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The Turn of the Screw

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For other meanings, see Turn of the Screw (disambiguation).
The Turn of the Screw
Title page of the original (1898) edition of The Two Magics, in which The Turn of the Screw was first published
AuthorHenry James
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovella, Gothic fiction
PublisherWilliam Heinemann, London
The Macmillan Company, New York City
Publication date
13 October 1898 (USA) & (UK)
Publication placeUnited Kingdom, United States
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages310 pp (US first edition)
393 pp (UK first edition)
Both editions also included the story Covering End
ISBN978-0-393-95904-8
OCLC40043490
LC ClassPS2116 .T8 1998

The Turn of the Screw is a novella (short novel) written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story. Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favorite text of New Criticism.

The novella has had many differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive, including those of a Freudian nature. Many critics have tried to determine the exact nature of the evil that is spoken of in the story.

The Turn of the Screw has lent itself well to operatic and film adaptation.

Plot summary

An unnamed narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the friend claims to have known and who is now dead. The manuscript tells the story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has found himself responsible for his niece and nephew after the death of their parents. He lives in London and has no interest in raising the children. The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school whilst his sister, Flora, is living at the country house in Essex. She is currently being cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The governess's new employer gives her full charge of the children and explicitly states that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to her new employer's country house and begins her duties.

Miles soon returns from school for the summer just after a letter arrives from the headmaster stating that he has been expelled. Miles never speaks of the matter, and the governess is hesitant to raise the issue. She fears that there is some horrid secret behind the expulsion, but is too charmed by the adorable young boy to want to press the issue. Shortly thereafter, the governess begins to see around the grounds of the estate the figures of a man and woman whom she does not recognize. These figures come and go at will without ever being seen or challenged by other members of the household, and they seem to the governess to be supernatural. She learns from Mrs. Grose that her predecessor, Miss Jessel, and Miss Jessel's illicit lover Peter Quint both died under curious circumstances. Prior to their death, they spent most of their time with Flora and Miles, and this fact takes on grim significance for the governess when she becomes convinced that the two children are secretly aware of the presence of the ghosts.

Later, Flora runs away from the house while Miles plays music for the Governess. They notice and go to find her. The governess and Mrs. Grose find her in a clearing in the wood, and the governess is convinced that she has been talking to Miss Jessel. When Flora is forced to admit this, she demands to never see the governess again. Mrs. Grose takes Flora away to her uncle, leaving the governess with Miles. That night, they are finally talking of Miles' expulsion when the ghost of Quint appears at the window. The governess shields Miles, who screams at her as he attempts to see the ghost. The governess tells him that he is no longer under the control of the ghost, and finds that Miles has died in her arms.

Major themes

Throughout his career James was attracted to the ghost story genre. However, he was not fond of literature's stereotypical ghosts, the old-fashioned 'screamers' and 'slashers'. Rather, he preferred to create ghosts that were eerie extensions of everyday reality—"the strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy," as he put it in the New York Edition preface to his final ghost story, The Jolly Corner.

The Turn of the Screw is no exception to this formula. In fact, some critics have wondered if he didn't intend the "strange and sinister" to be embroidered only on the governess's mind and not on objective reality. The result has been a long-standing critical dispute over the reality of the ghosts and the sanity of the governess.

Beyond the dispute, critics have closely examined James's narrative technique in the story. The framing introduction and subsequent first-person narrative by the governess have been studied by theorists of fiction interested in the power of fictional narratives to convince or even manipulate readers.

The imagery of The Turn of the Screw is reminiscent of the gothic genre. The emphasis on old and mysterious buildings throughout the novella reinforces this motif. James also relates the amount of light present in various scenes to the strength of the supernatural or ghostly forces apparently at work. The governess refers directly to The Mysteries of Udolpho and indirectly to Jane Eyre, evoking a comparison of the governess not only to Jane Eyre's protagonist, but to Bertha, the madwoman confined in Thornfield.[1]

Literary significance and criticism

The dispute over the reality of the ghosts has had a real effect on some critics, most notably Edmund Wilson, who was one of the first proponents of the insane governess theory. However, he was eventually forced to recant this view under fire from opposing critics who pointed to the governess's point-by-point description of Quint. Then John Silver ("A Note on the Freudian Reading of 'The Turn of the Screw'" American Literature, 1957) pointed out hints in the story that the governess might have gained previous knowledge of Quint's appearance in non-supernatural ways. This induced Wilson to recant his recantation and return to his original view that the governess was unbalanced and that the ghosts existed only in her imagination.

William Veeder sees Miles's eventual death as induced by the governess, but he traces the governess's motive back through two larger strands: English imperialism (based on the oblique reference in the introduction to India, where the parents of Miles and Flora died) and the way patriarchy raises its daughters. Through a complex psychoanalytic reading, Veeder concludes that the governess takes out her repressed rage toward her father and toward the master of Bly on Miles.

Other critics, however, have defended the governess strongly. They point out that James' letters, his New York Edition preface, and his Notebooks contain no definite evidence that The Turn of the Screw was intended as anything other than a straightforward ghost story. James's Notebooks entry indicates that he was originally inspired by a tale he heard from Edward White Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This unconventional source, like almost everything else about the story, has generated critical commentary.

James revised the novella heavily over the years. In The Collier's Weekly Version of The Turn of the Screw, Peter G. Beidler presents the tale in its original serial form and presents a detailed analysis of the changes James made over the years. Among many other things, James changed the ages of the children.

Adaptations

Allusions in literature

  • Leon Edel identifies structural and tonal similarities between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and "Turn of the Screw."[5]
  • Joyce Carol Oates' story "The Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly" (featured in the collection Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque) is a retelling of the novel from the point of view of the ghosts.
  • In Muriel Spark's The Public Image (1968), the protagonist's husband writes a play to which the protagonist comments, "It resembles 'The Turn of the Screw'."
  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance contains a reference to "Turn of the Screw" and suggests that it is the governess's belief in ghosts, and not ghosts themselves, which causes Miles's death.
  • In Peter Straub's novel Ghost Story, the personal anecdote that Sears James recounts to his fellow storytellers in the Chowder Society is a thinly disguised homage to The Turn of the Screw.
  • There is also a modern adaptation of the novel in Toby Litt's "Ghost Story", published in 2004.
  • The characters Miles and Flora Anderson in HBO's Deadwood try to fool the town into thinking they were innocent children who had lost their father. All of this was a ploy to rob a saloon in town.
  • The Italian filmmaker Marcello Avallone works currently on the film adaption of the novel[6], the film will be shot in 3-D and produced by Wim Wenders.[7]
  • In Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Janeway frequents a holonovel based on this book, which can be seen in episodes such as "Learning Curve".
  • In Season 2, Episode 3 of the television series Lost, John Locke finds the Dharma Initiative's Orientation movie behind a copy of The Turn of the Screw.

Reference books

  • The Turn of the Screw: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism edited by Deborah Esch and Jonathan Warren (New York: W.W. Norton & Company 1999) ISBN 0-393-95904-X
  • The Tales of Henry James by Edward Wagenknecht (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1984) ISBN 0-8044-2957-X
  • The Collier's Weekly Version of The Turn of the Screw, edited by Peter G. Beidler (Seattle: Coffeetown Press, 2010) ISBN 978-1-60381-018-0

References

  1. ^ See Prof Linda Kaufmann, Discourses of Desire, ISBN 0-8014-9510+5, for an argument that Bronte was actually the source of the tale, through Mary Sedgwick Benson.
  2. ^ TV Choice, London, Anglia and Central edition, 19 December 2009-1 January 2010
  3. ^ 'Turn of the Screw' Ghost Tale Being Adapted in 3-D, Promo Trailer!
  4. ^ 3D Telling of The Turn of the Screw On Its Way
  5. ^ Colm Tóibín on Joseph Conrad | Books | The Guardian
  6. ^ 3D Telling of The Turn of the Screw On Its Way
  7. ^ Wim Wenders helms 3D pic in Italy - Horror, teen pics also in the works
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