{"id":1698,"date":"2018-01-26T13:09:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-26T18:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/?p=1698"},"modified":"2018-01-26T13:09:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T18:09:29","slug":"the-turn-of-the-screw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-turn-of-the-screw\/","title":{"rendered":"The Turn of the Screw"},"content":{"rendered":"

I started reading\u00a0Henry James’ 1898 novel\u00a0The Turn of the Screw<\/em>\u00a0with some awareness of the book\u2019s reputation of having an\u00a0ambiguous\u00a0narrative: the young\u00a0governess\u2019s story could be read as a straightforward documentation of a tragic\u00a0haunting\u00a0\u2026 or it could be read as a madwoman\u2019s\u00a0diary, the\u00a0ghosts\u00a0she describes all just figments of her mind.<\/p>\n

Upon reading the book \u2014 and upon having read two other books\u00a0published at about the same time, namely Robert Chambers\u2019\u00a0The King in Yellow<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and Joseph Conrad\u2019s\u00a0Heart of Darkness<\/em><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 my take is\u00a0that James intended it to be a straightforward\u00a0gothic\u00a0haunting tale.<\/p>\n

The Turn of the Screw<\/em>\u00a0has a story-within-a-story\u00a0narrative frame\u00a0similar to that of\u00a0Heart of Darkness<\/em>: an unnamed\u00a0narrator\u00a0tells of a gentleman named Douglas who is telling a\u00a0ghost story\u00a0to impress his peers at a country retreat. Douglas\u2019 tale, in turn, is the\u00a0first-person\u00a0narration of a young governess put in charge of two orphaned children at a remote country manor. As in\u00a0Heart of Darkness<\/em>, the unnamed narrator doesn\u2019t editorialize on the believability of the story being told, but Douglas, the secondary narrator, actively vouches for the governess\u2019 character:<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a most\u00a0charming\u00a0person, but she was ten years older than I. She was my sister\u2019s governess,\u201d he quietly said. \u201cShe was the most agreeable woman I\u2019ve ever known in her position; she would have been worthy of any whatever. \u2026 we had, in her off-hours, some strolls and talks in the garden\u2014 talks in which she struck me as awfully\u00a0clever\u00a0and nice \u2026.\u201d (James, Prologue)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The governess was just twenty years old when the events of\u00a0The Turn of the Screw<\/em>\u00a0took place; if she were suffering from delusional\u00a0mental illness\u00a0severe enough to drive her to\u00a0murder at that age, her mental condition\u00a0was unlikely to improve in the subsequent years, this being long before the invention of anti-psychotic medication\u00a0(remission of untreated mental illness is possible, but doesn\u2019t happen in most cases). Likewise, if she were a\u00a0sociopathic\u00a0murderess who preyed on children, one would think either the master of Bly would have found her at fault for Miles\u2019 death (and subsequently destroyed her career if he didn\u2019t have her arrested) or that Douglas might have sensed her unpleasant nature, or gotten reports from his sister, and either way not found her quite so nice. So, Douglas\u2019 introduction lends the governess\u2019 narrative an air of\u00a0believability.<\/p>\n

However, even with Douglas\u2019 confidence in her story, it\u2019s possible that the governess could act as an\u00a0unreliable narrator\u00a0in her own story. But when I compare her narrative with that of Hildred Castaigne in\u00a0The King in Yellow<\/em>, I don\u2019t see the hallmarks of an unreliable narration. While the characters who interacted with Castaigne consistently behaved as though they thought he might be crazy, the characters who interact with the governess largely treat her as though she\u2019s\u00a0sane. Her interactions with Mrs. Grose are particularly important there:<\/p>\n

It was not till late next day that I spoke to Mrs. Grose; the rigor with which I kept my pupils in sight making it often difficult to meet her privately, and the more as we each felt the importance of not provoking\u2014 on the part of the servants quite as much as on that of the children\u2014 any suspicion of a secret flurry or that of a discussion of mysteries. I drew a great security in this particular from her mere smooth aspect. There was nothing in her fresh face to pass on to others my horrible confidences. She believed me, I was sure, absolutely: if she hadn\u2019t I don\u2019t know what would have become of me, for I couldn\u2019t have borne the business alone. (James, Chapter XI)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Using\u00a0Douglas to introduce the governess as a reliable source and the governess\u2019 own portrayals of her working with Mrs. Grose all lead me to believe that James intended this as an old-fashioned ghost story. If not, I think he\u2019d have used some of the techniques that Chambers used to cue the reader in to Castaigne\u2019s\u00a0madness. I think that critics who seek an alternative explanation are running into their own problems suspending their disbelief in the\u00a0supernatural. Maintaining at least the illusion of believability is important to me as a writer, because I rarely compose fictional narratives that don\u2019t contain some supernatural elements.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there are always readers who can\u2019t\u00a0be reached no matter how well-constructed a given story is; I\u2019ll never forget my graduate school roommate who shunned\u00a0fiction\u00a0of any kind because she didn\u2019t want to spend her time on things that \u201cweren\u2019t real.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started reading\u00a0Henry James’ 1898 novel\u00a0The Turn of the Screw\u00a0with some awareness of the book\u2019s reputation of having an\u00a0ambiguous\u00a0narrative: the young\u00a0governess\u2019s story could be read […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[9,113,98,97],"class_list":["post-1698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-horror","tag-joseph-conrad","tag-king-in-yellow","tag-novels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/The-Turn-of-the-Screw-LaFarge.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8qT6f-ro","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-red-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":1698,"position":0},"title":"The Red Tree","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"August 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Caitli\u0301n R. Kiernan\u2019s\u00a0The Red Tree\u00a0is a dizzying weird gothic novel that chronicles the final months of a writer named Sarah Crowe as she grieves for her dead girlfriend, wrestles with writer's block and tries to unravel the dark mysteries behind the legends surrounding an ancient oak tree growing near the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "dark fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"dark fantasy","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/dark-fantasy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/redtree.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1808,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-yellow-wallpaper\/","url_meta":{"origin":1698,"position":1},"title":"The Yellow Wallpaper","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"March 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Yellow Wallpaper\u201d by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a brilliant 1892 story that presents the first-person chronicle of a woman in a stifling marriage driven mad by spirit-crushing, enforced boredom and her horrified obsession with the floridly ugly wallpaper in the bedroom of the country manor her husband has rented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "horror"","block_context":{"text":"horror","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image by Julie Jordan Scott","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/yellowwallpaper.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1416,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-king-in-yellow\/","url_meta":{"origin":1698,"position":2},"title":"The King in Yellow","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"July 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The King in Yellow (first published in 1895) is a collection of short stories written by author Robert W. Chambers. Most of the tales in the collection are supernatural, and the first four \u00ad\u00ad\u2014 \u201cThe Repairer of Reputations\u201d, \u201cThe Mask\u201d, \u201cIn the Court of the Dragon\u201d, and \u201cThe Yellow Sign\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kinginyellow-e1499276717364.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kinginyellow-e1499276717364.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kinginyellow-e1499276717364.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kinginyellow-e1499276717364.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kinginyellow-e1499276717364.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kinginyellow-e1499276717364.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1729,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-secret-sharer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1698,"position":3},"title":"The Secret Sharer","author":"Lucy A. 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This novella offers a tighter and much faster-paced narrative than Conrad\u2019s\u00a0Heart of Darkness\u00a0and I found it to be the better \u201cread\u201d despite\u00a0HoD\u2019s\u00a0many fine\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sharer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sharer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sharer.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sharer.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sharer.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/sharer.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1594,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/the-drowning-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":1698,"position":4},"title":"The Drowning Girl: A Memoir","author":"Lucy A. Snyder","date":"September 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Drowning Girl: A Memoir is a fictional memoir of madness, haunting and loss written by Caitl\u00edn R. Kiernan. The novel was published in 2012 by Roc Books (an imprint of Penguin). It was nominated\u00a0for\u00a0the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, the British\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book review"","block_context":{"text":"book review","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/book-review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/drowninggirl.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/drowninggirl.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/drowninggirl.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/drowninggirl.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1674,"url":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/heart-of-darkness-by-joseph-conrad\/","url_meta":{"origin":1698,"position":5},"title":"Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad","author":"Lucy A. 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In the offing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing Advice"","block_context":{"text":"Writing Advice","link":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/category\/writing-advice\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heart.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heart.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lucysnyder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/heart.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1701,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1698\/revisions\/1701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lucysnyder.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}