The Governess Insanity In Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

Readers might wonder with whom she was in love. Then the Master told the Governess about the previous governess and her death (James 296). The readers probably want to know the reason of the previous governess' death. When the Master talked about the duties of the Governess, he required her not to contact him in any way (James 297). We do not know why he made that requirement. As the story continues, the readers have many more unsolved questions such as why Miles was dismissed from school, why the Governess could describe Peter Quint exactly though she never meet him, and why the Governess thought that ghosts wanted to catch the two children. Ned Lukacher thinks that "[the way James] has said something also becomes a way of not having said something else" (132). For instance, James revealed some hints regarding the reason Miles was dismissed. We know that "[Miles]'s an injury to the others" (304) and Mrs. Grose thought Miles was "no boy for [her]" (305). However, these hints do not help the readers to completely understand why Miles was sent away from his school. Instead, more questions are posed, such as how such a ten-year-old boy could injure other students and why Mrs. Grose thought about Miles that way. The readers can not easily find the specific and reasonable answers in the story, so they have to guess the answers based on their own

The second visitation of the ghost of Peter Quint also occurs while the governess is by herself. As the governess, the children, and Mrs. Grouse are preparing for church, the governess goes back into the house to retrieve gloves she sees a visage of the same man she saw at the tower. When Mrs. Grose sees her face she immediately asks what is wrong. The governess goes on to describe the man that she has seen in an odd mixture of attraction and revulsion. This adds question to the reader on the subject of the validity of the testimony of the visitations

In Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw the governess believes that the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, the past governess, haunt Flora and Miles. The governess believes that they contribute to the poor behavior of Miles and Flora. The ghosts appear to be real to her when in all reality she is only imaging them. Whenever she sees Miss Jessel or Peter Quint, Miles, Flora, and Miss Grose do not seem to see them. The governess may be seen as a heroine in this story, but her insanity appears in many examples throughout The Turn of the Screw.

Afterwards, however, she infers that because Miles is beautiful, the expulsion is absurd and he must be innocent: “…he was only too fine and fair for the little horrid unclean school-world…” She later claims that “[h]e had never for a second suffered. [She] took this as a direct disproof of his having really been chastised…” She feels that all of these inferences are truths because Miles is beautiful. Because the governess can see that Miles is beautiful, she infers that he can do nothing wrong, and thereby guesses the unseen from the seen. The governess soon begins to trace the implication of things. Peter Quint’s second appearance leads the governess to claim that he had not come for her. “He had come for someone else. This flash of knowledge” later convinces her that the person he has come for is Miles. Quint wants to appear to the children. On another occasion, when the ghost of Miss Jessel appears to the governess when Flora is near, she is certain that the child has seen the apparition. In talking to Mrs. Grose about the occasion, she tells her that; “Flora saw…I saw with my eyes: she was perfectly aware…I’m clear. Flora doesn’t want me to know…[Miss Jessel’s intention is to] get hold of her…That’s what Flor d9c a knows.” Never in the novel is there any reason given for supposing that anyone other than the governess, especially the children, sees the ghosts. Although she believes that the children do see them, there

“Abigail Williams told you it had naught to do with witchcraft… Why – why did you keep this? …Nonsense! Mister, I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and numerous others that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. Thy have confessed it… And you – would you testify to this in court?”(Page 68-69)

Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw is one of the more disputed texts in all of literature, as it is famously known as an ambiguous text. The primary uncertain element of is whether there are ghosts scaring the governess and the children, or whether the governess is actually going insane. Even though a certain portion of the text is ambiguous, there are other portions of the text that are much more black and white. For example, the relationships in this novella are nothing close to normal. There are three key relationships in The Turn of the Screw: the Governess and Mrs. Grose, the Governess and Miles, and the governess and Flora. All of these relationships show how the governess’s maternal instinct influences her interactions and

Everyone does something at some point in their life that can be considered insane. Sometimes it’s simple things like trying a new food or a new hobby. However, other times it can be more extreme such as stepping outside of the status quo or jumping out of an airplane. The story, “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl takes the term “insane” a bit farther. The story depicts the life of Mary Maloney and describes the event in which she hit and killed her husband with a leg of lamb after receiving unfortunate news from husband when he returned home from work. However, Mary Maloney is innocent due to reason of Insanity due to her inability of being aware of her actions throughout the story. She does this by portraying the symptoms of a person with schizophrenia, attempting to maintain to the forced conformity of gender roles, and her over attachment or jealousy for her husband.

In the governess's insane pseudo-reality and through her chilling behavior, she managed to bring downfall to Flora and Miles, the children of Bly. With compulsively obsessive actions, irrational assumptions, and demented hallucinations, the governess perceived ghosts bearing evil intentions were attempting to corrupt and destroy the children she had taken the role of care for. In reality, the governess herself brought tragedy to the children through her own selfishness and insanity.

Miles represents a socially and sexually corrupt figure by the ghost of Peter Quint who violated status on two occasions. His being “too free” with Miles leads to controversy as well as his love affair with the previous governess. The governess’s knowledge on the history behind Quint and Miles changes drastically as she learns more information to discover truth. Her rejection of the idea that Miles could be “bad” transforms into an obsession noting his every action in hopes to reveal that the children are being possessed by ghosts. Despite the connotation of Quint’s clash of class boundaries, the text also suggests the potential homosexual nature of his association with Miles. Therefore, the ghost of Quint stands for everything the Governess is afraid of, and his sense of menace dictates Miles living through his identity.

Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw has been described as one of the best ghost stories of all time. However, there is clear evidence that the main character, the governess, suffers from delusions. The strange events that occur throughout the story happen in the estate of Bly. The anomalies, described as horrors or ghosts, only come to light after the governess arrives. These events are due to creations of the governess ' mind, her controlling intent to protect and overrule the children, and her unstable mental state. In this way, her thoughts and her actions are the cause of the strange events at Bly.

was truly crazy or not. Although, there are many deliberate acts of fabricated insanity repeated

Ironically, the other present characters at Bly are also fragmented and desire to fulfill the Governess's desires, if the narrative is reliable. Mrs. Grose, who could very well slap the Governess back into

However, the children are probably not sure as what the governess is doing, and it has definitely harmed the psychology of the children. There is never mentioned in the story the clear intentions of the ghosts, and Miles and Flora have never accepted their sighting with the ghosts, but the governess insisted that the children were aware of their existence and were pretending as if they never knew what was going on. If this is viewed as if governess was pretending then she might be doing this to impress and prove her master how she cared about the children. But whatever the governess was doing, in reality, has confused the children about what she was referring to and they couldn’t understand her. This definitely made the children suffer, as for every child, image of ghost is very much terrifying .Whatever she was doing it resulted in Flora being sick and Miles dead at end of the story ( Poquette 257).

The critics from psychanalytic perspective claim that the existence of ghosts is the governess’s hysterical delusion. The ghost is the projection of governess's own sexual hysteria, which resulted from the conflict between native romantic impulses and idealistic innocence required by Victorian society (Renner). The inexperienced governess encounters the "handsome," "bold," young gentleman with "charming ways with women" (James, 4) and she

In The Turn of The Screw by Henry James the governess keeps seeing these mystical beings that may be real, or in her head. The article Believing Is Seeing by Barry L. Beyerstein shows a message that people can see a mystical being and their are explanations behind their citations that prove the appearance they see are not real. Whether you believe in ghosts, or believe that ghosts are fake, I will prove that ghosts are not real in The Turn of the Screw and how informational texts contribute to these types of explanations.