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Analysis Of Stream Of Wellness By David Timms

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First, David Timms considers the vision of Leon Edel that Henry James wanted the governess to follow a stream of consciousness as a narrative discourse. Thus, her multitudinous thoughts throughout the book describes the mental path she went through from believing in the purity of the children to their utter corruption of evil. Moreover, “we are to take the governess's words as a record of feeling in that she 'feels' things rather than 'sees' them” which means the reader is utterly reliant of the governess and we already know that we can't take her word for it. As Edel suggests, “no doubts she gives us an honest record of what she thinks and how she feels” but a person who asserts things based on her feelings is not credible. For instance, nobody would believe that there are monsters under a bed just because the child is afraid of the dark. In addition, by comparing “the stream of consciousness” with “an internal monologue”, David Timms reinforces the madness hypothesis. To that extent, “the story assumes a reader” and “it would make no sense for the governess to say to herself [...]” (197) are also evidences …show more content…

Thus, it is incumbent to the reader to interpret them; despite this, the stream of consciousness is unaffected. Conversely, Theodora Bosanquet, denying that theory, implies that Henry James could not have been irked by commas since he incredibly valued his books. In the light of this element, it also means that, if James valued The Turn of the Screw this much, he could not have made an ambiguity over the governess inconsequential, everything he does has a purpose either making the narrator omniscient and trustworthy or subjective and temperamental. Similarly, Timms asserts that her stream of consciousness is not linear in the term of the story timeline, but rather with the process of recoiling on the

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