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= The_Turn_of_the_Screw =
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Introduction
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'The Turn of the Screw' is an 1898 gothic horror novella by Henry
James which first appeared in serial format in 'Collier's Weekly' from
January 27 to April 16, 1898. On October 7, 1898, it was collected in
'The Two Magics', published by Macmillan in New York City and
Heinemann in London. The novella follows a governess who, caring for
two children at a remote country house, becomes convinced that they
are haunted.
In the century following its publication, critical analysis of the
novella underwent several major transformations. Initial reviews
regarded it only as a frightening ghost story, but, in the 1930s, some
critics suggested that the supernatural elements were figments of the
governess' imagination. In the early 1970s, the influence of
structuralism resulted in an acknowledgement that the text's ambiguity
was its key feature. Later approaches incorporated Marxist and
feminist thinking.
The novella has been adapted several times, including a Broadway play
(1950), a chamber opera (1954), two films (in 1961 and 2020), and a
miniseries (2020).
Plot
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On Christmas Eve, an unnamed narrator and some of his friends are
gathered around a fire. One of them, Douglas, reads a manuscript
written by his sister's late governess. The manuscript tells the story
of her being hired by a man who has become responsible for his young
niece and nephew following the deaths of their parents. He lives
mainly in London and has a country house in (fictional) Bly, Essex.
The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school, while his younger
sister, Flora, is living in Bly, where she is cared for by Mrs. Grose,
the housekeeper. Flora's uncle, the governess's new employer, is
uninterested in raising the children and gives her full charge,
explicitly stating that she is not to bother him with communications
of any sort. The governess travels to Bly and begins her duties.
Miles returns from school for the summer just after a letter arrives
from the headmaster, informing his caretakers that he has been
expelled. Miles never speaks of the matter, and the governess is
hesitant to raise the issue. She fears there is some horrible secret
behind the expulsion, but is too charmed by the boy to want to press
the issue.
Soon after, around the grounds of the estate, the governess begins to
see the figures of a man and woman whom she does not recognize. The
figures come and go at will without being seen or challenged by other
members of the household, and they seem to the governess to be
supernatural. She learns from Mrs. Grose that the governess's
predecessor, Miss Jessel, and another employee, Peter Quint, had had a
close relationship. Before their deaths, Jessel and Quint spent much
of their time with Flora and Miles, and the governess becomes
convinced that the two children are aware of the ghosts' presence and
influenced by them.
Without permission, Flora leaves the house while Miles is playing
music for the governess. The governess notices Flora's absence and
goes with Mrs. Grose in search of her. They find her on the shore of a
nearby lake, and the governess is convinced that Flora has been
talking to the ghost of Miss Jessel. The governess sees Miss Jessel
and believes Flora sees her as well, but Mrs. Grose does not. Flora
denies seeing Miss Jessel and begins to insist that she will not see
the new governess again.
The governess decides that Mrs. Grose should take Flora away to her
uncle in attempt to escape Miss Jessel's influence. Left alone with
the governess, Miles at last confesses he was expelled for something
he said but cannot remember what he said or to whom he said it. The
ghost of Quint appears to the governess at the window. The governess
shields Miles, who attempts to see the ghost. The governess insists to
Miles he is no longer controlled by the ghost, only to find that Miles
has died in her arms.
Gothic fiction
================
As a piece of Gothic fiction, critics highlight the influence of
Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre' (1847) on the novella. 'The Turn of the
Screw' borrows both from 'Jane Eyre''s themes of class and gender, and
from its mid-nineteenth-century setting. The novella alludes to 'Jane
Eyre' in tandem with an explicit reference to Ann Radcliffe's Gothic
novel 'The Mysteries of Udolpho' (1794), wherein the governess wonders
if there might be a secret relative hidden in the attic at Bly. One
critic writes that the only "definite event" in the novel that does
not "belong" in Gothic fantasy is Miles' expulsion from school.
Although the influence of the Gothic on the novella is clear, it
cannot only be characterised as one. James' ghosts differ from those
of traditional Gothic tales - frightening, often bound in chains - by
appearing like their living selves. Similarly, the novella foregoes
major devices associated with Gothic novels, such as digressions, as
in 'Frankenstein' (1818) and 'Dracula' (1897), instead relating one
whole, continuous narrative.
Ghost story and horror fiction
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For the story's publication in 'Collier's Weekly', James was
contracted to write a ghost story. As a result, some critics have
regarded it in that tradition. L. Andrew Cooper observed that 'The
Turn of the Screw' might be the best-known example of a ghost story
which exploits the ambiguity of a first-person narrative. Citing
James' reference to the work as his "designed horror", Donald P.
Costello suggested that the effect of a given scene varies depending
on who represents the action. In scenes where the governess directly
reports on what she sees, the effect is horror, but in those where she
merely comments, the effect is "mystification". In his 1983 nonfiction
survey of the horror genre, author Stephen King described 'The Turn of
the Screw' and 'The Haunting of Hill House' (1959) as the only two
great supernatural works of horror in a century. He argued that both
contain "secrets best left untold and things left best unsaid",
calling that the basis of the horror genre. Gillian Flynn called the
novella one of the most chilling ghost stories ever written.
Several biographers have indicated that James was familiar with
spiritualism, and at the very least regarded it as entertainment. His
brother William was an active researcher of supernatural phenomena.
Scientific inquiry at the time was curious about the existence of
ghosts, and James' description of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel--dressed
in black with severe expressions--resemble the ghosts found in
scientific literature rather than those of fictional narratives. The
character of Douglas describes himself as a student of Trinity
College, where James knew research into the supernatural occurred. It
is unknown whether James believed in ghosts.
Biographical context and composition
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By the 1890s, James' readership had dwindled since the success of
'Daisy Miller' (1878), and he had encountered financial troubles. His
health had also worsened, with advancing gout, and several of his
close friends had died: his sister and diarist Alice James, and
writers Robert Louis Stevenson and Constance Fenimore Woolson. In a
letter from October 1895, James wrote: "I see ghosts everywhere". In
an entry in his journal from January 12, 1895, James recounts a ghost
story told to him by Edward White Benson, the archbishop of
Canterbury, while visiting him for tea at his home two days earlier.
The story bears a striking resemblance to what would eventually become
'The Turn of the Screw', with depraved servants corrupting young
children before and after their deaths.
Towards the end of 1897, James was contracted to write a twelve-part
ghost story for 'Collier's Weekly', an illustrated magazine. Having
signed a twenty-one year lease on a house in Rye, East Sussex,
James--thankful for the additional income--accepted the offer.
'Collier's Weekly' paid James US$900 (900) for the serial rights. A
year earlier, in 1897, 'The Chap-Book' paid him US$150 (150) for
serial and book rights to 'What Maisie Knew'.
James found it difficult to write by hand, reserving that for his
journals. 'The Turn of the Screw' was dictated to his secretary,
William MacAlpine, who took shorthand notes and returned with typed
notes the following day. Finding such a delay frustrating, James
purchased his own Remington typewriter and dictated directly to
MacAlpine. In December 1897, James wrote to his sister-in-law: "I
'have', at last, finished my little book."
Publication and later revisions
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'The Turn of the Screw' was first published in the magazine 'Collier's
Weekly', serialised in 12 installments (27 January - 16 April 1898).
The title illustration by John La Farge depicts the governess with her
arm around Miles. Episode illustrations were by Eric Pape.
File:The-Turn-of-the-Screw-Collier's-1B.jpg|"The next night, by the
corner of the hearth, in the best chair ... Douglas began to read"
File:The-Turn-of-the-Screw-Collier's-3.jpg|"He did stand there!--But
high up, beyond the lawn and at the very top of the tower"
File:The-Turn-of-the-Screw-Collier's-4.jpg|"Holding my candle high,
till I came within sight of the tall window"
File:The-Turn-of-the-Screw-Collier's-6.jpg|"He presently produced
something that made me drop straight down on the stone slab"
File:The-Turn-of-the-Screw-Collier's-7.jpg|"I must have thrown myself,
on my face, on the ground"
In October 1898, the novella appeared with the short story "Covering
End" in a volume titled 'The Two Magics', published by Macmillan in
New York City and by Heinemann in London.
Ten years after publication, James revised 'The Turn of the Screw' for
the 'New York Edition' of the text. James made many changes, but most
were minor, such as changing "utter" to "express"; the narrative was
unchanged. The 'New York Edition's' most important contribution was
the retrospective account of the influences and writing of the novella
James gave in his preface. James indicated, for example, that he was
aware of research into the supernatural. In his preface, James only
briefly mentions the story's origin in a magazine. In 2016, Kirsten
MacLeod, citing James' private correspondence, indicated that he had a
strong dislike for the serial form.
Early criticism
=================
Early reviews emphasised the novella's power to frighten, and most saw
the tale as a brilliant, if simple, ghost story. According to scholar
Terry Heller, most early reviewers saw the novel as a formidable piece
of Gothic fiction.
An early review of 'The Turn of the Screw' was in 'The New York Times
Saturday Review of Books and Art', stating it was worthy of being
compared to Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde' (1886). The reviewer noted it as a successful study of evil,
referring to the ghosts' influence over the children and the
governess. Scholar Terry Heller notes that the children featured
prominently in early criticism because the novella violated a
Victorian presumption of childhood innocence.
Conceptions of the text wherein the ghosts are real entities are often
referred to as the "apparitionist interpretation"; consequently, a
"non-apparitionist" holds the opposite perspective. In a 1918 essay,
Virginia Woolf wrote that Miss Jessel and Peter Quint possessed
"neither the substance nor independent existence of ghosts". Woolf did
not suggest that the ghosts were hallucinations, but--in a similar
fashion to other early critics--said they represented the governess'
growing awareness of evil in the world. The power of the story, she
argued, was in forcing readers to realise the dark places fiction
could take their minds.
Psychoanalytic interpretations
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In 1934, literary critic Edmund Wilson posited that the ghosts were
hallucinations of the governess, who he suggested was sexually
repressed. As evidence, Wilson points to her background as the
daughter of a country parson, and suggests that she is infatuated with
her employer. Before Wilson's article, another critic--Edna
Kenton--had written to similar effect, but Wilson's fame as a literary
critic shifted the discourse around the novella completely. Wilson
drew heavily from Kenton's writing, but applied explicitly Freudian
terminology. For example, he pointed to Quint first being sighted by
the governess on a phallic tower. A book-length close reading of the
text was produced in 1965 using Wilson's Freudian analysis as a
foundation; it characterised the governess as increasingly mad and
hysterical. Leon Edel, James' most influential biographer, wrote that
it is not the ghosts who haunt the children, but the governess.
While many supported Wilson's theory, it was by no means
authoritative. Robert B. Heilman was a prominent advocate for the
apparitionist interpretation; he saw the story as a Hawthornesque
allegory about good and evil, and the ghosts as active agents to that
effect. Scholars critical of Wilson's essay pointed to Douglas'
positive account of the governess's character in the prologue, long
after her death. Most crucially, they indicated that the governess's
description of the ghost enabled Mrs Grose to identify him as Peter
Quint before the governess knew he existed. The second point led
Wilson to "retract his thesis (temporarily)"; in a later revision of
his essay, he argued the governess had been made aware of another male
at Bly by Mrs Grose.
Structuralism
===============
In the 1970s, critics began to apply structuralist Tzvetan Todorov's
notion of the fantastic to 'The Turn of the Screw'. Todorov emphasised
the importance of "hesitation" in stories with supernatural elements,
and critics found an abundance of them within James' novella. For
example, the reader's sympathy may hesitate between the children or
the governess, and the text hesitates between supporting the ghosts'
existence, and rejecting them. Christine Brooke-Rose argued in a
three-part essay that the ambiguity so frequently argued over was a
foundational part of the text that had been ignored. From the 1980s
onwards, critics increasingly refused to ask questions about diegetic
elements of the text, instead acknowledging that many elements simply
cannot be known definitively.
Focus shifted away from whether the ghosts were real and onto how
James generated and then sustained the text's ambiguity. A study into
revisions James made to two paragraphs in the novella concluded that
James was not striving for clarity, but to create a text which could
not be interpreted definitively in either direction.
This is still a position held by many critics, such as , who argues
that evidence for the intended ambiguity of the text can be found at
the beginning of the novella, where Douglas tells his fictional
audience that the governess had never told anyone but himself about
the events that happened at Bly, and that they "would easily judge"
why. Bottiroli believes that this address to Douglas' fictional
audience is also meant as an address to the reader, telling them that
they will "easily judge" whether or not the ghosts are real.
Marxist and feminist approaches
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After the debate over the reality of the ghosts quieted in literary
criticism, critics began to apply other theoretical frameworks to 'The
Turn of the Screw'. Marxist critics argued that the emphasis placed by
academics on James' language distracted from class-based explorations
of the text. The children's uncle, who featured largely only in the
psychoanalytic interpretations as an obsession of the governess, was
regarded by some as symbolising a selfish upper-class. Heath Moon
notes how he abandoned his orphaned niece, nephew, and their ancestral
home to instead live in London as a bachelor. Mrs Grose's distaste for
the relationship between Quint and Miss Jessel was noted to be part of
a Victorian dislike for relationships that were between different
social classes. The death of Miles and Flora's parents in India became
a fixture of postcolonial explorations of the text, given the status
of India as a British colony during James' lifetime.
Explorations of the governess have become a mainstay of feminist
writing on the text. Priscilla Walton noted that James' account of the
story's origin disparaged the ability of women to tell stories, and
framed 'The Turn of the Screw' as James thus telling it on their
behalf. Others see James in a more positive light. Paula Marantz Cohen
positively compares James' treatment of the governess to Sigmund
Freud's writing about a young woman named Dora. Cohen likens the way
that Freud transforms Dora into merely a summary of her symptoms to
how critics such as Edmund Wilson reduced the governess to a case of
neurotic sexual repression.
Adaptations
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'The Turn of the Screw' has been the subject of a range of adaptations
and reworkings in a variety of media. Many of these have, themselves,
been analysed in the academic literature on Henry James and
neo-Victorian culture.
Stage
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The novella was adapted to an opera by Benjamin Britten, which
premiered in 1954, and the opera has been filmed on multiple
occasions. The work inspired Domy Reiter Soffer's ballet
'Shadow-Reach', created in 1979 for Joan Denise Moriarty and her Irish
Ballet Company. The novella was adapted as a ballet score (1980) by
Luigi Zaninelli, and separately as a ballet (1999) by Will Tucket for
the Royal Ballet. Harold Pinter directed 'The Innocents' (1950), a
Broadway play which was an adaptation of 'The Turn of the Screw'. An
adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, using the title 'The Turn of the
Screw', premiered in Portland, Maine, in 1996 and was produced
off-Broadway in 1999. Another adaptation of the same title by Rebecca
Lenkiewicz was presented in a co-production with Hammer at the Almeida
Theatre, London, in January 2013.
Films
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There have been numerous film adaptations of the novel. The critically
acclaimed 'The Innocents' (1961), directed by Jack Clayton, and
Michael Winner's prequel 'The Nightcomers' (1972) are two notable
examples. Other feature film adaptations include Rusty Lemorande's
1992 eponymous adaptation (set in the 1960s); 's Spanish language
('The Turn of the Screw', 1985); 'Presence of Mind' (1999), directed
by Atoni Aloy; and 'In a Dark Place' (2006), directed by Donato
Rotunno. 'The Others' (2001) is not an adaptation but has some themes
in common with James's novella. In 2018, director Floria Sigismondi
filmed an adaptation of the novella, titled 'The Turning', on the
Kilruddery Estate in Ireland.
Television films have included a 1959 American adaptation as part of
'Ford Startime' directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Ingrid
Bergman; the West German 'Die sündigen Engel' ('The Sinful Angel',
1962), a 1974 adaptation directed by Dan Curtis, adapted by William F.
Nolan; a French adaptation entitled 'Le Tour d'écrou' ('The Turn of
the Screw', 1974); a 1982 adaptation directed by Petr Weigl primarily
starring Czech actors lip-synching; a 1990 adaptation directed by
Graeme Clifford; 'The Haunting of Helen Walker' (1995), directed by
Tom McLoughlin; a 1999 adaptation directed by Ben Bolt; a low-budget
2003 version written and directed by Nick Millard; the
Italian-language 'Il mistero del lago' ('The Mystery of the Lake',
2009); and a 2009 BBC film adapted by Sandy Welch, starring Michelle
Dockery, Dan Stevens and Sue Johnston. A Brazilian movie named '
('Through the Shadow', 2015) was released, heavily influenced by the
book, only changing the characters' names and location to make it feel
like it is set in Brazil.
Literature
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Literary references to and influences by 'The Turn of the Screw'
identified by the James scholar Adeline R. Tintner include 'The Secret
Garden' (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett; "Poor Girl" (1951), by
Elizabeth Taylor; 'The Peacock Spring' (1975), by Rumer Godden; 'Ghost
Story' (1975) by Peter Straub; "The Accursed Inhabitants of House Bly"
(1994) by Joyce Carol Oates; and 'Miles and Flora' (1997)--a
sequel--by Hilary Bailey. Further literary adaptations identified by
other authors include 'Affinity' (1999), by Sarah Waters; 'A Jealous
Ghost' (2005), by A. N. Wilson; 'Florence & Giles' (2010), by John
Harding; and 'Maybe This Time' (2010) by Jennifer Crusie. Young adult
novels inspired by 'The Turn of the Screw' include 'The Turning'
(2012) by Francine Prose and 'Tighter' (2011) by Adele Griffin. Ruth
Ware's 2019 novel 'The Turn of the Key' sets the story in the 21st
century.
Television
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'The Turn of the Screw' has also influenced television. In December
1968, the ABC daytime drama 'Dark Shadows' featured a storyline based
on 'The Turn of the Screw'. In the story, the ghosts of Quentin
Collins and Beth Chavez haunted the west wing of Collinwood,
possessing the two children living in the mansion. The story led to a
year-long story in the year 1897, as Barnabas Collins travelled back
in time to prevent Quentin's death and stop the possession. In early
episodes of 'Star Trek: Voyager' ("Cathexis", "Learning Curve" and
"Persistence of Vision"), Captain Kathryn Janeway is seen on the
holodeck acting out scenes from the holonovel 'Janeway Lambda one',
which appears to be based on 'The Turn of the Screw'. The novel was
adapted as a Mexican miniseries entitled 'Otra vuelta de tuerca' ('The
Turn of the Screw') in 1981, and in 2020, Netflix adapted the novella
as 'The Haunting of Bly Manor' for the second season of Mike
Flanagan's 'The Haunting' anthology series.
External links
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*
* [
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/209 'The Turn of the Screw'] at
Project Gutenberg (1898 book version)
*
* [
http://www.henryjames.org.uk/prefaces/text12.htm Author's preface
to the 'New York Edition' text of 'The Turn of the Screw' (1908)]
*
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