In Henry James’ short horror story, The Turn of the Screw, James challenges the reader’s conception of reality and reliability. Moreover, the ambiguity of truth permeating the Governess’ psyche acts as a central motif throughout the story. Whist his work prompted many literary critics to provide their own explanations, not all interpretations are of equal merit. In this regard, one can consider Wayne C. Booth’s reader-response perspective on The Turn of the Screw deserving of such merit. Throughout his essay, Booth presents various avenues of analysis a reader can follow when scrutinizing James’ short story. Because of the book’s relationship with the ambiguity of truth and reliability, a “mazed” reading seems to be the most logical of the
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However, the problem with both categories is that they contradict each other. For the first category, a straight reading of The Turn of the Screw, one should refer to the governess’s accurate description of Quint without ever seeing him in person as evidence proving the legitimacy of the ghosts’ existence (James, 48). In addition, one can look outside of the short story to discover that James, in fact, believed in ghosts; “James unquestionably knew about ghosts and spirit possession” - making the ghosts’ legitimacy increasingly plausible (Beidler, 17). Nevertheless, the second category provides similarly compelling evidence from the text. No other character in the story, besides the Governess, witnesses the ghosts of Quint and Ms. Jessel. Moreover, as Booth points out, the governess admits that she must be insane if the ghosts aren’t real (Booth, 247). As previously mentioned, one should question the validity of the first two analytic categories because of their equally sensible, yet incongruous, rationale. Just as the ghosts can’t be both real and figments of the Governess’ psyche, both categories cannot be valid if there exists contradictory facts for both arguments. Or can
However, the problem with both categories is that they contradict each other. For the first category, a straight reading of The Turn of the Screw, one should refer to the governess’s accurate description of Quint without ever seeing him in person as evidence proving the legitimacy of the ghosts’ existence (James, 48). In addition, one can look outside of the short story to discover that James, in fact, believed in ghosts; “James unquestionably knew about ghosts and spirit possession” - making the ghosts’ legitimacy increasingly plausible (Beidler, 17). Nevertheless, the second category provides similarly compelling evidence from the text. No other character in the story, besides the Governess, witnesses the ghosts of Quint and Ms. Jessel. Moreover, as Booth points out, the governess admits that she must be insane if the ghosts aren’t real (Booth, 247). As previously mentioned, one should question the validity of the first two analytic categories because of their equally sensible, yet incongruous, rationale. Just as the ghosts can’t be both real and figments of the Governess’ psyche, both categories cannot be valid if there exists contradictory facts for both arguments. Or can