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The Governess's Sanity In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

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Governess’s Sanity In the novel The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the governess is a fluid character who can be interpreted many ways. She is forced to deal with an odd situation when the ghosts of past workers appear around Bly. The manner in which she confronts issues in the story creates a deliberately ambiguous character that can be seen as sane or insane. The governess is sane as her motivation is rational, the ghosts are real, and the other characters are unreliable. The governess’s rational actions to protect Miles and Flora illustrate her soundness of mind. After seeing the apparitions and realizing they were the ghosts of past workers at Bly House, the governess’s first thought is concern for the children. She places their …show more content…

The governess feels that Peter Quint had returned to Bly to see Miles after learning about the close relationship held between the two. Mrs. Grose explains that “Quint was much too free” with Miles while employed at Bly. This close relationship makes Miles an unreliable character. The intimate relationship Mile held with Peter Quint gives Miles incentive to protect Peter Quint by denying his existence. At the end of the story Miles admits to seeing Quint with the statement; “Peter Quint -- you devil” (James 86). In this exclamation Miles is identifying the ghost of Peter Quint in the room, as well as referring to the governess as the devil. After finally admitting to Quint’s presence, Miles refers to the governess as the devil due to his anger at her for impeding on his close relationship. He would want to keep Peter Quint exclusively to him, making him an unreliable character as he has reason to denounce the apparitions. Alternate characters in the story are not believable, furthering the notion that the governess is …show more content…

It could be argued that she is insane as her relationship with the children turns to borderline obsession as the story progresses. The governess becomes extremely attached and protective of the children almost immediately; however, she was forced to do this. Her employer requested that the governess “never trouble him…[and] to meet all questions herself” (James 6). The Uncle placed blind faith in the governess without her ever meeting the children, forcing her to create a strong relationship with the children immediately. She is forced into a situation where she is to serve as Miles and Flora’s sole caretaker as soon as she arrived at Bly. Under these conditions her relationship with the children is justified. It can also be argued that the governess’s reluctance to contact anyone about the issues at Bly are reason for insanity. The governess denounces Mrs. Grose’s idea to contact the Uncle by threatening to quit if Mrs. Grose does. This is not insanity as the governess was given specific instructions not to contact the Uncle, and also because the ghosts had not presented any danger. The ghosts had only “appeared and stood there” throughout the novel (James 30). There was no action taken by the apparitions that would suggest they had any intention of harming the children. The lack of danger the situation rationalizes why the governess did not contact anyone about the apparitions at

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According to Mrs. Grose, one of the maids who worked at Bly, the Governess described the ghosts as being Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. Miss Jessel was the former Governess and Peter Quint was a part of the help at Bly. Mrs. Grose also saw the Governess slip quickly away into insanity caused by the ghosts, and Mrs. Grose and the children wanted to escape from the Governess by leaving Bly household. There are several indicators that the children and Mrs. Grose wanted to escape from the Governess as a result of her mental instability and possibly even the ghosts. Miles says “Then when am I going back(to school)?”

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As soon as the governess sees the Peter Quint, she puts the safety of the children above all else. After seeing Mr. Quint, the governess describes herself as “a screen—[she] was to stand before them [for] the more [she] saw, the less they would” (James 27). The governess behaves rationally and is able to carry out her job successfully. This is something only a sane person could do, as an insane person could not carry out the task of protecting the children and keeping them safe from whatever dangers there may be. The governess also states that, “[she] was there to protect and defend the little creatures” (James 27).

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The governess is clearly insane because her behavior shows the symptoms of someone who is a paranoid schizophrenic. A paranoid schizophrenic is one whose mind is not

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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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Written in 1898 by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw has long been a topic of debate within the literary world in regards to psychology, feminism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis (“Turn of the Screw”). The gothic fiction novel tells a story of a governess who is hired to take care of two children in a town named Bly. During her stay, she dreams of her anonymous employer, believes to see ghosts of her predecessors, and sinks into an indistinguishable world of delirium and the undead, all while struggling to keep face in front of an eight and ten-year-old, who she also believes are corrupted. Ultimately, the novel sparks controversy over topics such as sexual repression, hysteria, ghosts, unconscious thought, sexual abuse, and more. But within the

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The governess is clearly insane because her behavior shows the symptoms of someone who is a paranoid schizophrenic. A paranoid schizophrenic is one whose mind is not intact with reality and thinks someone or something is out to get them. On the governess’ first night in Bly, she believes she recognizes “the cry of a child” and the sound of its “light footstep” (James 8). Here, the governess is experiencing and auditory hallucination. Auditory hallucinations are a common symptom of schizophrenia, which is a form of insanity.

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She could be lying or maybe just going along with whatever the governess says, and is therefore an unreliable source of reassurance for the governess. Some people also believe that because Miles cries out Peter Quint’s name at the end of the story, it shows that he is able to see the ghost of Quint. However, as Miles shouts “Peter Quint - you devil!” there is uncertainty as to what he meant (James 86). Because the dash is there, it is ambiguous whether or not Miles was talking to Quint or about Quint.

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Within the Bly household as read in The Turn of the Screw, where the governess is the only person able to see ghosts, everything seems as it is falling apart. As the governess starts working at Bly, everything seems picture perfect, but is quite the opposite as the story progresses. As everything unfolds at Bly the governess seems to become progressively mentally incapacitated. As days pass by the governess believes she begins to see the ghosts on a daily basis, and she becomes so frustrated she accuses the children, Miles and Flora, of meeting with the ghosts. The children never admit to her accusations, which upsets the governess to sure a high degree that she even starts to blame the children of conspiring against her.

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When examining racial identity in America, it can be said that it has become institutionalized. It shows up in our everyday life, appearing in both the sociopolitical and economic spheres of life. America has demonstrated an obsession with categorizing people on the basis of their race, and has imposed these ideas on immigrants who come to live in this country. Many immigrants, especially from Latin America, have different notions of race, and may not share the same ideas as Americans. Their opinions may vary because of many factors, such as familial or societal influence.

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The novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a spooky masterpiece that uses repetition throughout the story. Beauty is an example of a word that is continually used, so it is memorable to the story. Whether James is referring to the children, the governess, the master, or their property, beauty is an adjective that is frequently used, so this suggests that looks are important throughout this story. The governess is a young women who radiates with beauty and is infatuated with the master because of his handsomeness (most likely the reason she took the job).

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One interpretation is that when Miles looks to where the governess is looking, he says “Is it he?” followed by “Peter Quint - you devil! Where?” suggesting that he is admitting Quint’s ghost’s existence (122-123). Soon after this, the governess points to Quint only to realize that Miles’ “little heart, dispossessed, had stopped” (123). From the perspective that this novella is a story of the governess going insane, it is hard to accept their interpretation of this scene as one purely constructed by the governess’ imagination. It is also hard to believe that she had the ability to kill Miles, given how fond she was of the children and how hard she was trying to protect them.

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Aunt Georgiana very unpredictable outgoing has a strong love for music. Until one day she met the love of her life a “shiftless boy of twenty-one,”(251). Being the cat she is, she decides to be adventurous and ignore her family's dislike of the gentleman and leave everything behind to follow his dreams; little did she know this was her biggest mistake. After many years have gone by she finds herself finally leaving the farm on route to visit her nephew. During her visit Clark her nephew, realizes that his aunt appears to be in a “semi-somnambulant state,”(Cather 252).

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Her brother's ghost is the, "living embodiment of a disturbing possibility: that human privileges are quite fragile" (213). The presence of the ghost forces the narrator to realize that

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In this novella, “The Turn of the Screw,” there are many questions determining if the apparitions, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, are real or just hallucinations. This novella does not go into detail about whether they are real or not. In my opinion they are just hallucinations. In this novella, it is known that the governess is in love with Mile’s and Flora’s uncle. Her love for the master became noticeable when she sees Peter Quint for the first time.

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