Character Analysis: The Turn Of The Screw

The chilling and eerie novel known as The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James; bring about questionable doubts with its main character. The Governess, plays “The Protector” for Miles and Flora, but often seems to need a little protection when it comes to her own self. The Governess claims ghosts have infiltrated the children throughout the story, yet can never seem to fully prove it. Giving leadway to the harsh reality that the Governess is an unreliable narrator throughout her tail through instances that she fully admits to not remembering time past, her wild over emotion that she lets control her, and through her growing obsession to be a “Hero” for the children.

Throughout this story, the Governess often goes off to clear her head or for

She takes on the mindset that she must be a hero for the children to be saved. A theory that is not very credible considering that the idea pops out of the blue. The governess views the situation as an occasion for heroism and takes up the role as protector of Miles and Flora. She sees the ghosts as terrible demons, determined to take hold of the children and never let them go. But, this too leads to the Governesses erratic behavior in the very end of the book. She believes the ghost of Peter Quint wants to hurt Miles, but she in the process hurts him by violently shaking and harassing him to say the ghosts name. The Governess says that the children say such profanities that they must be possessed, but doesn’t look at the evidence of her own behavior causing the profanities. She is so infatuated by the idea of the children needing to be saved in her head, she doesn’t look at the actuality that is going on in the real world. Being that she is at war with her inner self and is taking it out on reality. She scares the children so bad that profanities come from their mouths, or so she says. The profanities can also be interrupted differently to her since she is clearly not in control of what is real and what is not. In her mind the children may be saying the most crude things imaginable, yet in reality they could be less harsh. The possibility that the