Within the ambiguous and quite confusing words of Henry James’ novella, The Turn of the Screw, many themes appear such as: the supernatural, good vs. evil, society and class, gender, etc; however, the underlying theme is “Innocence must be preserved.” Once the governess arrived at her new job at Bly and realized what was happening there, her sole mission was not only to care for the children, but to also protect their innocence. In the book, the governess strives with all she has to protect the children from the corruption of the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, and this is similar to the way parents attempt to prolong the innocence of their children.
Innocence is first introduced in the governess. She is young and inexperienced
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(in many aspects of life). This new job is her first time away from her family, which causes her to grow anxious with the thought of the many responsibilities her new job will hold. When she arrives at Bly, the children are angelic and charming; therefore much of the governess’ anxiety disappears. Although, later in the book, the children prove that they aren’t as well behaved and pleasant as their appearance leads them on to be, the governess convinces herself that they are still wonderful children; they could do no harm. For example, in the scene where Miles is found by the governess on the front lawn in the middle of the lawn the governess says this, “The presence on the lawn- I felt as sick I made it out- was poor little Miles himself” (James, 64). The governess uses the words “poor” and “little” to refer to Miles as if he can’t help being bad. She tries to think the best of the Miles and Flora, and that is an example of her innocence shining through. As the ghosts arrive at Bly, the governess’ innocence begins to wither away. She becomes consumed by their presence, and by the end of the book she is acting out in insanity. However, the ghosts did not just ruin the governess’ innocence.
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 …show more content…
left. The governess takes the role of “hero” to protect the children. Even though her plate is full with responsibilities as it is, the governess responds to the problems at Bly by taking even more responsibility- to deal with Miles and his expulsion; to be the one to see the ghosts and attempt to screen the children from their presence; and to save Miles and Flora from the ghost’s corrupting influence. Although her efforts result in a negative outcome, the governess never stops trying to save the children from the evil spirits. She ultimately pushes Flora away with her insanity, and unfortunately Miles dies at the end of the book, but the governess believed she did all she could to preserve their innocence. Like the governess, parents will go to the ends of the earth to save their child’s innocence and purity.
From the first look into their child’s eyes, parents fall in love with the little life they have now welcomed into the world. Their child is the most pure and innocent creature they have laid eyes on, and from that day forward they strive to preserve it for as long as they can. As children grow, parents become more protective (especially with their first child). They spend countless dollars on safety gadgets to place around the house to ensure their child’s safety, and they tell them lies to make holidays more exciting. Does Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny ring a bell? These lies are meant to cause harm; they are simply told to children to prolong their innocence. As long as they believe in fictional characters such as Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, children will have magic in their world. Parents attempt to make that magic last for as long as possible because they know about all the horrible things that happen in the real world. Although parents know they cannot prolong their children’s innocence and purity forever, they try
to. The governess’ and parents’ objectives are closely related when it came to caring for their children. Despite the governess’ best efforts to protect the innocence of Miles and Flora from the spirits that were haunting Bly, it ultimately did not work. Their innocence was long gone before the governess was even hired. Unlike the governess, the parents of the world know that the innocence of their children cannot be preserved forever, but like the governess, parents try their best to save it for as long as possible.
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...
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.
Ever since the new governess shows up to the household, Bly, in The Turn of the Screw, the story of the residents’ lives change forever. Things go from peaceful, beautiful, and orderly to chaotic, ugly, and messy. Every step the governess makes seems to worsen things, but why? Is it the children making things go awry? Or could it be the ghosts messing with the balance of the peace? Or maybe, is it the one person who you would expect to trust the most who is doing the most damage. The protector is the destroyer. The savior is the killer. In The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, the governess is insane because all her actions from sleeping and sensing demons, to assuming far-fetched notions and being the hero in every situation demonstrates
After women experience childbirth, it is common for them to have an experience known as postpartum depression. For the women suffering this type of depression can experience different instances of fear, insomnia and moments of anxiety and paranoia. In the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the narrator begins to show the signs for postpartum depression and psychosis, without having any children and shows a hidden sexual desire about the children. Because of her fear, panicked actions and hasty generalizations throughout the novella, it is clear for readers to question the governess’ sanity and see that she in a deep stage of psychosis.
The novel The Turn of the Screw, describes a newly hired governess’ experience working in the household of Bly and was written years after the ordeal. In this novel the governess experiences multiple encounters with apparitions that seem to only appear around her. For this reason many people question the credibility of the author and theorize whether the ghosts in this novel are real. It is quite clear that these apparitions are merely hallucinations because of the governesses’ obsession with the master, lack of sleep, and faulty memory that resulted in her paranoid, repressed mental state.
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.
and tries to protect them. In the classic novel, The Turn of the Screw, the governess and the
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
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...
...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.
In "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, the main character, the governess, is so deluded and lonely that she will do anything necessary to reduce these horrifying feelings and not feel them. She decides that the way to do that is to possibly find love and instead she seems to have found a strange infatuation with her employer. But, sadly because she is located in a country house in Essex, such a longing is not possible to define. When the governess realizes this, she seems to apparently replace her unreciprocated feelings in the shape of ghostly spirits. It possibly is her way of "getting out." Without fully realizing this, the governess has chosen to be an unreliable narrator. Seeing the ghostly spirits which make appearances in this invisible relationship, allows her to feel as though she, herself was a part of an invisible relationship. But in all actuality, there is no relationship because the employer seems to keep ignoring her. When the governess becomes tired of these ghosts, she turns to other characters to fulfill her "goals."
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.
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.
With each turn of the figurative screw, more screws were loosened in the governess. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a story about a governess that slowly went insane. She saw the “ghosts” of deceased workers and her reactions to these visions made the children and Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, fear and distrust her. The governess began showing signs of mental instability and throughout the book her condition worsened, until she was completely insane.
In his 1948 essay, Robert Heilman explores the suggestion that The Turn of the Screw is a symbolic representation of the conflict between good and evil. Heilman interprets the apparitions of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel as evil forces. He explains that the ghosts only appear to the governess because evil lurks in subtlety before it strikes. It is the duty of the governess to "detect and ward off evil." She must protect the children from the awful ghosts. The governess describes Miles and Flora as beautiful little cherubs whose only fault is their gentleness (James, 18-19). Heilman views the children's beauty as a "symbol of the spiritual perfection of which man is capable." Heilman explains the ghosts' attempts to reach the children by explaining that evil forces will always try to conquer and possess the human soul. Heilman continues to draw from the descriptions of Miles and Flora to support his theories. He points out that the two children are described as having an "angelic beauty" and a "positive fragrance of purity" (James 9, 13). The governess describes them as if they are perfect and beautiful in every way. This repeated vision of beauty, radiance, and innocence parallels the image of Eden. The house at Bly also resembles this image, "I remember the lawn and the bright flowers..." (James 7). The governess makes mention of the "golden sky" and of Flora's "hair of gold," which Heilman believes connects Bly and Flora with these images of golden hues (James 7, 9).