Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The Turn of the Screw - Additional Points

Spoiler Alert: Please do NOT read this if you have NOT read the book!!!
 
Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898) is an interesting story. The sentence structure makes it difficult to read, but the mystery keeps you going. While Cliff Notes and Spark Notes already provide extensive analyses--with Spark Notes inferring more sexuality--here are a few points I would add... 

Were both ghosts real or imagined?

We can't tell for sure if the governess is sane and if the ghosts are real or imagined, but what if 1 ghost, Quint, was real and the other, Miss Jessel, was imagined? The governess described Quint in sufficient detail before she knew who he was, so he may have been real. In contrast, she said she knew who Miss Jessel was, knew what she was thinking, and knew what she wanted without any evidence, so Miss Jessel, may have been hallucinated. Miss Jessel may even have been a reflection of the governess herself.

Was the sentence complexity a sign of insanity?

The writing, which is in first person, is so convoluted and so complicated, I thought for sure only an insane person would write like that--as if James intended that. If that was James' style, Daisy Miller wasn't so convoluted or if that was the style of the time, Dracula and Sherlock Holmes weren't so convoluted either. So maybe it really was supposed to be the language of an insane person. An added effect, perhaps also intentional, is that the complexity creates ambiguity which enhances the mystery.

How dumb was Mrs. Grose?

Mrs. Grose could neither read nor write, so she was obviously uneducated and apparently very naive. She seemed to believe everything the governess told her, but can you imagine what it would be like to be put under a supervisor who turns out to be insane? Eventually most people would figure it out, right? Mrs. Grose didn't seem to notice. So I think she was totally sane but either really simple-minded or just so used to being a servant that she couldn't think for herself. Maybe that's the way servants are supposed to be!

How did Miles die?

I believe the governess unwittingly murdered Miles. An autopsy would explain how it really happened. If it were a heart attack, then maybe it was the ghost. Otherwise, she must have suffocated him with her insane embrace. And if that were the case, his last words implicating the ghost may have been another hallucination. At any rate, this episode did not prevent her from continuing on as a governess for another family.  She apparently didn't go to prison. There must have been some kind of inquest and she must have been cleared. And she apparently regained her sanity, perhaps after leaving that environment and/or overcoming any sexual repressions. Otherwise Douglas, the reader, would have never met her.

On a  related note, I've often wondered what happens the day after a movie ends in one of those life or death struggles. The audience knows the protagonist is the good guy, but how will the cops know? Especially in one of those movies where the antagonist was some kind of supernatural serial killer, how would the good guy prove it was self defense???


References:
Henry James. The Turn of the Screw. [Kindle Edition]. 1898.

Henry James. Daisy Miller. 1878. Ed. Geoffrey Moore. Penguin Books. 1986.
Ted Bogart. "Daisy Miller by Henry James (1878)". Book Blog. 2011.
SparkNotes Editors. "SparkNotes: The Turn of the Screw". SparkNotes LLC. 2012. Web 2012.
Roberts, James L.. "The CliffNotes on The Turn of the Screw". John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2000-2012. Web 2012.

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