The Turn of the Screw by Henry James follows the story of a governess who takes care of the children Miles and Flora. The issue regarding the reliability of the governess as the narrator has been debated due to her “interactions” with the supernatural world. However, the governess is insane throughout The Turn of the Screw because the ghosts she sees are hallucinations; she shows irrational behavior towards the children; and she is obsessed with getting approval from others such as her employer and the children.
The governess claims to see ghosts around Bly when they are just hallucinations. When the governess takes a stroll on the estate, she sees a ghost-like figure in a tower after imagining to meet anyone, possibly her employer. She is taken back from the situation that she illustrates “what arrested me on the spot...was the sense that my imagination had, in a flash, turned real” (Page 15). She
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Many scenes from the book provide evidence that the governess shows care and compassion towards the children. She reveals this when she “met [Miles kiss and [the governess had to make...the most stupendous effort not to cry” (Page 46). However, this caring nature is not always present, such as when Flora did not believe that the governess saw a ghost, causing the governess to see her as ugly. It can also be argued that the story exists in a world where ghosts can exist. It seems that the governess experiences the supernatural powers of a ghost during a conversation with Miles when suddenly “an extraordinary blast and chill, a gust of frozen air, and a shake of the room as great as if, in the wild wind, the casement had crashed in” (Page 65). This event may make it seem that ghosts exist in this world, but unnatural weather patterns do not prove the existence of ghosts. Disproving the hallucinations also does not mean that the governess is sane as