Turn of the Screw by Henry Jam

Readers might wonder with whom she was in love. Then the Master told the Governess about the previous governess and her death (James 296). The readers probably want to know the reason of the previous governess' death. When the Master talked about the duties of the Governess, he required her not to contact him in any way (James 297). We do not know why he made that requirement. As the story continues, the readers have many more unsolved questions such as why Miles was dismissed from school, why the Governess could describe Peter Quint exactly though she never meet him, and why the Governess thought that ghosts wanted to catch the two children. Ned Lukacher thinks that "[the way James] has said something also becomes a way of not having said something else" (132). For instance, James revealed some hints regarding the reason Miles was dismissed. We know that "[Miles]'s an injury to the others" (304) and Mrs. Grose thought Miles was "no boy for [her]" (305). However, these hints do not help the readers to completely understand why Miles was sent away from his school. Instead, more questions are posed, such as how such a ten-year-old boy could injure other students and why Mrs. Grose thought about Miles that way. The readers can not easily find the specific and reasonable answers in the story, so they have to guess the answers based on their own

The second visitation of the ghost of Peter Quint also occurs while the governess is by herself. As the governess, the children, and Mrs. Grouse are preparing for church, the governess goes back into the house to retrieve gloves she sees a visage of the same man she saw at the tower. When Mrs. Grose sees her face she immediately asks what is wrong. The governess goes on to describe the man that she has seen in an odd mixture of attraction and revulsion. This adds question to the reader on the subject of the validity of the testimony of the visitations

Afterwards, however, she infers that because Miles is beautiful, the expulsion is absurd and he must be innocent: “…he was only too fine and fair for the little horrid unclean school-world…” She later claims that “[h]e had never for a second suffered. [She] took this as a direct disproof of his having really been chastised…” She feels that all of these inferences are truths because Miles is beautiful. Because the governess can see that Miles is beautiful, she infers that he can do nothing wrong, and thereby guesses the unseen from the seen. The governess soon begins to trace the implication of things. Peter Quint’s second appearance leads the governess to claim that he had not come for her. “He had come for someone else. This flash of knowledge” later convinces her that the person he has come for is Miles. Quint wants to appear to the children. On another occasion, when the ghost of Miss Jessel appears to the governess when Flora is near, she is certain that the child has seen the apparition. In talking to Mrs. Grose about the occasion, she tells her that; “Flora saw…I saw with my eyes: she was perfectly aware…I’m clear. Flora doesn’t want me to know…[Miss Jessel’s intention is to] get hold of her…That’s what Flor d9c a knows.” Never in the novel is there any reason given for supposing that anyone other than the governess, especially the children, sees the ghosts. Although she believes that the children do see them, there

In her undertaking of a novel with an unusual topic, Mary Roach balances her book, Stiff, with the perfect amount of sarcasm and sincerity. Due to the overall themes of the book being death and cadavers, it would be hard to consider completely digesting the book without a little bit of satirical dialogue. After all, the entire book would seem kind of morbid without it. Her tongue-in-cheek writing style kept me constantly engaged in the reading and wanting more. She was blunt at times and also knew when it was necessary to be subtle. It is a fairly informal and easy-going style of writing.

The governess, in her mind, believed she knew what the intentions of others were though, in reality, she had no evidence. After a simple agreement about the children's activities, the governess believed that herself and Ms. Grose would be in some sort of pact or pledge where they saw eye to eye on all situations. After this interpretation of Ms. Grose as a close friend, the governess began to feel distraught when Ms. Grose was busy cleaning the house and didn't habitually stop work to consult with the governess.

Miles represents a socially and sexually corrupt figure by the ghost of Peter Quint who violated status on two occasions. His being “too free” with Miles leads to controversy as well as his love affair with the previous governess. The governess’s knowledge on the history behind Quint and Miles changes drastically as she learns more information to discover truth. Her rejection of the idea that Miles could be “bad” transforms into an obsession noting his every action in hopes to reveal that the children are being possessed by ghosts. Despite the connotation of Quint’s clash of class boundaries, the text also suggests the potential homosexual nature of his association with Miles. Therefore, the ghost of Quint stands for everything the Governess is afraid of, and his sense of menace dictates Miles living through his identity.

In the story Gryphon by Charles Baxter there is a county called Five Oaks. Everybody in the county know each other by heart, but one day a new sub came in for Mr. Hibbler not one of ordinary unemployed community college graduates but a lady nobody had ever seen before. The woman was called Mrs. Ferenczi. Mrs. Ferenczi was not normal, she told all kinds of stories nobody believed except for one boy called Tommy. Tommy defends Mrs. Ferenczi, because he likes the stories that she tells that he wants to believe are true and likes that she was strange..

Many people debate that the ghosts are real because Miles acknowledges Mr. Quint. However, these people are mislead. Due to the dash between “Quint” and “you,” the two phrases are separated so Miles was most likely addressing the governess as a devil and not calling Peter Quint one. In addition, after stating this, Miles later questions “Where?” (James 86). Miles says this as if he were asking the governess where she sees Mr. Quint. Therefore, he did not see Peter Quint because if he did, he would know his position in the room and would not have to

Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw has been described as one of the best ghost stories of all time. However, there is clear evidence that the main character, the governess, suffers from delusions. The strange events that occur throughout the story happen in the estate of Bly. The anomalies, described as horrors or ghosts, only come to light after the governess arrives. These events are due to creations of the governess ' mind, her controlling intent to protect and overrule the children, and her unstable mental state. In this way, her thoughts and her actions are the cause of the strange events at Bly.

At around ten o’clock at night, a young girl was laying in bed when all of a sudden someone started rubbing her cheek. She looked around and no one was there. Was this her imagination, or was someone there? Ghosts always make their presence known, just like the Ghost in the tragedy Hamlet written by William Shakespeare. Throughout the character of the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Shakespeare portrays many Elizabethan beliefs on ghosts. Shakespeare creates the question: is the ghost good or bad? Many people have their own opinion on this question, but in this writer’s opinion, the Ghost of Hamlet’s father is a good ghost because throughout the tragedy the Ghost of Hamlet’s father never physically hurts anyone, instead he persuades Hamlet

The first supernatural account defiantly makes agreeing with the opening statement easy as there are so many ways that Peter Quint’s first sitting could be interpreted. Firstly and most obviously, as the unknown narrator made clear that this was a ghost story, as just that a supernatural occurrence. Peter Quint had a tie to Bly. He was the valet and as alluded to by Mrs Grose in the early chapter he liked his girls nice and young. He would defiantly continue the corruption of the children. Or this could be a fragment of the governess’s reality in two ways. Firstly to construct some sort of evil to protect her charges from, so she could assume the role of saviour and hero to impress her employer or it could be because the governess was fantasising about seeing someone around the grounds , hopefully her employer , her desire for a master makes us question the authenticity of this apparition. Her mind may have fabricated him as a desire of sexual desire. The governess claims about the ghost become more and more subjective as the novella progresses, she eventually concludes after a few sightings of explicit description that

‘Yes, Mr. Quint’s dead’ ” (James 35). Because the governess believes that these ghosts are real, she fears for the safety of the children. She uses fact and intuition to suspect that the spirit are going to harm Miles

As ‘The Turn of the Screw’ was written in the 19th century when most of his family were famous and praised for their study of the mind and investigations into spirit phenomena, this could have inspired Henry to write the story. The fact that his older brother was famous and successful man when it came to psychology and physiology may have contributed to sibling rivalry. Henry had written novels that hadn’t sold well and had written plays that were far too intellectual for many of the general public to even watch. Writing a psychological ghost story in a spirit-obsessed era when his family were renowned for their knowledge seems to be best explanation as to why the novella was written.

Douglas clearly cares about the governess, and maintains personal connection to the story even though it’s been sitting in a drawer for twenty years. Douglas feels attached to the story because he lived the story so many years ago.(as Miles) “Nobody but me, till now, has ever heard. It's quite too horrible.”(p. 292) This shows that the manuscript isn’t just a good ghost story for him to tell people because he’s never shared it before. He also finds that Douglas’s audience is more perceptive than he appears ready. They make inferences about he and his love, and Douglas reveals bits and pieces about her. “I liked her extremely and am glad to this day to think she liked me, too. If she hadn't she wouldn't have told me.(p. 293) In the story, she mentions several times that Miles was the most beautiful boy that she had ever laid eyes on, and over infatuation with the boy like that would easily lead Miles to believe he was the object of her utmost affection. To add to the fact that the woman he was in love with was the governess was when one of the guests mentions that

The Turn of the Screw is one of the most controversial works in literature and the text has provoked a variety of critical interpretations from its publication in 1898. In this novel, the governess tells her experience with two apparitions that no one but she could see. And the governess accuses the ghosts of servants for corrupting the children, Miles and Flora. Critics concerning about the truth of the story are divided two basic camps based on their acceptance or rejection of the governess's credibility as a storyteller. Some critics believe that the ghosts are real and the governess is a rational and credible narrator, while the others believe that the ghosts are hallucinations of the governess and regard the governess as an incredible and mentally abnormal narrator. Also, we could speculate the author’s intention on the basis of his life experience and other works of Henry James. This essay will examine the reliability of the governess on the basis of the text and interpret Henry James’s intention on the basis of other sources.