Mental Illness In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

807 Words2 Pages

Mental Illness in The Turn of the Screw “Mental illness leaves a huge legacy, not just for the person suffering it but for those around them.”- Lysette Anthony. In the book The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the governess is suffering from some form of mental illness to where she is hallucinating ghosts. She is very confident in her thoughts, so she thinks anything that she is seeing, everyone else is seeing. The governess makes up ghosts in her mind that are following the kids she is in charge of, and she ends up hurting both of them herself. In the story, the governess is the only person that ever claims to see the ghosts. The governess is alone outside when she first sees the ghost of Peter Quint, and is alone in the hallway at night …show more content…

Throughout the whole book, the governess is assuming things about the children. From what Mrs. Grose tells her about Miles getting kicked out of school, she assumes he is bad. Knowing he is bad, she assumes that he is talking and planning with ghost because that is what a bad kid would do in her mind. Then, she assumes that Flora likes her without any confirmation. The governess says, “I felt quite sure that she [Flora] would presently like me. It was part of what I already liked Mrs. Grose for herself” (8). This shows that she is so overconfident of her thoughts that she, at first, has no doubt that Flora and Mrs. Grose like her. Later in the story, the governess see the ghosts and automatically thinks the children are seeing them. She never asks the kids if they see the ghosts she is confident that they are there. She is so over confident in herself that she does not ever think that the ghosts could just be hallucinations of her mind. Flora is eight and Miles is ten, so they are still childish and when they run away or try to pull a joke on the governess is not out of the ordinary. The governess blames their behavior on ghosts without even thinking that they are acting this way because they are young. The governess is so caught up in herself and what she thinks is going on, that she is not in touch with

Show More
Related

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

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, it is not the ghosts, as the governess suspected, that are corrupting the children, but the governess herself, through her continually worsening hysteria that is corrupting the children. Both Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are not real ghosts that have the peculiar habit of appearing before the governess and the governess alone but they are merely the signs of the fragmenting mental state of the governess.

    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

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

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    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....

    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

  • 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

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

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    from Harley Street. The governess begins to suspect that the children can see the ghosts as well

    Read More

  • The Turn of the Screw

    1654 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to a Freudian psychoanalysis of the governess, we understand that there is much more occurring than just a haunted estate. The reader knows what is occurring...

    Read More

  • Why Is The Turn Of The Screw A Ghost Story

    1338 Words  | 3 Pages

    After finding Flora and seeing Miss Jessel across the lake, the governess exclaims to Flora, “there, there, there, and you see her as well as you see me!” (120). Flora later says, “I don’t know what you mean. I see nobody. I see nothing” (122). Still, the governess believes that the children know about the ghosts. Later, the governess tells Mrs. Grose, “They know [about the ghosts]—it’s too monstrous: they know, they know!” (51). The governess, without evidence, wholly believes that the children are lying to her, and her paranoia increases the more she

    Read More

  • The Governess In The Ghost Story

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Oh, I remember those class discussions where I thought, like the majority of the class, that the governess was delusional and ghosts didn’t exist on the Bly estate. However, after further speculation I realized I was wrong. The governess always said that Bly was “mysterious” and she was right. After corrupting Miles, the ghost of Peter Quint was deemed real by the Governess, who in the meantime, was trying to protect him.

    Read More

  • Ambigrity In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    By letting her insecurity get the best of her, the governess allows distrust to engulf her. When a candle goes out during the night, she thinks “I felt an instant certainty that Flora had extinguished it” (174). The continuous self doubt leads the Governess to subconsciously augment her mistrust of others. Unabating mistrust throughout the whole story leaves a portentous effect hanging over with story. With the Governess constantly unsure of who to trust, the reader is kept on edge in regard of the characters different relationships. When questioned about Flora’s witnessing of Miss Jessel, she exclaims “No, for God’s sake don’t! She’ll say she isn’t--- she’ll lie!” (157). This quick retort underscores the innate suspicion which was driven by insecurity. The governess doesn’t even want to be associated with Flora out of the fear that she’ll undermine her credibility. This idea isn’t as frightening is the physical state as it is when one thinks about it. The Governess was pushed to a point where the couldn’t trust anyone, even an eight year old girl. Though Miles and Flora could have caught sight of the ghosts, the Governess overthought the dynamic of the siblings and drove herself into a crazed frenzy. This section of the book was demonstrating how themes in a story could influence through the mind rather than a physical scare of a

    Read More

  • Turn Of The Screw: The Governess

    1215 Words  | 3 Pages

    She tells Mrs. Grose about her wariness of the children when she claims that “their unnatural goodness; it’s a game… it’s a policy… and it’s a fraud!” (James 41). She makes ridiculous accusations that these innocent children are secretly in a scheme with ghosts. The governess allows her skepticism of the children to control her thoughts, despite the children denying her claims. She does not trust the children, and she starts to believe the ghosts are out to get them. She unreasonably blames the children for acting up, becomes obsessed with the idea that they are up to no good, and worries that something bad will happen. Her unreasonableness, obsession, and excessive worries contribute to her insanity. The governess also admits that “in the state of my nerves… I must have gripped my little girl with a spasm” (James 41). At this point in the story, she is distressed because she believes Flora is lying, so she lashes out and hurts her. Even if it was unintentional, she still acted irrationally on the spot due to her current unstable mental state. This sudden, unreasonable action shows her extreme mental instability because she is unable to control her actions. On top of being delusional, the governess also acts senselessly upon her delusions, which clearly reveals her

    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

  • Mental Illness In Frankenstein Essay

    1027 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gothic literature, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, was written to oppose the romantic literature that was popular during the time it was written. The romantic literature is centered around idealism and perfection in society, whereas gothic literature is focused on what is imperfect and supernatural. In Frankenstein, the main character, Victor Frankenstein, has anything but an ideal life. A series of misguided events lead to the immoral creation of an eight foot tall superhuman that destroys Victor’s family. Through her use of spur of the moment, rage filled actions, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein displays the effects of mental illness on a person’s morality. The cause of these actions and those ensuing include bouts of hysteria, narcissism,

    Read More

  • Insanity as a Metaphor in The Yellow Wall-Paper, The Tell-Tale Heart, Hamlet, and Mad Song

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    The sickness of insanity stems from external forces and stimuli, ever-present in our world, weighing heavily on the psychological, neurological, and cognitive parts of our mind. It can drive one to madness through its relentless, biased, and poisoned view of the world, creating a dichotomy between what is real and imagined. It is a defense mechanism that allows one to suffer the harms of injustice, prejudice, and discrimination, all at the expense of one’s physical and mental faculties.

    Read More

  • Downfall of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    In restless sleep and longing for contact with those outside of Bly-- particularly her employer-- the governess placed hope in chance meetings of random individuals. In her walk in the yard, the governess began to wish for the sight of her employer who she was still madly in love with. The governess's desire to see him and receive his reassuring approval conceived the ghost of what was later revealed to be Peter Quint she believed she had seen. Later in her climax of interaction with her ghosts, the governess is afraid that the master will come home, for she is fearful of what he will think of her.

    Read More

More about Mental Illness In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

Open Document