge that due to her close proximity to the situation, she unreliably interprets the sequence of events. Throughout the novel, the Governess is blatantly over-enthusiastic and excitable. However, the Governess’s background, Flora’s character changes, and Mrs. Grose’s affirmation of the ghostly identities, advocate in favor of the narrator’s testimony and her reliability to tell the story.
...y the governess brings him up, but also to “all the rest.” These equivocal words refer to the initiation to sex by the governess, which is reinforced by Mile’s pointing out that she “knows what a boy wants!” After Mrs. Grose and Flora leave Bly, the two are once again alone, faced with a tyrannical and silent environment leaving the governess thinking they epitomize “some young couple…on their wedding night.”
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...
Throughout The turn of the Screw by Henry James, the theme of ambiguous issues is constantly leaving the reader on their own. The ambiguity and uncertainty within this text causes the readers to come up with their own theories as to what the text really means. The ghost story perspective only adds to the infuriating vagueness. The title itself is about all of the twists within this story and basically foreshadows the confusion that the text will cause.