Henry James Essays

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    How far does The Turn of the Screw conform to the conventions of the Victorian ghost story genre? What alternative interpretations does it lend itself to? ‘The Turn of the Screw’ was written by Henry James in the nineteenth century, when the belief that living people were in contact with the dead was prevalent. In the Victorian era the advance of science was undermining religious beliefs, because evolutionists were saying that the world had not been created in 4004BC, as the bible suggests

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    1881 romance novel, The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James provides a challenge of the concept of female individuality in society through the protagonist, Isabel Archer: who emphasizes how miserable obeying the status quo makes her, but ultimately continues to abide by it. Nevertheless, Archer ignores her innermost desires to please the demands of society and of her wicked husband. The narration of the novel highlights the hidden nonconformist theme James embedded throughout. Isabel's life with her

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    of the Screw, Henry James shows how a person’s lack of action and silence can have a great impact. The character of the uncle never actually appears in the novel and seems to play an insignificant role; however, he helps drive the plot of the story. In The Turn of the Screw, Henry James uses the uncle to show the development of the governess as a tragic hero and the motif of silence in order to create the tragic mood. Although the uncle of the children is a minor character, James uses him to emphasize

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    The Turn of the Screw is just like any other horror fiction novel due to James ability to frighten readers without going into great detail. Henry James narrates the turn of the screw with a character known as the Governess with a 1st person point of view. James’s story takes in Bly, a country estate in England. The house is old and ominous and appears to be a haunted house from the very beginning. Every novel has unique fundamentals and ideas that define it. The Turn of the Screw describes ideas

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    In Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the governess’ mental status is not known for certain. Throughout the novel, the reader is led to wonder if the specters she sees are real or fabricated by her own mind. This has sparked a lot of debate on the issue of the governess’s sanity and continues to be a controversial topic in the literary community. However, the governess is found to be insane through the points of her chronic stress, her obsession over Miles and Flora, and the lack of evidence behind

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    Henry James' The Turn of the Screw is the classic ghost story involving a haunted mansion, innocent children and a woman tormented by ghosts and devils. However, from a psychoanalytic perspective, this story narrates two children as the victims and their mentally ill abuser. The governess is mentally unstable and sexually disturbed. Her frustration, due to lack of physical satisfaction, escalates after a brief encounter with her employer leaves her lust unquenched. From the beginning “He struck her

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    This passage is an extract from chapter 13 of The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James, in which the female protagonist recalls her experiences as a child-minder and educator. In this commentary, I will be focusing on the way the protagonist seeks to construct her importance through the children, her narration and her sense of audience. The extract starts with the implied authors, the Governess’s, insisting that “speaking to them proved quite as much as ever an effort beyond my strength” (ll

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    In Daisy Miller by Henry James the author takes us on an adventure of a self centered American woman who has no desire to conform to society. On the contrary in A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen shows Nora as woman who is also not bothered by society, but for less selfish reasons. Both women are willing to do what is necessary for Daisy it is what is necessary to fulfill her own needs and for Nora what is necessary to fulfill the needs of the ones she loves. Despite the motives of both women, each author

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    Henry James "The Turn of the Screw" For my chosen text I found interest in Henry James's " The Turn of the Screw." I discovered the Sherlock Holmes, investigative and suspense type short story to be, "right up my alley." That and the mention of ghosts made me excited. I grew up in a haunted house and love ghost stories. I have tried to read romance in the past and I have enjoyed it. "Allowing for possibilities such as horror and the fantastic while excluding psychoanalysis as an approach to the

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    Henry James, the author of The Turn of The Screw, produced the story with a strong connection of his mind toward the readers’ psyche. To process this connection, James also had described his work throughout his main character’s inner life. The main character’s inner life is also showing the reflection of the human mental process in general. Like Ross Murfin writes in “Psychoanalyst Criticism and The Turn of the Screw” that “psychoanalytic critic such as Holland began to focus more on the ways in

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