Turn of the Screw by Henry James

A detailed Summary of Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Turn of the Screw by: Henry James

After reading "The Turn of the Screw", by Henry James, I was left with many unanswered questions. The two main questions are, are the ghosts in the story real, or are they just figments of the narrator's imagination? When I read though the essays of criticism, I took a stand on one particular argument. I took a stand that supports the argument that the ghosts are real.

In this story we see many strange things taking place at a house on Harley Street in a town called Bly. We meet Mrs. Grose a housekeeper who is taking care of the house while the master is out of town. The governess, also the narrator and unnamed in this story, has more credentials than the housekeeper and is mainly in charge of caring for the children. Flora and Miles, two young children who are left in the care of these women until their uncle returns. Throughout the story the governess explains to Mrs. Grose that she is seeing two people staring at her. At first Mrs. Grose thinks what she is saying is ridiculous, but after careful examination she begins to agree with the governess. The governess explains in full detail what these people looked like and Mrs. Grose tells her it's the ghosts of Peter Quint (the previous

To my knowledge I have to say that Henry James intended for the ghosts to appear and they weren't just figments of the narrator's imagination. There were too many occurrences of ghosts in this story to make me feel differently towards this argument.

I believe that Miles saw the ghosts and Flora did not. The ghosts were not in the story to scare the children. Towards the end of the story Flora runs away to the lake. Both of the women leave Miles alone in the house and go look for her. They find Flora near a lake and Mrs. Grose clearly forgets about the governess and throws "herself on her knees and, drawing the child to her breast, clasped in a long embrace the little tender yielding body." This looks like Mrs. Grose feels that she has Flora in her control. At that moment the governess says she sees Miss Jenssell on the other side of the lake. All three of them look but only Mrs. Grose and the governess see her. "You don't see her exactly as we see? - you mean to say you don't now-now? She's as big as a blazing fire! Only look, dearest woman, look-!", the governess exclaims. Flora does not see the lady because the ghost does not reveal herself to Flora. However, Mrs. Grose does see the ghost but does not want to admit it in front of Flora. In fact it makes the governess look bad when Mrs. Grose tells Flora not to believe her. This makes Flora feel uncomfortable with the governess.

butler) and Miss. Jessel (a previous maid).

Whether or not a ghost was present is the question in this mystery. We as readers are "led unsuspectingly to accept the narrator in good faith." With that in mind I have to believe as a reader that the ghosts in the story were real. Both Miles and the governess claimed th

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Approximate Word count = 1167
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English