Turn of the Screw: The Source of Evil
Asking whether the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw exist is not a rich enough question. Throughout the novella, there are many hints as to whether the ghosts exist. There is one indisputable fact though. The governess, within the confines of the novella, could have no notion of what Peter Quint looked like unless she saw him herself. According to Mrs. Grose, the person the governess had seen with "red hair, very red, close-curling, and a pale face, long in shape, with straight good features and little rather queer whiskers that are red as his hair" was Quint (173). By the virtue of this one event, the ghosts had to have existed. Thus, a better question, and one with quite some substance, is what is the source of evil in the novella? It could be contested that the governess was a source of evil. Her actions had, in fact, through the course of the novella, become more and more neurotic. After all, the things she saw were never admittedly seen by anyone else. But, because of the above determination that the ghosts had to have existed, it seems justified that she would start to go a little crazy. She becomes neurotic; fearing the worst about what these images may mean. Some critics may attribute the ev
This is why Mile's expulsion from school is such important evidence. As the children are more fully corrupted, they show it in different ways. Eventually, even the governess realizes this, James, Henery. The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw. London: Penguin Books, 1984. Why of the very things (of which the governess has gotten hold of) that have delighted fascinated and yet, at bottom, as I now so strangely see, mystified and troubled me. Their more than earthly beauty, their absolutely unnatural goodness. It's a game...a policy and a fraud. (207) The events become even more tainted with the supernatural though. During one a discussion between Miles and the governess, there was an "extraordinary blast and chill, a gust of frozen air and a shake of the room as great as if, in the wild wind, the casement had crashed in." The governess realized that the curtains had not moved and the window was shut tight. She cried, "Why, the candle's out!" Miles replies, "It was I who blew it, dear" (228-229). After this, Flora gets "so markedly feverish that an illness was perhaps at hand" (243). As a result of this illness, and its evil origin, Flora starts to exhibit her corruption. In a report to the governess on Flora's condition, Miss Grose says, "From that child -- horrors! ... On my honor, Miss, she says things... really shocking... It's beyond everything, for a young lady; and I can't think wherever she must have picked it up-" (246). After realizing that the evil in the house is causing the girl's illness, she s! ends her away. She then tries to save Miles herself, "treating (her) monstrous ordeal as a push in a direction unusual, of course, and unpleasant, but demanding after all, for a fair front, another turn of the screw of ordinary human virtue" (250). Eventually, though, the most supernatural event in the novella occurs. The governess performs, what amounts to be, an exorcism. She gets Miles to admit that Peter Qui
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Approximate Word count = 1341
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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