THE TURN OF THE SCREW
Title: The Turn of the Screw
Author: Henry James
Publication: 1898
Genre: Gothic, Horror, Ghost Story
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Favourite Quote: "If he were innocent, what then on earth was I?"
Honestly, The Turn of the Screw has one of the most ambiguous plots I've ever read, but in a good way. I had to research this book for my uni essay and I was utterly shocked at the number of theories, theses, and books that have been written trying to give us answers and explain what James meant when he wrote this book. This story can either be read as a terrifying ghost story, or a gripping psychological tale that explores the peculiar way in which the subconscious mind works.
"The story had held us around the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome."
The narration of The Turn of the Screw starts in a conventional manner: a group of friends share ghost stories around the fire on a Christmas evening. One of them tells the story of a twenty-year-old woman who is appointed governess to two young children by their absent uncle and she's sent to live with them in a large remote country house. The previous governess died of a dark and unspoken-of reason- thought to do with a mysterious man of the household, also dead. Upon arriving, the governess is overcome with a feeling of uneasiness and the disquieting feeling that an evil presence lurks over the children in order to corrupt them. The governess starts to see their ghosts and becomes obsessed with protecting the children. Sure enough, tragedy ensues.
At first glance, the novella seems like a straightforward ghost story with strange faces peering through windows, shadowy figures standing at the bottom of stairs and a hysterical governess clutching her little angels to protect them from the apparitions that exist within the sinister house. However, there's a great deal more to The Turn of the Screw which makes it quite unusual.
"Miles and Flora saw more—things terrible and unguessable."
The children, Miles and Flora, are very strange, as is the governess' obsession with them. She makes it sound like they couldn't put a step wrong, almost too perfect, they don't seem like real children. This becomes part of the tension later in the book as she tries to discover what's happening in the house but can't seem to get a straight answer from the extremely peculiar and secretive Miles.
"Another person – this time; but a figure of quite as unmistakable horror and evil: a woman in black, pale and dreadful – with such an air also, and such a face! – on the other side of the lake."
The governess' first-person view lacks true objectivity and the lack of affirmation and evidence merely adds to the tension whilst leaving the doubt to whether there are indeed malevolent ghosts, or whether her mind is merely playing tricks on her. That's the clever thing about this story.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the story is that, it's not only very gothic and disturbing but works on many levels of interpretation. Many people read this as a book about different forms of repressed sexuality, written during a time when sexuality was explored constantly in literature. There's a great deal of effort to "solving" the central mystery of the story but it all seems such a waste of effort. It seems to me that the whole point is that you cannot resolve the question of "are the ghosts real" and you're not supposed to. The ambiguity is at the heart of what makes the story work.
One of the distractions that give The Turn of the Screw short of five stars is simply James' writing style. I know many others seem to have an issue with this as well. James' way with a convoluted sentence makes me want to scream in frustration because the plot is good but you're trying to carefully navigate through the dense prose. It definitely takes a while to get used to, but once you're in, you're in.
"He knew me as well as I knew him; and so, in the cold, faint twilight, with a glimmer in the high glass and another on the polish of the oak stair below, we faced each other in our common intensity. He was absolutely, on this occasion, a living, detestable, dangerous presence. "
It's a terrifically atmospheric story, tight, claustrophobic and gripping. Also, it's a great example of "spooky children" and I can easily think of many books and films that must have been heavily influenced by it (the twins from The Shining are the first that come to mind and I now have goosebumps.)
I think there's a definite power in this story and it builds nicely in dread and atmosphere to a chilling conclusion. The Turn of the Screw is James' most notorious piece of work for a reason- it's sinister, suspenseful and disturbing.
Give it a read if you like that sort of stuff and challenge your mind and interpretation by reading it!
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