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The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James: A Literary Analysis

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Having barely any previous knowledge about the role of a governess to a family, I assumed the only duty of a governess was to educate children. In other words, they were hired to homeschool children. I also believed that they had a set schedule on when to arrive and when to go home. It wasn’t until reading The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, that I became aware of the role governesses take on with children. In comparison, a governess in the late nineteenth century is similar to a nanny in our time; a caretaker who spends quality time with children. Taking this into consideration, after having read the section “The Victorian Governess in Fact” in the book, I was able to reevaluate the governess’s character in the story. It is stated, that …show more content…

To my surprise, people living in the time when the book first was published, were fascinated by ghost stories (Beidler 184). With many ghost cases recorded during that time, I believe that James merely produced The Turn of the Screw as another fictitious testimony of the trending topic of ghost phenomena that was roaming around town. In the edited version of the book, James biographical background is discussed which states that he struggled financially because “his books were not selling well” (Beidler 13). For this reason, I made a possible connection concerning one of the reasons James decided to write about ghosts; needless to say, his desire to make a successful book that engaged his audience. The seriousness about the belief in ghost influenced my understanding of the story because those that believed that there “is no such thing as ghosts” were looked as irrational (Beidler 195). Learning about the popularity of ghost tales in the late nineteenth century, I believe James had the intentions to convince his readers that the story is in fact about spooky ghosts and not a governess who is

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