Henry James was an American-born novelist who spent much of his life in Europe. He was born in 1843 in New York to wealthy parents and had an older brother, William, who became a famous philosopher. James attended Harvard Law School but soon turned to writing. One of his early successful novels was Daisy Miller in 1879. He settled in England where he had distinguished friends but was not very popular among general readers. Two of his major later works were The Portrait of a Lady and The Bostonians. The Turn of the Screw, published in 1898, is considered a ghost story but leaves it ambiguous whether the governess actually sees ghosts or is experiencing psychological delusions. It explores themes of sexuality and the corruption of

1. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
Henry James
Henry James, Jr. whose mastery of the psychological novel markedly influenced twentieth-century
literature was born in New York, NY,on April 15, 1843. His father was an eccentric intellectual,
also named Henry James who had inherited considerable wealth and married a woman named
Mary, with whom later had five children. James,Sr., became a follower of Swedenborgian
mysticism, a belief system devoted to the study of philosophy, theology, and spiritualism, and
socialized with eminent writers. James’s older brother, William James, went on to become a famous
philosopher and profoundly influenced the emerging science of psychology through his Principles
of Psychology (1890) and The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Henry, Jr.,the second
oldest, became one of America's leading novelists. The family moved around frequently, as Henry,
Sr. felt this was the best education for his children. In 1855 the James family began a three-year tour
of Geneva, London, and Paris, an experience that probably influenced James’s later preference for
Europe over his native land
When the Civil War broke out, Henry, Sr. did not want his two eldest sons to take part in it, even
though he encouraged his younger sons, Robertson and Wilkerson, to fight. This kind of
favouritism was typical of a father whose eccentricities turned the younger sons into personal and
financial failures, his eldest sons into neurotic high-achievers, and his daughter, Alice, into a
brilliant yet frequently bedridden hypochondriac.
Henry, Jr. went to Harvard Law School for a year but then started to write in Boston. For a while,
he went back and forth between Europe and America,writing in both continents and finally settled
in Europe. By that time his short novel, Daisy Miller (1879) became his first big success. James
loved Italy and would go back every few years for long stays, but he didn't feel it could be home.
He also loved France, but he didn’t feel treated right there. Finally, he settled in England, where he
was welcomed by society. He had very distinguished friends, including the American novelist and
critic William Dean Howells, Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev and French novelist Emile
Zola. James gained a reputation as one of the most important writers of his day, but he wasn’t very
popular among people, so he never became rich. His major works from this period include The
Portrait of a Lady (1881) and The Bostonians (1886).
James always liked theatre,and drawn to it by the desire for recognition and financial success,he
tried to write plays during the 1890s, but returned to the novel form after being booed off the stage
after his play Guy Domville. He blamed the bad taste of the audience and the theatre professionals
for his failures. Deeply wounded, James retreated from London and took refuge in Sussex, hiring a
rambling mansion called Lamb House. This experience influenced the books written in the years
that followed, such as Turn of the Screw in 1898, one of severalworks from this period that revolve
around large, rambling houses. Other notable later works were The Ambassadors (1903) and The
Golden Bowl (1904).
After achieving even more fame as a novelist but still little financial success,James decided to edit
his substantial body of work, doing a great deal of rewriting and adding prefaces,for the New York
editions in the early 1900s.
James remained an American citizen almost all of his life, and he would periodically return home
after a close relative died. He was the last of the five siblings to die, on February 28, 1916. The
year before, he had become a British subject. This was because he found his mobility restricted
during war time, but also because he felt loyalty to England. Despite his Irish roots, he always tried
to present himself as British. World War I (1914-1918) had greatly saddened him, and before he
died he was working a lot with soldiers in the hospital, trying to entertain them. By the time James
died, he had written more than a hundred short stories and novellas, as well as literary and dramatic
criticism, plays, travel essays,book reviews, and twenty novels. He remains one of America's most
important writers.

2. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
The Turn of the Screw
Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw is full of complex interactions between the living and
the dead, and has given rise to debate about whether it is just a ghost story, or a study in sexual
repression. The plot revolves around the psychological state of the central character,the governess,
who apparently sees ghosts,but only when she is alone or preoccupied by fantasies.
James wrote The Turn of the Screw at a time when ghost stories were trendy. James's interest,
however, was not in the stereotypical ghost stories; he was more interested in real ghosts, "the
strange and sinister embroidered on the very type of the normal and easy," as he put it in the preface
to the New York Edition of his final ghost story, The Jolly Corner.
The Turn of the Screw differs from most of Henry James's writing. His books tend to be about the
relationships between people, not suspense-filled ghost stories in a more popular style, which was
his brother William’s request. Finally, he agreed and wrote The Turn of the Screw,a book that
builds up tension and suspense as the story progresses.
The prologue, which precedes the governess's tale,sets up this feeling of suspense. The reader is
forced to wait for the story, just like the people who are gathered around to hear it. Like the ladies
who must leave before the tale begins, the readers are "in a rage of curiosity . . . produced by the
touches with which he had already worked us up". One of those touches is the numerous
mysteriously dead people. The children's parents, their grandparents, and their governess all died
before the new governess was hired. Plus, the reader knows that this new governess is also now
dead. All those dead people set the reader up for a disturbing tale, the telling of which is delayed to
add to the suspense,and the addition of a dead caretaker means there are more dead charactersthan
living ones.
The governess's tale, of course,builds greatly on this sense of mystery. She is continually viewing
ghosts through windows, etc,but at certain distance what makes them seem more mysterious. When
she sees Quint for the second time, she is startled to see him staring through a window at her, and
she gets a sense that she "had been looking at him for years and had known him always". It is
terrifying to see a mysterious man looking through a window, but the reader's curiosity grows by
her feeling that she knows him when she clearly does not. Her manner of describing these
interactions with the ghosts heightens the sense of suspense because the encounters are always
paired with intimations of some sort of mystical knowledge of the ghosts.
James has used all of the traditional means of telling a ghost story-ghosts seen in a flash around
corners, someone with a sixth sense about things, delayed details-to put together a text that is very
clearly in a ghost story mode. There is never a name given to the governess, which makes the tale
seem all the more a standard ghost story. He references a famous story about the supernatural, The
Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, to state that this is also a ghost story, but also to make fun
of the form he is using-while he builds up suspense. James,himself, never liked The Turn of the
Screw much because all that mystery made people read it simply as a tale of the supernatural.
Like so many other Victorian novels, The Turn of the Screw has sexuality everywhere and
nowhere. There are no explicit descriptions of sexual activity or even sexual attractiveness.
However,even though sexuality is not spoken of directly, it is hidden in the text.
Despite being prudish and respectable, the governess demonstrates a keen interest in sexuality, and
it is unclear whether she has been sexually active or if she is repressing her desires. She is in love
with the master, although it is clear that she desires more of him than she gets, and Douglas
indicates that he seduced her.
Perhaps because she is so ignored by the object of her desire, the governess takes a great deal of
interest in the sexuality of others. She is concerned about Miss Jessel's and Quint's sexual
relationship. She is intrigued by the idea of a relationship between a woman of higher class and a

3. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
menial man because it is so immoral. She is especially interested in the fact that Miss Jesselwas a
fallen woman who now "suffers the torments . . . of the damned". This can be read two ways.
Perhaps the governess is also a fallen woman, having given herself to the master,and she is
tormented by her guilt and fear or perhaps she is envious of a woman who did give in to her desires,
and that is why she focuses on the ghosts so much.
Miles's homosexuality is even more subtle yet though virtually stated in the text. The first hint is
that "for a period of severalmonths Quint and the boy had been perpetually together", but, of
course, that could be for any number of reasons. Later,when Miles indicates he wants to return to
school, he asks whether his uncle thinks what his governess thinks. Again, that he could be
homosexual is not clearly laid out, but we do know that Miles has some shame that is connected
with returning to school. Then, in the next chapter, the governess repeats the phrase "unnatural for a
boy" twice in connection with Miles. Finally, at the end of the text, he admits he was dismissed
from school for saying terrible things to boys that he liked. This is the final indication that he
learned sexual language from Quint and repeated it to the other boys. If it was terrible enough to get
him removed from school and was said as a sign of affection, it was undoubtedly homosexual,
which was an offense that could lead to jail in Victorian England. In fact, James's rival in the
theatre,Oscar Wilde, did go to jail for homosexual activity and James himself quite possibly was a
closeted homosexual.
Like so many of his contemporaries, James avoids the issue of sexuality but portrays it as
controlling his characters' lives. Like his governess, he is reticent about the sexual yet is intrigued
by it. So, sexuality becomes a taboo that all the same takes hold of people's lives in this book.
Analysis ofMajor Characters
The Governess
Although the governess adores Miles and Flora when she first meets them, she quickly becomes
suspicious of their every word and action, convinced that they intend to deceive her. She is
inconstant, however, and frequently switches back to being absolutely sure of their pure innocence.
At these times, her affection for the children can be intense. She embraces them often and with
passion, going so far as to kiss Miles. The ambiguity of the text allows these displays of affection to
appear both harmless and inappropriate. Her volatile relationship with the children renders her an
unreliable narrator and an unreliable source of information. According to Douglas, the governess’s
confidant and admirer, she is “the most agreeable person” he has ever known “in her position.”
However,he says also that she was “in love,” as though this is an excuse for her behaviour, which
he admits is questionable. Mrs. Grose’s increasing skepticism sets doubt on the governess’s visions
and fears and suggests that the governess may indeed be losing her mind.
The governess, with her excessive concern for the children and her violent suspicions of them, may
be regarded as either a heroine or a villain. On one hand, she seems to be an ambitious young
woman who unwittingly places herself in a position in which she is forced to struggle heroically to
protect her charges from supernatural forces. On the other hand, she seems to be a sheltered,
inexperienced young woman whose crush on her employer and nervous exhaustion at being in
charge of two strange children result in an elaborate and ultimately dangerous fabrication or
hallucination. James provides only the governess’s side of the story, which may be inaccurate in
whole or in part. In any case,the governess’s account is by no means the full account, which we
never learn.

4. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
Mrs. Grose
An illiterate servant at Bly, Mrs. Grose provides the governess with open ears and loyal support.
Although the governess thinks her simple minded and slow witted, Mrs. Grose knows more of the
story than the governess fathoms and is as capable of piecing things together as is the governess,
though slower to leap to dire conclusions. Although Mrs. Grose is the source for most of the
governess’s information, the governess does not take her words at face value or ask Mrs. Grose for
her opinions. Instead, the governess uses Mrs. Grose as a “receptacle of lurid things.” The
governess frequently attempts to seize moments alone with Mrs. Grose so that she can try out her
latest speculations. Mrs. Grose is usually skeptical of these speculations, but the governess takes
Mrs. Grose’s incredulity for astonished belief. Like the reader,Mrs. Grose is willing to hear the
governess out but doesn’t necessarily agree with her logic or conclusions.
Miles
Miles might be either a cunning and deceitful plaything of ghosts or merely an innocent, unusually
well-mannered young boy. The governess repeatedly changes her mind on the matter, leaving
Miles’s true character in question. When the governess first meets Miles, she is struck by his
“positive fragrance of purity” and the sense that he has known nothing but love. She finds herself
excusing him for any potential mishap because he is too beautiful to misbehave. Yet she also senses
a disturbing emptiness in Miles, an impersonality and lack of history, as though he is less than real.
Once the governess begins having her supernatural encounters, she comes to believe that Miles is
plotting evil deeds with his ghostly counterpart, Quint, and indeed Miles does exhibit strange
behaviour. For example, he plans an incident so that the governess will think him “bad,” and he
steals the letter she wrote to his uncle. Mrs. Grose tells us that Peter Quint was a bad influence on
him, but we have no way to measure the extent or precise nature of this influence, and Miles’s
misdeeds may be nothing more than childish pranks. The fact that Miles is otherwise unusually
pleasant and well behaved suggests that the sinister quality of his behaviour exists only in the
governess’s mind. The governess eventually decides that Miles must be full of wickedness,
reasoning that he is too “exquisite” to be anything else, a conclusion she bases only on her own
subjective impressions and conjectures.
Flora
Like Miles, Flora might be either angelic or diabolical. She appears to be a completely wonderful
little girl, even supernaturally so, well behaved and a pleasure to be around. The governess thinks
Flora possesses “extraordinary charm” and is the “most beautiful child” she has laid eyes on. Flora
seems,however, to have a personality quite distinct from these glowing descriptions. When the
governess questions Flora as to why she had been looking out the window, Flora’s explanation is
evasive and unsatisfying. Flora’s next turn at the window turns out to be, according to Miles, part of
a scheme to show the governess that Miles can be “bad.” At this point, the governess has already
assumed Flora to be scheming and deceptive, but this is the first instance in which Flora seems to be
exhibiting unambiguous deceit. The story remains inconclusive, however, and we never know for
sure what Flora and Miles are up to. Flora may very well be the innocent child the governess
thought her to be, her strange,diabolical turns existing only in the governess’s mind.
Themes
The Corruption of the Innocent
The governess only rarely indicates that she is afraid the ghosts will physically harm or kill the
children. In fact, Miles’s death comes as a shock to us as readers,because we are unprepared to
think of the ghosts as a physical threat. Readers who view the governess as mad tend to speculate
that perhaps the governess killed him by hugging him too hard and smothering him. Until she sends
Flora away,the governess never seems to consider removing the children from the ghosts or trying

5. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
to expel the ghosts from the house. Instead,the governess’s fears focus almost entirely on the
potential “corruption” of the children—whether they were corrupted by Quint and Jesselwhen the
latter were alive and whether they continue to be similarly corrupted by the ghosts. Before she even
knows about Quint, the governess guesses that Miles has been accused of corrupting other children.
Although the word corruption is a euphemism that permits the governess to remain vague about
what she means, the clear implication is that corruption means exposure to knowledge of sex. For
the governess, the children’s exposure to knowledge of sex is a far more terrifying prospect than
confronting the living dead or being killed. Consequently, her attempt to save the children takes the
form of a relentless quest to find out what they know, to make them confess rather than to predict
what might happen to them in the future. Her fear of innocence being corrupted seems to be a big
part of the reason she approaches the problem so indirectly—it’s not just that the ghosts are
unmentionable but that what the ghosts have said to them or introduced them to is unspeakable.
Because the corruption of the children is a matter of fearful speculation rather than an
acknowledged fact, the story doesn’t make any clear and definitive statement about corruption.
Certainly, the governess’s fears are destructive and do not result in her saving the children. Notably,
while the governess is the character most fearful of and vigilant for corruption, she is also the least
experienced and most curious character regarding sex. Mrs. Grose is married, and the uncle, though
a bachelor, seems to be a ladies’ man. The governess is singularly horrified by Miss Jessel’s sexual
infraction and apparently fascinated by it as well. We might conclude that the governess’s fear of
the children’s corruption represents her projection of her own fears and desires regarding sex onto
her charges.
The Destructiveness of Heroism
The governess’s youth and inexperience suggest that the responsibility of caring for the two
children and being in charge of the entire estate is more than she could possibly bear,yet she does
not look for help. Her isolation is largely her employer’s fault, because he chooses to remain absent
and specifically tells her to deal with all problems by herself. However,the governess responds to
her experiences at Bly by taking on even more responsibility—to bury the headmaster’s letter and
keep Miles at home; to be the one who sees the ghosts rather than the children and who attempts to
screen them from any exposure to the ghosts; and to save the children from the ghosts’ corrupting
influence. These decisions are all self-conscious—she is not forced to make them because she can’t
think of another way to respond. Instead, she deliberately chooses to view these challenges as
“magnificent” opportunities to please the master and deludes herself into thinking that the master
recognizes her sacrifices. Clearly, she is misguided on both counts. The master never comes down
or sends any letter, and her crusade to save the children is an even worse disaster. Flora leaves the
estate sick and in hysterics, vowing never to speak to the governess again, and Miles dies. Whether
or not the governess was correct in thinking that the children were being haunted, she was definitely
wrong in thinking she could be the hero who saves them.
The fact that the governess was misguided in adopting a heroic stance suggests several
interpretations. One possibility is that the forces of corruption are too powerful for one person to
oppose. Perhaps the governess could have succeeded only with the concerted efforts of the school
and the uncle, and perhaps the children could not have been saved. Another possible reason why her
heroism might have been inappropriate is that childhood and innocence may be too fragile to be
protected in such an aggressive fashion. The governess’s attempt to police and guard the children
may have proven to be more damaging than the knowledge from which she wanted to protect them.
Forbidden Subjects
One of the most challenging features of The Turn of the Screw is how frequently characters make
indirect hints or use vague language rather than communicate directly and clearly. The headmaster
expels Miles from school and refuses to specify why. The governess has several guesses about what
he might have done, but she just says he might be “corrupting” the others, which is almost as
uninformative as the original letter. The governess fears that the children understand the nature of

6. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
Quint and Jessel’s relationship, but the nature of that relationship is never stated explicitly. The
governess suspects that the ghosts are influencing the children in ways having to do with their
relationship in the past, but she isn’t explicit about how exactly they are being influenced. This
excessive reticence on the part of the characters could reflect James’s own reticence (which was
marked), or it could be interpreted as a satiric reflection on Victorian reticence about sex. More
straightforwardly, it could be a technique for engaging the imagination to produce a more terrifying
effect.
Motifs
Vision
Throughout The Turn of the Screw,references to eyes and vision emphasize the idea that sight is
unreliable. Vision and the language used to describe it are particularly important in each of the
governess’s encounters with Quint and Miss Jessel. She deems her first meeting with Quint a
“bewilderment of vision,” an ambiguous phrase that suggests she imagined what she saw.
Characters lock eyes with each other severaltimes in the novella. The governess shares intense
gazes with both Quint and Miss Jesseland believes she can determine the ghosts’ intentions by
looking into their eyes. Although she and Miss Jesseldo not actually talk, the governess claims
Miss Jessel’s gaze appears “to say” she has a right to be there. At times, the governess regards the
clarity of the children’s eyes as proof that the children are innocent. In these cases,she determines
whether the children are capable of deception by looking at their eyes,when it may be her own eyes
that deceive her.
Symbols
Light
Candlelight suggests safety in the governess’s narrative, while twilight suggests danger. On a
number of occasions, the governess’s lighted candle is extinguished, always with the implication
that something is wrong. At the top of the stairs, her candle goes out at the exact moment she sees
Quint. She views him in “cold, faint twilight.” A week or two later, the governess wakes up to find
her candle extinguished and Miles on the lawn in bright moonlight. Her view of him in that light
suggests danger and, in a way, prefigures his imminent death. Later,Miles blows out the
governess’s candle, plunging the two into darkness. The lack of moonlight implies an absence of
the supernatural, and the blowing out of the candle indicates a loss of protection.
The Written Word
In The Turn of the Screw,events become fully real only when they have been written down. The
governess at first refuses to record the circumstances at Bly in a letter to her employer. If she
preserves the events in a material document, she will have reached a point of no return—she will be
forever unable to deny what happened. She also has relied on threats and passionate speech to
persuade Mrs. Grose of her visions and theories, and convincing someone through the written word
will be much more difficult. Eventually, she does write the letter, and she also writes down the
entire account in the manuscript that we are reading. The manuscript, unlike the letter, allows her to
present events in a way that will persuade her readers she is both sane and telling the truth. In
keeping with the ambiguity of the tale, the trajectories of both written records,the letter and the
manuscript, are interrupted, which further impedes our ability to determine whether the events are
or are not “real.” The letter is never sent, and the manuscript stops short of a definite conclusion.
These interruptions suggest the story remains unresolved—and set doubt on its reliability.

7. CeRPdel Sur,Atlàntida,2010 ErnestoMuniz,JuniorStudent
All things considered, what is great about this piece of work is that, using the genre of the ghost
story, Henry James,skillfully provokes the reader’s anxieties by evoking the psychological
mechanisms of the horror of the unknown. The effect achieved,is that existential questions rise in
the readers,allowing them and the writer to deal with real life issues through the medium of
seemingly fantastic events. For all of the skill he demonstrates in writing this ghost story, his only
experiment with the ghost story genre,James simultaneously takes the narrative form of this genre
to another level of psychological suspense and a level of sophistication.
Sources
http://www.novelguide.com
http://www.literature-study-online.com
http://www.articlemyriad.com
www.sparknotes.com