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Gender roles and class in society
Critical essays of turn of the screw
Gender roles and class in society
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Peter Quint and Miss Jessel symbolize the indistinguishable nature of both the governess and Miles’s sexuality in Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. Whether or not these ghosts actually exist in the literal sense, Quint’s presence evokes what could be construed as sexual desires in the governess while also reminding her of her social status. Similarly, Quint forces the reader to question Miles’s sexuality because of the implication that their past relationship was of a sexual nature. Miss Jessel, on the other hand, serves as the governess’s only reminder of the wickedness of her desire for a sexual self and ultimately, prevents her from acting upon those desires. These developments emphasize the mysteriousness of the connection between Miles and the governess and lead to a deeper sense of dismay about the true nature of their bond. Although The Turn of the Screw begins in a rather somber mood with Douglas’s tale, it quickly shifts tones during the telling of the governess’s first meeting with the wealthy uncle. This scene makes it clear that the governess places the uncle on a pedestal and that she desperately wants to be in such a privileged position herself. Her attraction for him quickly moves beyond that of an employee to one that nears sexual desire. She even describes the “moment [when] he held her hand, thanking her for the sacrifice, she already felt rewarded” (James 29). While this is only the introduction to the piece, her attraction to the uncle plays an enormous role in the subsequent encounters with Quint, a former house worker who was known to parade around in the master’s clothes. In fact, at the moment when she first sees Quint’s alleged ghost, she is fantasizing about meeting the uncle and is nearly fooled by th... ... middle of paper ... ... engages in a struggle with sexual identity. Both the governess and Miles find themselves lost in a gray area of their own sexuality. Although for Miles it relates to his relationship with Quint and how that translates into his own sexuality, the governess creates her own hardship through her desire for a sexual identity. While she is eventually attracted to every male that she meets, she still does not accomplish her various goals, from privilege to love. The wealthy uncle indeed presents an opportunity to achieve a higher status, but even in this case, she translates her dream into sexual desire. It is this desire which manifests itself in the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. These two individuals manage to represent everything about the governess that she fears. Quint presses her desire for the wealthy uncle while Jessel questions her adoration for Miles.
The classic ghost story, the Turn of the Screw, is filled with loose-ends and ambiguity. Are the ghosts real or imagined? Is the Governess a heroine or anti-heroine? Are the children really as innocent as they seem? In the novel, Henry James rarely provides an in-depth character that the reader actually gets to know. From the young romantic governess, to the intelligent ten year old, James keeps his characters morally ambiguous in order to further the “Unsolved mystery” style.
This information is relevant despite what time period it is. Far to many times, people change themselves to be the “right” person, to like the “fashionable” things, and to fit in, but this is all wrong. God has given humans wonderful traits, skills and virtues inside of them, yet far too many are deceived into being obsessed with something they do not have. Throughout the entire book, Screwtape tried to coax the Patient into being someone else. If the Patient had fallen for it, his life would only end in disappointment, disillusionment, and failure. For example, if a random person with no acting skill wished to be the Doctor from Doctor Who, they would most likely fail. There would be disappointment from that failure, of course, but extend that analogy to someone’s entire life. It would be nothing but an endless attempt to become something unattainable and unachievable, ending in only despair. That is what Screwtape was aiming for, but that does not only apply to the world of The Screwtape Letters. Satan himself seeks to kill, steal, and destroy, and draining a person’s life of meaning would destroy them. Through the undulations and changes in a person’s life, Satan seeks to pull them away from who they are, and through fake pleasures he ties them to harmful habits and lives. These attempts are visible in 2018, and sadly, they have lead many astray, and more
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
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...
Henry James’s Turn of The Screw has long been hailed as one of the most classic and genre-defining novels that has ever been written; the complexity, supposed insanity, and eventual downfall of the main character of the governess creates an engaging plot defined by the mental stability and moral ambiguity of the governess. Throughout the entirety of the novel, the governess increasingly becomes a more conflicted and morally ambiguous character whose unreliable narration suggests a larger introspection into the destructive nature of heroism and the effects an unreliable narrator has on the story as a whole.
In one surface reading of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, the governess appears to be a victim of circumstance. Some critics however, say that she is not without blame in the turn of events that characterizes the story. They claim that leading to her demise are certain character flaws, such as envy and pride. In categorizing her character as such, this novella resonates several themes found throughout literature. In Northrop Frye’s essay The Archetypes of Literature, Frye suggests that there appears to be a relatively restricted and simple group of formulas in literature. These formulas or converging patterns seem to correlate with the natural cycle. Frye considers criticism that searches for these forms, “a kind of literary anthropology”(Frye,480). In the essay, he identifies the archetype central myth of all literature as the quest-myth. Using his essay on archetypes, The Turn of The Screw, can be read and understood as a quest-myth.
...e on her part. Throughout the story, the Mother is portrayed as the dominant figure, which resembled the amount of say that the father and children had on matters. Together, the Father, James, and David strived to maintain equality by helping with the chickens and taking care of Scott; however, despite the effort that they had put in, the Mother refused to be persuaded that Scott was of any value and therefore she felt that selling him would be most beneficial. The Mother’s persona is unsympathetic as she lacks respect and a heart towards her family members. Since the Mother never showed equality, her character had unraveled into the creation of a negative atmosphere in which her family is now cemented in. For the Father, David and James, it is only now the memories of Scott that will hold their bond together.
The Turn of the Screw "I must take my horrid plunge" from the opening line sets the tone of the passage. The novel's gothic form is revealed very early on in the passage. There is a distinctive differentiation between horror and terror derived from the studies of Radcliffe. "Terror" is when one induces to action and "horror" is when one is "powerless" and "freezes" as a result of it. The Governess' horrid plunge is a forced action, as she is powerless to combat the supernatural forces that oppose her.
James’s unfinished frame tale creates frustration and confusion but his experiment with form also draws attention to what has largely been left unconscious. Through Douglas’s initial telling of the governess’s story she is reduced to a nameless object that they all raptly listen about rather than listen to. While at the start, Douglas does have power over the governess’s story, in the end it is the governess who has the final word and Douglas, who disappears after only the first seven pages, is never to be heard from again. James relinquishes power to the governess and allows her to participate as there is no need to return to the male voice once she takes over. Furthermore, as the governess does remain nameless throughout her own narrative this hardly is a power issues as both the master on...
While strolling through the yard she had thoughts about her employer and her attraction to him, and says, “...it would be as charming as a charming story to suddenly meet someone.”(15) Then, “Someone would appear there at the turn of the path and would stand before me and smile.”(15) The governess then froze and stared into the tower’s window and looked right into a man’s face and became excited and nervous, but scared because she did not know if it is a real person or a shadow dressed in all black. Later, the governess described her encounter to Mrs. Grouse. Mrs.Grouse stated that the man she described is Mr. Peter Quint, who has passed away. This confused the Governess because she was able to see him and observe every detail of him. The governess’s psychological state started to decline, because she became alarmed of her surroundings and became spooked at every ghost sighting later to come for she feared for the
He goes on to point out each of the ghost sightings and their effects on the plot. One thing he addresses is how the story is biased in the eyes of the governess and what she sees. Because of this, he looks at the story with uncertainty as it all comes together. He sees the fear and emotional shift in the governess and uses this to blame for the change of course in the story. He specifically says “The governess's ‘seeing’—moral and mental-physical—is what we are made... to ponder, to question… it is an imagination incapable of perceiving ambiguity, only capable of admitting one view and excluding the other.” As a whole, he points out how obsession drives the story from the selfless woman we know from the beginning of the book to the dangerous one we see at the end of the story. This is somewhat shadowed as the governess tries to defend her actions, but it is obvious how she becomes fed up with emotion and fear. It is this fear that changes everything and causes everything to fall apart. However, it is evident that it is all a part of the governess’s head, and through this she is driven by a sense of
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).
Mother asks, “Is there a ghost inside my child?” is a headline that is similar to how the novel The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, is played out. Psychoanalytic criticism interprets the governess as being sane. This is because she is taking her job to the next level by acting like a mother toward the children. She is over-protecting Miles and Flora because she believes the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel are trying to get the children. The governess is also acting like this because she feels the need to over-protect the children because she never had a mother figure in her life.
The Turn of Screw is a gothic novella dictated by Henry James to his typist and originally published on 1898. It is considered an essential classic in the history of world literature.
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.