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Psychoanalytical Criticism: Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

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Psychoanalysis Criticism: Turn of the Screw The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a ghost story that has the reader question everything about it. The reader slowly starts to question the reliability of the narrator and soon has the narrator questioning herself. Believing that the ghost she sees are out to get the children and also struggling to find proof that she is not the only one who sees these ghosts but ultimately ending in the death of one of the children. By looking at the novel through a psychoanalysis lens, the reader can see that the ghosts were just hallucinations and the reader finds Governess reasons for these hallucinations.
The novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry James first starts off with a group of people telling ghost stories. The unknown narrator describes the conversation that he has with a guy named Douglas who claims to have a scary ghost story that doesn’t just haunt one child but two. Douglas then says it’s his sister’s Governess’ manuscript and that it is suppose to be a real account. Richard Sawyer states in the article What’s Your Title- The Turn of the Screw that the prologue conditioned …show more content…

The narrator in The Turn of the Screw, who was never named but called the Governess, began to see ghosts. Even though the Governess sees these ghosts she is unable to know for sure if anyone else sees them too. Eventually, she found out the horrible truth which is that no one else sees them. “...for with this hard blow of the proof that her eyes were hopelessly sealed I felt my own situation horribly crumble…” (James, 121). The Governess was beginning to figure out that she is the only one that can see the ghosts and starts to question her sanity more than before. Her sanity slowly starts to crumble. This was the proof she needed. She needed to know if Miss Grose sees the ghosts too and it turns out that she

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In the book, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, I think the governess seems very knowledgeable, religious, caring, protective, and loving. I feel the governess is knowledgeable for an obvious reason: she is a governess, which means she must have gone to school herself and obtained enough information to be able to teach her knowledge to children. I also think she is religious because she goes to church every week. As well as being knowledgeable and religious, I believe the governess is caring and protective because when she saw Peter Quint she immediately did not want to go to church, for fear of leaving the children alone with the deceased Mr. Quint. Another reason why I think she is protective, caring, and loving is that she started to

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The governess’s sanity in Henry James’s Turn of the Screw is often disputed over in literature. Because the governess sees ghosts in the novel, she is often argued as insane. The definition of sanity proves otherwise, stating that it is the “state of being sound of mind or having appropriate judgment skills” (Psychology Dictionary). The governess is sane because she behaves rationally, protects the children above all costs, and is not the only character witnessing a supernatural presence.

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The novel, Turn of the Screw, by Henry James takes place in England and is told from the point of view of the Governess, whose sanity is questionable. The Governess is insane because throughout the novel, she is the only one who sees the ghosts, she is in love with the master, and she allows her desire to protect the children to drive her to insanity. First, the Governess is insane because she is the only character in the novel to ever have seen the ghosts. Early in the novel, the Governess claims she sees the ghost of Peter Quint, and immediately tells Mrs. Grose.

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The governess is insane because she is the only person at Bly to witness the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. During her employment, the Governess claims to experience several ghostly interactions, however no one else could relate to her sightings. For example, after claiming to see two ghosts, the Governess confides in Mrs. Grose and later says “she herself had seen nothing, not the shadow of a shadow, and nobody in the house but the governess was in the governess’s plight,” (James 24). Mrs. Grose is eliminated as a witness and cannot argue if the paranormal activity at Bly was real. Since no one can support the governess’s claims, then presumably, they were hallucinated by

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After spending a few days taking care of and teaching Miles and Flora, the governess has visual hallucinations and claims to see the apparitions of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. She keeps trying to convince Mrs. Grose (her companion) that “They want to get them” (James 47). At this point, the governess senses that the ghosts

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The governess progressively believes in things around her that are pseudo and assumed. Nobody else at Bly can see the ghosts that she claims even when the children tried to believe her, they just could not see the ghosts she could see. Things slowly but surely fell apart at Bly, and it seemed to start right when the governess made assumptions about the ghosts she had met. The governess had done many things at Bly, but proving her insanity is something she could not

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The governess thinks that the kids can see the ghost too, they are just too afraid to admit it. Miles who is persuaded most by the apparition won’t admit that he see’s Peter Quint. By him not admitting that he can see the apparition the people in the household start to think that the governess is going mad. The governess tries to get everyone out of the house, so she can get Miles alone, along with the governess “was already, at the door, hurrying [Mrs. Grose] off. ‘I’ll get it out of him.

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