Turn Of The Screw Essay

The Turn of the Screw, a book by Henry James, has captivated readers for more than a century with its spooky atmosphere and mysterious plot. The governess, Henry James' main character, has been involved in multiple studies that have explained the story's meaning in different ways. The 1897 novel looks at the characters' complex emotional background and the narrator's lack of clarity. Since the novel was published, commentators have disagreed over its meaning and importance, "These questions and many more have exercised the minds of scores of critics who, long before the days of deconstructivism, debated the story's 'meaning''", "...moreover, the possibility of varying interpretations makes the story dramatic..."(Benedict). Several interpretations

Ambiguity is created in the book's theme because it leaves the reader questioning the reliability of the governess’ account and also it gives the reader an intimate position in the story because the account is given firsthand by the governess. The governess is a dynamic character and the story is carried by her, but “...the governess herself – is unreliable, as she tells the story years later and her memory is potentially clouded by her experiences and desires. She apparently begins to see ghosts, which manifest themselves just as she is having inappropriate sexual thoughts or when she is thinking about her intense affection for the children…” (Begley). The governess comes from a background with a physically unbalanced father and psychosis runs in her family which explains her hallucinations. The governess had plenty of her own issues and the narrator of the novel also states she was previously in love, but it does not go into detail who she was in love with. Speculation could say she had also been heartbroken which can also lead to more mental struggles and possibly added to her problems. The novel's plot carries through her to this point because her mental stability is in question and her

The governess is portrayed in the book as a repressed woman who is terrified of her own desires. Her obsession with the children's purity and her own dreams about the children's uncle are two reasons why she is sexually repressed, “According to Stanley Renner, she was meant to be subtly portrayed as the victim of an archaic Freudian psychological affliction called ‘sexual hysteria’, not as a person actually encountering supernatural entities. Renner asserts that the spectral incarnations of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint were intended only to be understood as hallucinations brought on by this condition.” (McLeod). The ghosts that the governess sees are also connected to sexual suppression. They represent the affair between Peter Quint and Miss Jessel which goes back to the symbolism creating ambiguity. According to the narrator, suppressing one's sexuality causes psychological instability, and the ghosts are representations of the governess's own unfulfilled desires, or the one she used to love. James reveals the hypocrisy of Victorian society by having the representation of sexual repression be presented by two people who had an affair together. Ambiguity is mixed into the hypocrisy as well as the ghosts that the governess sees. On the gender side of things, “I had had brothers myself, and it was no revelation to me that little girls could be