Turn of the screw Essay Example For Students

Turn of the screw Essay Henry James was born at two Washington Place in New York City on April 15,1843. He was the second son to Henry James, Sr., an independently wealthy intellectual, and Mary Robertson James. From 1843 to 1845, James took his first trip to Europe. He lived in New York City with his family at 58 West 14th Street. James was educated privately by governess and tutors in New York and Albany. In 1855, he traveled to Europe with his family and attended schools in Switzerland and France. In 1860, with the outbreak of the Civil War, The James family moved back to the United States and settled in Newport. James was unable to enlist in the Union army with his two younger brothers due to a back injury he received when putting out a fire. In 1863, James and his older brother William attended Harvard. James did not complete his studies to pursue his writing career. William graduated from Harvard and became one of the most prominent American philosophers and psychologists of his time. James began his professional writing career with book reviews for the North American Review. His first short story, The Story of the Year, appeared in Atlantic Monthly in 1865. In 1866, the James family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. James had his first novel, Watch and Ward serialized in Atlantic Monthly in 1871. In 1877, James wrote The American, while visiting Paris and Rome. In 1878, The Watch and Ward appeared in book form, and James wrote French Poets and Novelists (criticism), and The Europeans (novel). While visiting Paris and Italy in 1879, he wrote Daisy Miller (novella), An International Episode; the critical biography, Hawthorne; and The Madonna of the Future and Other Tales. The following year, he wrote the novel, Confidence, while traveling in Italy. In 1881, James wrote the novels, Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady. He traveled back to the United States due to his mothers weakening health. Jamess mother died in February of 1882. His father died shortly a fter in December of the same year. He returned to the United States for a short period to settle family matters before leaving to establish permanent residence in England. In 1883, James published his first collected edition of novels and tales in fourteen volumes in The Siege of London (tales) and Portraits of Places (travel). In 1886, James published the novels The Bostonians and The Princess Casamassima. In the same year, he leased a flat in Kensington, England. In 1887, James traveled around Switzerland and Italy in the company of Constance Fenimore Woolson, a novelist, and grandniece to James Fenimore Cooper. In 1888, he published Partial Portraits (criticism), The Aspern Papers (tales), and The Reverbrator (novel). James published A London Life (tales) in 1889 and the following year published The Tragic Muse (novel). James wrote two unproduced plays called Theatricals. In 1898, Jamess The Turn of the Screw was serialized in Colliers Weekly January through April and was also published in book form. Between the years of 1899 and 1910, James published The Awkward Age (1899 novel), The Soft Side (1900 tales), The Sacred Front (1901 supernatural novel), The Wings of the Dove (1902 novel), The Ambassadors (1903 novel), William Wetmore and his Friends (1903 biography), The Better Sort (1903 tales), The Golden Bowl (1904 novel), The English Hours (1905 travel), The American Scene (1907 travel), The High Bid (1908 drama), Views and Reviews (1908 criticism), Julia Bride (1909 novella), Italian hours (1909 travel), and The Finer Grain (1910 tales). In 1904, James visited the United States for the first time since 1883. He suffered from a nervous disease in 1909. In 1911, James received an honorary degree from Harvard and returned to England. The following year, he earned one from Oxford University. In 1913, James wrote his autobiography entitled A Small Boy and Others. The following year, he wrote Notes on Novelists with Some Other Notes (criticism) and another autobiography entitled Notes of a Son and Brother. Deeply disturbed by World War I, as James was with all wars, James did refugee and hospital work during the war. In 1915, James became a citizen of Great Britain. On December 2nd of the same year, James suffered from a stroke. After receiving the Order of Merit from King George V, the following year, James died in Chelsea on the 28th of February. His ashes are buried with his familys in Cambridge Massachusetts. In 1917, an unfinished autobiography was published entitled, The Middle Years. (Heller)The Turn of the Screw is a story related by a young governess, who describes the haunting events that took place while she was caring for two children in an English country house during the 1840s. The Turn of the Screw can be divided into main parts: a short prologue by an unnamed narrator and an autobiographical narrative by an unnamed governess. (Heller p.8) In the prologue, a group gathered for Christmas is telling stories. One of the people tells a ghost story about the experiences of hi s sisters governess. He was a friend of the governess, and she had given him her written documentation about the events, which he read to the group. My Math Autobiography EssayThe theme of the novel, as well as the meaning of its title, depends on its interpretation. As a ghost story, its pessimistic and tragic theme focuses on the battle of good intentions versus evil forces (Vaid p.118), with evil evidently triumphing, since the governess is unable to save either of the children. (Vaid p.121) As the governess gradually recognizes the depth and intent of the evil forces surrounding the children and struggles to protect them, every event in the novel becomes another turn of the screw in the intensifying horror. If read as a psychological analysis, The Turn of the Screw has a social theme. According to Goddard, The reaction upon a sensitive and romantic nature of the narrowness of English middle-class life in the last century: that from the social angle, is the theme of the story. The sudden change of scene, the sudden immense responsibility placed on unaccustomed shoulders, the shock of unrequited affection— all of these together— were too much. The brain gives way. And what follows is a masterly tracing of the effects of repressed love and thwarted material affection. (Tompkins p.85) Each stage of the governesss lapse into hysteria or insanity becomes another turn of the psychological screw. The governess, who is the main narrator of the story, is an easy character with whom to identify. She is described very positively by the first narrator, Douglas, in the prologue of the novel as a most charming person the most agreeable person Ive ever known in her position; shed have been worthy of any whatever. (James p.2) James give the reader a sympathetic understanding of the governesss background and current situation, when Douglas describes her further as the youngest of several daughters of a poor country parson at the age of twenty taking service for the first time in the schoolroom. (James p.4) In this way, James presents the governess as a person of good character, although young and inexperienced. The reader does not resist empathizing and identifying with the governess while she tells her story throughout the remainder of the novel. The Turn of the Screw is a gothic thriller, which has inspired different levels of interpretation. It would be interesting to read various works by Edgar Allan Poe as well as Mary Shellys Frankenstein, and compare the authors techniques, style, and possible social and psychological themes. The most memorable part of the story was the conversation between the governess and the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, in which they first discuss the first ghost, which the governess has seen. The governess gives a detailed description of the stranger she had seen outside the window. He has red hair, very red close-curling, and a pale face with straight good features and rather queer whiskers that are as red as his hair His eyes are rather sharp, strange— awfully My companions face blanched as I went on; her round eyes started and her mild mouth gaped The housekeeper identified the apparition as Peter Quint, the deceased valet of the childrens uncle. (James p.23)And became of him?She hung fire so long that I was still more mystified. He went too she brought out at last. Went where?Her expression, at this, became extraordinary. God knows where! He died.Died? I almost shrieked. She seemed fairly to square herself, plant herself more firmly to express the wonder of it. Yes. Mr. Quints dead.' The Turn of the Screw is enjoyable and highly recommendable reading because of the authors ability to build suspense through scenes like the one above, and through his effective use of irony in contrasting apparent goodness with actual evil. The governesss first impression of the children made her later discovery of their deception and evil especially shocking. Flora seemed the most beautiful child I had ever seen a beautific radiant angelic beauty (James p.7) When she met Miles, she felt she had seen him on the instant, without and within, in the great gloss of freshness, the same positive fragrance of purity, in which I had from the first moment seen his little sister everything but a sort of passion of tenderness for him was swept away by his presence. What I had then and there took him to heart for was something divine his indescribable little air of knowing nothing in the world but love. James p.13)Gradually, she accepts the fact that evil forces have corrupted the children. She realizes that their more than earthly beauty, their absolutely unnatural goodness is only a game a policy and a fraud. (James p.47) As Vaid points out the contrast between the apparent innocence and the real contamination of the children is the keynote of the terror produced by The Turn of the Screw.