The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, is ghost story that focuses on a young governess that encounters a pair of ghosts. She becomes convinced that the ghosts are somehow corrupting the two children she is charged with caring for. The new governess is enamored with the two children, and when she first meets them, she comes to the conclusion that they are perfect children (and can do no wrong). Her changing emotional states cause her to later suspect that the children are not necessarily perfect after all. She decides they are somehow involved with the ghosts, and brusquely confronts the girl. The young girl denies having seen the ghost, and gets very upset, causing her to leave the estate. The young boy remains with the governess and ends…

Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw is a compact, vivid, soul-stirring, suspense and exciting ghost story. Thousands of people have thousands interpretations about it. After this novel coming out, readers try to understand the complexity of the story from various aspects. The story of The Turn of the Screw is a frame story which begin in a night on Christmas Eve. A group of people sit round the fire to share some ghost stories. The story of children encountering ghost catches attention of…

Sometimes in our deep desire to become a hero, we can end up destroying that which we intend to save. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James explores the events of an unusual ghost story in which a newly appointed governess begins to live in Bly, a wealthy estate, where she must care for two young children: Flora and Miles. As the governess repeatedly sees ghosts throughout the estate, she becomes invested in protecting the children but is progressively concerned whether they have deeper…

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.…

After reading The Turn of the Screw, it can be hard to decide what to make of the book and how to take it. Many interpretations have been offered and the two most polar opposites belong to Harold C. Goddard’s “A Pre-Freudian Reading of The Turn of the Screw” and Robert B. Heilman’s “The Freudian Reading of The Turn of the Screw.” The two disagree mainly on how the Governess perceives the ghost and rather they are more a figment of her imagination or an actual real entity touched by more than…

The Turn of the Screw The ghosts in The Turn of the Screw are not sincere because the Governess is not sane, the Governess is the only one who sees the ghosts, and the Governess has a very obscure personality. The first reason why the ghosts in this story are not real is because the Governess is not sane. The Governess has many situations in which ghosts are in her existence. One example is when she was reading her book and felt the sudden urge to go downstairs, and the “ghost” of Peter Quint…

The Turn of the Screw Ever wonder what it’s like to encounter and live with ghosts? In The Turn of the Screw, one of the main characters, the governess, tells us about the spine chilling events that take place in Bly, a country home in Essex, England. The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James is a story filled with suspense, horror, and madness. The author of this book shows how the governess deals with the struggles and fears of seeing the supernatural and how it has effect on her and her sanity.…

Aristar, Helen and Kucinkas, Susan. “Ghostly Ambiguity: Presuppositional Constructions in ‘The Turn of the Screw.’ ” Style, Penn State University Press, vol. 25, no. 1 spring, 1991, pp. 71-88. Style, a literary journal published out of Penn State, focuses on criticism in the fields of the stylistics of novels, novella’s as well as poems. As of the nineties Style has broaden through fields to that of psychology and pedagogy. In its 1991 spring volume they published the essay. “Ghostly…

INTRODUCTION The turn of the screw is a gothic ghost story novella written at the end of Victorian era by Henry James. Henry James(1843-1916) was English essayist, critic and author of “The Ambassadors”(1903), “Portrait of a Lady”(1881) and “The Turn of the Screw”(1897). James finished The Turn of the Screw in November 1897, and the story was published in Collier's Weekly between January and April of 1898. This American-born novelist became one of his generation’s most well-known writers…

The history of horror is an interest of some, but not all. It is a genre seeking to rattle a negative emotional reaction by playing to the audience’s fear. Henry James became fascinated by the horror genre and used the fear tactic to craft many of his writings. One of his tactics is the usage of Ambiguity in his writings which included mysterious horror stories. In the Turn of The Screw, Henry James uses ambiguity in his writing to try to convert readers to critical thinkers based on his use of…