The Turn of the Screw
Imagine yourself at a young and impressionable age. The new and primary caretaker in your life begins to rant and rave about ghosts of people that have since deceased. These “spirits” she speaks of used to perform the same task of tending to your needs in your earlier years. If you were suddenly confronted with the accusation that you were somehow involved with these ghosts would you be afraid? This is what the children from Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw are dealing with. Throughout the book, the governess is the only character that claims to see these ghosts even though she tries to expose them to the other characters, including the children towards the end of the book. The reader ultimately questions the governess’s sanity and thereby questions the ghosts’ existence. The reader first notices that the governess is not used to having such a large responsibility and that she still daydreams and maybe she confuses reality with the imaginary. When first settling in, the governess would go for afternoon walks, during which, she would often think of her dashing employer. “One of the thoughts that, as I don’t in the least shrink now from nothing, used to be with me in these wanderings was that it would be as charm
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Jamess Screw, Peter Quint, Miss Jessel, Peter Quint—you, Fieldings Amelia, , peter quint, miss jessel, active imagination, peering window, danger none,
Approximate Word count = 1557
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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