The Turn of the Screw sample essay

Henry James’ book “The Turn of the Screw” is a mysterious story about a young woman, who experiences supernatural phenomena in a distant house in the country. The woman is a governess at a private estate, assigned to supervise two young children, Miles and Flora. An unknown narrator starts with portraying an evening at some house, in which guests one by one tell different ghost stories. One of the guests, a man named Douglas, tells a story about two children and their governess (which he loves), then he goes on and read the written record of the events that took place from the estate. The story of the governess begins, and she describes her strange experience.

The tree main characters of the story are Flora, Miles, and the governess. The governess is a 20-year old woman assigned to supervise the children at the estate of Bly, located in the country. This job puts great responsibility on the girl. However, she is still very young and inexperienced, as well as emotional and fickle. During the job interviews with the uncle of the children, she falls in love with him, but has no opportunity to talk to him informally. She performs well and gets the job at the house, where she begins to see ghosts. What is important is that the writer does not state clearly in the story whether they were only her imagination, or actual ghosts.

The governess is a tender loving young woman, who truly loves the children as she gets acquainted with them. However, later she becomes very suspicious about them, and thinks they plot a fraud. But due to her fickle nature, she changes her mind back and forth, and again perceives the Miles and Flora as innocent and great kids. Sometimes she is so overwhelmed with admiration that she embraces them and even kisses Miles. Moreover, her volatility of the governess makes her an unreliable and dubious narrator. Her grace and femininity, and the visions she sees from time to time, foster skepticism in Mrs. Grose, and eventually Mrs. Grose starts to doubt if the governess doe see the apparitions, or she is out of her mind.

The main character of the story, the governess, is portrayed from both positive and negative side. She does admire Flora and Miles, and she does care about them much. And on the other hand, she may abruptly change her mind, and then her admiration turns to violent suspicion of both children. It is important to note that the governess is a young impulsive woman, left alone in change on strange children, and desperately in love with her employer. With these facts, it is obvious that her account of the events that happened in the house is distorted. Therefore, the actual story probably had been slightly different, she might have overlooked some details, but the author leaves us not choice, but to be content with her part of the story.

Miles is the eldest kid of the two. The ten-year old charge is very attractive and charming. He is very well behaved, and tried to please the governess. Sometimes he even behaves to good and agreeable, which fosters suspicions in the governess. His look is way too charming sometimes and does not fit the fact that the boy is expelled from school. The reason remains undisclosed, but it has allegedly been something sinister. Throughout the story, Miles tells the governess that he is capable of being bad. Moreover, the boy is reticent about his past, which entails even more suspicion about him. Eventually, the governess is uncertain whether to view him as a charming and kind child, or as a carefully designed fraudulent mantle, under which wicked secrets belie.

Like many things in the book, the genuine character of Miles remains undisclosed. On one hand, the boy is wonderfully behaved and unusually well mannered kid. And on the other hand, Miles is a deceitful and sly plaything of ghosts. Throughout the story, the governess changes her attitude towards Miles, and generally leaves his true character unrevealed. At first, the boy seems a source of pure love and kindness, and the governess treats him very tolerably, even when he deserves to be punished. However, his beauty and charm verge upon hollowness and emptiness, which the governess senses later in the book.

As mentioned earlier, the governess started to suspect Miles and his sister in evil plot against her. As her encounters with ghosts continue, she more and more believes that something is wrong about the boy. The boy does in fact behave strangely, and the governess becomes even more suspicious about him. One of the examples of him “bad” behavior is the act of stealing the letter the governess wrote to the uncle of her charges. Mrs. Grose noticed that Peter Quint, a mysterious man whom the governess sees from time to time near the house, had a negative influence on the boy’s behavior. But again, the author keeps the degree of that negativity unrevealed, so the boy’s misbehavior may be looked at as innocent childish games. Eventually, surrounded by supernatural phenomena and strange people, the governess concludes the boy is truly a sinister figure, however her individual judgements are only based on imagination and fear.

Flora is the second of the governess’ charges, an eight-year old girl. Like her brother, Flora is a wonderful child, a pleasure to be with, well mannered, charming, kind, and beautiful. Flora in much ways behaves like her brother, being very impersonal and silent about her past and in general. The girl is very well behaved, so well that it sometimes seems unnatural and unusual. Eventually, when Flora misbehaves, it shocks the governess and entails some disquiet. Throughout the story, Flora keeps in secret that she sees the ghost of preceding governess Miss Jessel.

The author keeps his pace of ambiguity and leaves the decision for the reader, whether Flora is a positive or a negative character. She can be viewed as both diabolic and angelic. On one hand she is a very charming and wonderful girl, a pleasure to communicate with. Flora’s charm and beauty provoke the purest and kindest feelings in the governess; the governess does truly love Flora for her charm and beauty. However, like her brother, flora is very silent and reticent about her private parts and her fast. Her inner character seems to be different from the disguise she wears, as the governess notices. The girl does behave strangely and suspiciously when she looks outside the window; this was the first time she did something suspicious. The governess from then on took her as deceptive hypocrite. Governess’ ultimate perception of the girl remains uncertain, pretty well as everything in the book.

Thus far, I have discussed the three main characters of Henry James’ book “The Turn of the Screw.” We can see that the genuine traits of the children remain obscured. The governess, on the other had, is revealed as a pure feminine young lady, who is sensitive and impulsive, as well as volatile. She constantly changes her mind about the kids and about reality, and the visions she encounters. Since we only have the governess’ account of what had happened there, there is a possibility that some of the details are missing in the book.
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