Category: The Turn of The Screw

In “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James, the central character, the governess, feels so isolated that she will do anything necessary to quench the feeling. She decides that the way to do so is to be in love. Unfortunately, because she is located in Bly, such a desire is not possible to actualize. When the governess realizes this she begins to manifest her unrequited feelings in the shape of ghostly apparitions. Her point of view also plays an important role in how the reader observes the ghosts. Subconsciously, the governess has chosen to be an unreliable narrator, seeing fantastical phantoms which participate in an enamored relationship allows her to feel as though she herself was a part of it. When the governess becomes tired with these ghosts, however, she turns to other characters to fulfill her aspiration.

The governess sees ghosts in order to satisfy her yearning desire to be in love. The young governess is instantly attracted to the “handsome, bold and pleasant” bachelor uncle of the orphaned children by whom she is hired. This overwhelming feeling was the original motivation for her accepting the job as governess. The reader’s introduction to the governess’ most basic feelings shows the reader that this is one of her primary concerns at the point in her life that the novella begins. The governess’ craving to be cherished by a man is induced by the uncle’s “charming ways with women”. His graciousness gives her a taste of how she would like to be treated in life. When the governess leaves to accept the position she is at an undeveloped age, with a background consisting of country poverty and only one position related to children (as a schoolteacher) prior to the event at hand. This results in a lack of knowledge as to what she wants from life. The gentlemanly uncle gives her an ‘ideal’ to aspire towards.

The governess is an unreliable narrator; her dreams to be in love become so realistic to her that she actually begins to see apparitions. Her first sighting occurs only a moment after she is dreaming about how it would be “as charming as a charming story suddenly to meet someone’. The word ‘story’ implies an innocent, childlike, fairytale view of the emotion she experiences, this diction choice demonstrates her inability to deal with the emotion maturely. When Peter Quint appears on the tower at that point her imagination is taking over and giving her the ‘love’ that she has been dreaming about since she arrived at Bly. The governess’ mind shows her Quint as a ghost because subconsciously she knows it’s unreal and therefore unattainable, that he is a ghost is her rationalization of the situation — mental selfpreservation. The governess’ initial sighting of the second ghost, Miss Jessel, is of the same nature as her original sighting of Quint; our narrator wishes for, or in the second case, “becomes aware that (the governess) has an interested spectator”, before seeing it, leading the reader to conclude that the ghosts are manifestations of her thoughts. She sees the ghost in her mind’s eye and because of her imagination is then able to transfer the image to visual. For her to be able to have a relationship with ‘Peter’, the above describes the next logical step in her dream: to again allow her mind to take over and invent a ‘Miss Jessel’. Miss Jessel and Peter Quint had “everything between them” according to Mrs. Grose, this supports the romantic relationship the governess conceives Quint to be involved in. Miss Jessel represents what the governess wants to be, a woman who is in love with someone (Quint) who feels mutually towards her. The reader is forced to question the governess’ narrative reliability, and because it is written in first person it difficult for the reader to accurately assess the feelings and opinions of other characters.

The governess’ arrival to the setting in Bly is a logical place for her unrequited feelings of love to emerge. Her arrival in Bly at the start of the narrative is accomplished only after “long hours in a bumpy, swinging coach”. This carriage ride is the physical process that brings her away from civilization and to a place (Bly) that allows her imagination to run wild. On a psychological level the journey can be interpreted as a journey of her mind; it takes her away from her ‘ego’ and ‘super ego’ and into the deeper realms of ‘id’ (which covers such primal, instinctual feelings as the need to have sex, coming only as a result of having a male character with whom to interact). Her first impressions describe Bly as having “open windows, fresh curtains, bright flowers, a golden sky, and impressive rooms with great beds, full draperies and long glasses”. The place is in such a state of perfection that the reader gets the feeling it is covering up abominable secrets of the past including taboo deaths (the parents) and Miles’ ambiguous expulsion. During her first night in Bly the governess considers with “uneasy suspicion” the “guarded” way that Mrs. Grose treats her. Such negative underlying emotions could result in an even stronger need on her part to escape to such a positive emotion as love.

The narrator looks for love in Bly, as her necessity becomes more and more frantic she looks to different, and all, male characters to satisfy it. It begins with a reasonable attraction towards the uncle, then her displaced emotion moves to the fictitious Peter Quint for the most part of the novella. In the last chapter she even looks to the boy, Miles, for a reciprocating feeling, this is shown in his adult diction and actions in her narrative of him, in her struggle to attain love she actually smothers Miles to the point of death. Finally, it is implied in the preface that after our account of the story ends, she turns the demand on Douglas.

The Turn of The Screw is a horror novella by the American author Henry James, It was published in the year 1898, the view on this novel has been different throughout the course of history especially looking at it through the lens of a feminist, during the time this novella was written in 1898 this was the time of first wave feminism. The first wave of feminism focused on mainly on things like the right for women to vote and legal matters however during this wave women had very little say especially as this novella was written about nine years before the suffragette movement. We do see the strong stereotypes throughout this story one being right at the beginning when the men are speaking of their stories in front of the fire and the women are sat around listening and laughing along, this at the time may have seemed like such an innocent aspect of the novel however looking at it from a modern feminist perspective we can see that this is a subtle example of how female voices were very hidden during the times this novel was written. Women were seen as inferior to men with no power in any situations whether it was working life or social life the men during the 19th century really did hold the shots. Men were privileged in ways for example they were allowed to have an education and working life, this is why the character of the governess challenged these stereotypes in a way as she seemingly had a good education and she did support herself with a job looking after Flora and Miles. Another reason this was very strange was not only because she was a woman but also because she was very young.

In result of the timing this novella was written there was definitely an uprise in feminism as saying earlier the Suffragette movement did actually come alive greatly a few years later but I believe that Henry James subtly catches the uprise in feminism in different ways throughout the text for example when the governess first arrives at the house and is given her responsibilities James uses the metaphor “great drifting ship.” This is very significant for a feminist reader for a few reasons the first being that ships are often by males referred to in a feminine pronoun for example “she” or “her”. The idea of pursuing feminist uproar and views through literature also caught on through time for example authors like Mary Shelley and Emily Bronte having powerful female protagonists to show a change throughout literature. The governess throughout the novel explains certain situations which indicate the lifestyle of women through literature for example when she talks about her younger life with her family and compares it to the life that she is living now in Bly she says “small smothered life.” This is a huge indication to the lack of freedom she experienced when she was younger and as a reader we can assume maybe this was in result of society’s views on women for example that they should stay in the house especially younger females and children should be taught on life being a good wife. In comparison to this throughout the novel I believe we see the governess really break out of her shell and this feels even to the reader as a relief as there is a contrast in a way between her old small smothered life and now her wide open country life. There is a few juxtapositions however throughout the novel were James does actually still follow the same patriarchal society for example even though the character of the governess is quite ambiguous he still sets her dreams of marrying a rich man and in some way falling head over heels for him which is a complete juxtaposition to the fact that she has graduated from a college and is highly intelligent with her own job, this sets her back from the ambiguous character in which Henry James tries to portray many times. This was a common dream and ultimate goal for many women of the victorian era as they were very limited in what they could actually achieve overall in life.

The novel gives some sort of impression that women are prone to things such as mental instability and can’t deal with their emotions with many scholars actually believing the governess was in fact just hallucinating when seeing the ghosts and they were a fixture of her imagination or even her sexual desire. I believe James wanted to himself question the insanity of the governess as throughout the novel we are unsure to believe if the ghosts are in fact fixtures of her imagination. Mrs Grose however is a true representation of what women would typically be like during the Victorian era for example she was quite illiterate in comparison to the governess, she is seemingly very admirative of the governed treating her with a high amount of respect. I believe this is because Mrs Grose admired the fact that the governess didn’t actually stick to the gender norms of the victorian era and may women of this time were very strung up in relationships were men controlled their life.

‘Silence’ in Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is integral to the text not only in a literal sense, but also figuratively; the gaps that are purposefully left in the plot and the reader’s knowledge also act, powerfully, as “silences”. Whilst literal, aural silences provide an atmospheric tone in James’ novel, it is the metaphorical, textual silences that take precedence, sitting at the centre of the book.

James purposefully implements such gaps, and stubbornly refuses to fill them. It is, consequently the reader’s task to take these silences on, guided by markers in the text. In “The Turn of the Screw”, the gaps left unfilled by James have been under constant critical debate since the novel’s first publication, culminating in a vast array of diverse interpretations of the tale; testament to the effectiveness of these silences. It is the reader’s straying imagination that fills the gaps, naturally led by the horrifying implications James provides for them.

One of the major ‘silences’ central to the novel as a whole is a product of James’ layered narrative, where, as Anthony Mazella comments, “the governess’ manuscript is mediated through Douglas’s transcription and editing,” with an additional narrator at the opening of the novel recounting Douglas’s telling of the tale. Naturally, such a narrative leaves gaps in the novel. The reader, for instance, never discovers Douglas’s relationship towards the governess, the identity of the initial narrator, or indeed very much information about the governess herself, her being nameless throughout. Additionally, the framing of the governess’s narrative within another, told some time after the events of hers had taken place, “it has not been out for years,” creates a gap or ‘silence’ in those years which the reader never learns about, creating a marked distance from the primary tale. What this achieves is in a dissimulation of “an origin, and thus a fixed point of reference for the story,” as Shoshana Felman argues, implementing a structural silence which causes the reader to question the plausibility of the governess’s narrative entirely.

Additionally, there occurs a literal ‘silence’ at the close of the novel, in the sense that the framing narrative does not return after the death of Miles. This runs contrary to the reader’s expectations of a framing narrative. As in novels with a similar Chinesebox structure such as Wuthering Heights, the structure is circular and returns to Lockwood’s narration at the end. Because of this silence at the end of the novel, a jarring effect occurs, where, as Richard Rust comments, “the horror is accentuated by the undermining of the frame structure itself, something we counted on to provide control.

However, there here arises the question in this instance of whether this effective ‘silence’ ‘refuses’ to be filled, as Claire Seymour has suggested. It is the reader’s own ‘horror’ at the end of the novel which one could imagine would undoubtedly be shared with that of the group being told the same story, were they to appear once more. Thus, while the absence of the framing narrative at the end of the novel is a silence, it is one that is in theory, ‘filled’ by the reader’s own horror.

The governess in the novel may also be thought of as a generator of silences throughout the text. These lie both in her refusals and hesitancy to communicate as well as her withholding of information; the latter being a very literal kind of silence. For instance, the governess frequently hesitates to ask either Flora or Miles outright whether or not they have seen the apparitions of Quint or Miss Jessel, instead making assured assumptions that they have, telling Mrs. Grose for instance that although Flora did not say “a word” at the lake about seeing Miss Jessel, the governess is certain that “she saw,” though the truth of this is left ambiguous to the reader.

Another of the major instances in which the governess upholds her silence is in her lack of correspondence with the master, or the children’s uncle. Even upon receiving an expulsion letter from Miles’s school, she claims to have “made up her mind” to say “nothing” to the master. It is possible, as claimed by Douglas at the opening of the novel, that the governess is infatuated or even in love with the master, and the ghosts that these willful ‘silences’ are a bravado attempt to avoid disappointing the master. However, critic Thomas J. Bontley suggests that the governess sees the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel as “a personal challenge to her chosen role as defender of innocence,” an idea which suggests that her refusal to break or ‘fill’ the silence on Miss Jessel or Quint with the children is her own desperate attempt to shield them from the apparitions: “I was a screen- I was to stand before them. The more I saw the less they would.”

The literal, aural silences in “The Turn of the Screw” often occur in the presence of the ghosts or in the moments leading up to their appearance to the governess. In one instance, the governess actually comments that “It was the dead silence of our long gaze at such close quarters that gave the whole horror, huge as it was, its only note of the unnatural.” Indeed, this comment on it being solely the silence lending a tone of the ‘unnatural’ seems representative of the book in its entirety; it is the silences or gaps that James refuses to fill that instill the most horror. It is also possible however, that the governess’s encounters with the ghosts being entirely silent is indicative of her own madness or hallucination. One critic, Thomas J. Bontley suggests that the “[the governess’] horror must be seen as a result of her own intense vision of sexual evil.” In other words, because the governess is aware of Miss Jessel and Quint’s illicit sexual affair whilst living, she sees them as symbols of sexuality and thus a corrupting force which it is her utmost role to protect the children from.

This idea brings us neatly onto another ‘silence’ central to the novel which lies in implication and unspoken tension, in the form of sex and sexuality. Silenced both by the real Victorian world lying outside the book’s bounds and reinforced within the governess desperately attempts to prevent the children from being “corrupted,” encompassing in her character traditional Victorian values about sex and sexuality. The silence surrounding sex in the novel manifests itself symbolically through particular images and subtle nudges towards the subject. Quint, for instance, first appears to the governess atop the ‘old tower,’ an imposing phallic image which again combines the inherently evil supernatural with sex, and as Bontly phrases it, “evil is given actuality in actual ghosts, and is explicitly associated with human sexuality.” Thus, whilst sex within the novel is a ‘silence’ in the sense that it is not written about explicitly, yet again the reader is invited to ‘fill’ the gap with the implications James peppers throughout the novel.

Victorian ghost stories such as James’ The Turn of the Screw often used silences both literal and metaphorical for the intended goal of horrifying or scaring the reader, a tradition which has retained its power over time, found in modern ghost stories as well as horror films; it is often commented that the most ‘scary’ horror films are the ones where the ‘evil’ is not, or barely ever present, and thus a ‘gap’ or ‘silence’ in the story. “The Turn of the Screw” is no exception to this rule. The novel’s power rests upon the aural, implied, and textual silences at the heart of the novel which lie deafeningly open to the reader’s imagination. It is the reader’s own fears, those that they bring to the book themselves, that fill these open holes. As James himself so aptly put it of his readers: “his own experience, his own imagination, his own sympathy […] and horror […] will supply him quite sufficiently with all the particulars.”