StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
The key idea of this review is the very structure of the story with the story within the story - a man reading the story by the fireplace during Christmas, holidays - removes the original narrator's voice from the rest of the story and reduces the credibility of the story. …
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER95.8% of users find it useful
Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James"

Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw Beginning with the introduction to The Turn Of The Screw, Henry James creates an atmosphere of confusion in which the truth is difficult to distinguish from fantasy. The structure of the novella itself, with a story inside a story-a man reading a tale around a fireplace during the Christmas holidays-removes the voice of the original narrator from the rest of the story and lessens the credibility of the narration. Then there is the matter of the primary character of the tale, the governess, who is mysteriously unnamed. She also sees visions no one else does, which create odd gaps in the storyline as well as strange moments of silence, at least as the governess’ describes them in her narration. Eventually, her visions also lead to the tragic end of the novella. The strange images which appear before the governess, along with her generally distracted nature, lend themselves to two different literary interpretations, Marxist and Feminist. Her own attraction to the wealth of the family which has hired her, with the potential of advancing her own financial situation, is an obsession which seems to have led to many of her visions. Her companion in taking care of the children, the illiterate Mrs. Grose, tells the governess that the person the governess “sees” around the grounds must be the former valet Peter Quint, since he was known to wear the clothes of the head of the house. But since the governess had never known him, no one else can now see him, and he had died, the most plausible explanation is that the governess’ vision is that of the head of the house. Before leaving for his country estate, she had met him in London on Halsey Street. She is described in the introduction as being impressed by him as “a gentleman, a bachelor in the prime of life...He struck her, inevitably, as gallant and splendid. She conceived him as rich, but as fearfully extravagant--saw him all in a glow of high fashion, of good looks, of expensive habits, of charming ways with women.” This quote from the Introduction is a pattern repeated throughout the story, as the governess fills in the gaps of the facts she doesn’t have with her own, mostly pleasant fantasies, at least of this gentleman who hired her. Her impressions of this man fit well into the Marxist theory of literary analysis, in which economic and social conditions are thought to override all concerns. Her obsession with the great advancement given to her by her new position becomes quite clear in Chapter III, in which her new feeling of possession would quickly be understood by any Marxist theorist: “I could take a turn into the grounds,” she says, “and enjoy, almost with a sense of property that amused and flattered me, the beauty and the dignity of the place.” In Chapter III, in the early days of her assignment, while all is still well, she says it was a pleasure at these moments to “feel myself tranquil and justified.” And the reason she feels that way is that she is, she believes, satisfying the man who hired her. “I was giving pleasure,” she said, “to the person to whose pressure I had responded. What I was doing was what he had earnestly hoped and directly asked of me, and that I could, after all, do it proved even a greater joy than I had expected. I daresay I fancied myself, in short, a remarkable young woman ...” The governess’ attitude towards the world is not strictly based on wealth and financial matters, however. Many of her beliefs are based on gender assumptions. These aspects of the James work make the novella an appropriate subject for an interpretation of a feminist literary approach, with its examinations of such issues as gender inequality and stereotyping. The governess has no interest in challenging the values of the patriarchal system, and derives her feeling of contentment and satisfaction from the notion that her actions will please the man with whom she is apparently obsessed. This salient aspect of the governess’ personality can be interpreted both in Marxist and feminist terms, since she wants to, and assumes she is, pleasing the man who has economic power over her, but also, as described in the Introduction, she is taken and perhaps obsessed with his masculinity. Douglas, who is introduced in the Introduction as the person reading a copy of the story “round the fire,” says the governess described the man to him as having “such a figure as had never risen, save in a dream or an old novel.” Before she has even seen Miles, the boy she is to instruct, the governess is disturbed by the word from her employer that the boy has done something that will not allow him to return to his school after the holiday break. After she meets him, she makes assumptions about him based only on his appearance and manner, assumptions based strictly on what she wants to believe about the boy. “If he had been wicked he would have ‘caught’ it,” she said. “And I should have caught it by the rebound--I should have found the trace. I found nothing at all, and he was therefore an angel.” The world in which the governess wants to live is one of wealth and success, which surrounds her in the elegance of the manor, though it can only be obtained through the master. She tells Mrs. Grose she has “no pretension” about her future with him, but it is quite possible that her strange visions are the result of her frustrations when she understands that, beyond her assignment, she won’t have the man in her life, nor his fancy possessions. When she started seeing about the grounds the man she decides, after discussions with Mrs. Grose, is Peter Quint, (but is more likely some version of the manor’s master) she becomes convinced that he represents pure evil. A feminist interpretation of the work would describe this as her need to drive away her misplaced desires for the manor’s owner, or, by Marxist theory, for the owner’s wealth. It is a way to keep herself down in what nineteenth century society has deemed her proper subservient position. In the fateful last chapter (XXIV) of the work, all of the governess’ obsessions lead to the final tragedy of the death of the young boy Miles. She has many gaps in her understanding of the family’s history, most notably the reason the young boy Miles was in trouble at his regular school. Her need to find out what happened turns into a compulsion for her, and when she insists on answers from him in the last two chapters, she does not give proper attention to his obviously failing health. The fever which is overwhelming and soon to kill him causes him to answer her questions in a hesitating manner. In Chapter XXIII, after explaining to him that she had stayed on just to find out what he had done wrong at school, she describes the long period of silence while she waits for him to answer: “He waited so long,” she said. “that I supposed it for the purpose of repudiating the assumption on which my action had been founded.” She is still interpreting the world through her own, often misguided thoughts and not through the facts, as apparent when she immediately noted: “But what he finally said was a response far different from what she expected: “‘Do you mean now–here?’” he said. In the last two chapters, Miles’ answers to her questions seem to startle the governess. At the start of the last chapter, after a long description of Peter Quint’s image (what she describes as “the face of damnation”) the governess’ thoughts are jarred when the boy breaks the silence to answer her question with a voice, which, in contrast to the visions of Quint, was “like a waft of fragrance.” The governess is obsessed to find out what the young boy did at school, and also to protect him from Peter Quint, the apparition she is sure is real. But she does not act on the quite evident signs of the fever soon to take his life. When he gives what she considers to be a satisfying response to one of her questions, she “kissed his forehead,” though she adds, “it was drenched.” Later, Miles “drew his breath, two or three times over, as if with difficulty.” His obviously failing health explains the many gaps of silence in his responses to her questions. She describes his manner as “quite detached and almost helpless,” and “still breathing hard,” but she continues to believe he is only troubled by her questions. At the end, though, while she held him, “his heart, dispossessed, had stopped.” The governess, unable to overcome her economic status, nor able to change the gender inequality of her position, has taken to fantasy for comfort. She is constantly declaring to herself her own goodness and her feelings of success. But her troubled mind has tried to fill in the gaps of knowledge that she doesn’t know about her hired family and most of her conclusions are driven by her own fantasies. In the process, she has ignored her true responsibility to take care of the children under her tutelage. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words, n.d.)
Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1551049-explain-how-insights-from-two-theoretical-perspectives-can-be-used-to-explore-the-significance-of-8216gaps8217-8216silences8217-and-8216absences8217-in-the-turn-of-the-screw
(Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words)
Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1551049-explain-how-insights-from-two-theoretical-perspectives-can-be-used-to-explore-the-significance-of-8216gaps8217-8216silences8217-and-8216absences8217-in-the-turn-of-the-screw.
“Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words”. https://studentshare.org/literature/1551049-explain-how-insights-from-two-theoretical-perspectives-can-be-used-to-explore-the-significance-of-8216gaps8217-8216silences8217-and-8216absences8217-in-the-turn-of-the-screw.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Visions And Fantasies in The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James

The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien. Material and Emotional Burdens

This paper is the analysis of the semi-autobiographical novel “They Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien.... The analysis is given with the multiple examples from the novel.... The paper gives a wide description of the 39 paragraph of that novel.... he material things carried by the men of the platoon are catalogued in that paragraph....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The Turn of the Screw

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: A Critical Assessment of “Fictional Reality is Nothing but as We Imagine it” in terms of James's “the turn of the screw” Henry James's novel, “the turn of the screw”, poses a serious question: what is reality in the independent world of literature?... hellip; Indeed, his novel seems to tell his readers that literature is “an annexed but independent world in which nothing is right but as we rightly imagine it” (james 2)....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Name Professor Course Date “the turn of the screw” by Henry James Henry James' novel “the turn of the screw” is simply one of the most prominent ghost tales in history.... Not only does James interest readers who like a decent thrill, “the turn of the screw” is also an example of any motivating author of suspense.... hellip; “the turn of the screw” is popular for its lasting mysterious features.... “the turn of the screw” has multiple puzzling twists and turns that sparkle discussions amongst critics since its release....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Dream for Case Study

I am a grown adult, but find myself filling the role of a small boy, with my mother coming into my bedroom to wake me, as she talks about the day at school that awaits me.... I am aware that, physically, I am fully grown, despite my room and everything around me appearing as it did when I was a small boy. … My body is too large for my bed, which is covered with a novelty 'Spiderman' blanket from my childhood, and the lower half of my legs hang over the end of the bed - which is comically small compared to my large frame....
20 Pages (5000 words) Essay

The Turn of the Screw

the turn of the screw it is a short novel written by Henry James (1843-1916).... The book keeps the reader enthralled till the end because of its suspense and mystery. The text of Henry James "the turn of the screw" has been judged the "finest he has ever done" (James.... Belonging from a poor family where the governess's father is thought a person with a "psychically unbalanced nature" (james.... (james....
10 Pages (2500 words) Book Report/Review

The Turn of the Screw

It begins with a prologue by an unnamed narrator, in which Douglas, a guest in a country house where other ghost stories are told, reads a manuscript… Douglas's tale has not the form of the typical ghost story.... Written by the person who had the experience (a governess), it arouses a lot of feelings in Douglas, who states that the story was committed to him and would be told for the first time Hence, the prologue introduces the story as a long-kept secret that is about to be revealed....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Compare the ways in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman's

Similarly the turn of the screw is written by Henry James which revolves around a female protagonist serving as a governess for two children Flora and Miles.... Charlotte Perkins Gillman and henry james Both these literary works were published in a time when the feminist movement was about to start.... This essay would further compare the ways in which these female protagonists have been portrayed within the works (henry 2008; Gilman 1973).... She eventually sees different things from the wallpaper and visions a woman who is trapped inside....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Henry James The Turn of the Screw

In the paper “Henry James' the turn of the screw” the author discusses the story, known to be one of the most controversial and puzzling literary works.... t is also imperative to note the narration style employed in the “turn of the screw”.... henry james' conception of awareness of evil is explicitly exhibited.... It is imperative to point out the horrific scene as the governess seeks to protect the two little children; she ends up murdering the boy and traumatizing the girl (Gilchrist and james 102)....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us