Iana Arnold
English 511
Critical response # 01
Due: January 31, 2002

What is The Turn of the Screw about?

This simple question plagued me the whole time I was reading The Turn of the Screw. If I had to give a straightforward answer to this question, I would say, I don’t know. Not forced to this monosemantic response, I can offer my reflections on the meaning of The Turn of the Screw. Evidently, there are two major tendencies in interpretation of this tale: either it is a ghost story, or a diary of a neurotic woman. Another interpretation can be made based on functioning of the text itself.

The Turn of the Screw starts out as a ghost story. A group of friends entertain themselves in a manner of Decameron, telling each other thrilling stories. Douglas “advertises” his ghost story as being the most horrible one. He believes in the truthfulness of this story that is read by him from the manuscript written by his sister’s governess. The initial introduction of the story is quite persuasive in making the reader think that the tale is about ghosts. Some controversy appears already on the first pages (why can’t Douglas explain what is so horrible in this story?), but it is not quite alarming yet.

Belief in “ghosts” gradually evaporates, and by the chapter 11, the paranoia of the governess is quite evident. The manuscript re-introduces itself as a diary of a neurotic woman. After we assume that the governess is mad, James unfolds the narrative giving suspicious hints on account of Quint, Miles, Douglas, etc. Was Quint homosexual? Was Miles really bad? Was Douglas mad? Is Douglas Miles? Is the governess a victim? Thus, the “psychological” interpretation reaches its limit of “explaining” the events too.

The previous paragraph leads me to my next point. In my opinion, The Turn of the Screw is a literary hoax. It enables the author to transfer the feeling of frustration from the protagonist to the reader, without giving up the meaning of what is happening. There is some evidence that James consciously employs this frustrating ambiguity as a stylistic device. It allows him to keep tension of secrecy around the actual accidents at Bly; each time the text approaches the possible narrative truth, another act of the miscommunication takes place. Each time, either the answer on the critical question is too vague, or an important confession-sentence that seemed to have practically slipped from the lips of Mrs.Grose or Miles is completed by the governess herself. In this connection, the meaning of The Turn of the Screw is in its text structure. Using a conventional form, James achieves the goal to tell the story without telling the meaning.