Insanity in The Turn of the Screw Essay

The Turn of the Screw was written by Henry James back in 1898. The story focuses on a governess who was sent to a halfway house named Bly to help tutor and look after two kids who were expelled from their schools for being bad. Within a few chapters of the story, James influences the reader to think the children, Miles and Flora, are talking to and seeing ghosts that are encouraging the kids to do bad things. I have thoroughly read the text and to me, that does not seem like the case at all. In actuality I believe the governess herself is the psychopath and that the ghosts have a major influence on her, rather than any other characters in the story. She may seem sweet and helpful at first but when you get into the story it just seems, to me anyway, that she is the true psychopath. There are several different occasions in the story which make me think this way. There was the incident where the governess peeked out the window to look for Miles and seen him staring at little Flora from the ground. Another occasion was when Flora went missing. The governess and her friend, Mrs. Grose, went out frantically looking for her and found her by the lake or the pool of Bly. The most intriguing incident was at the end of the story when the governess, I believe, was trying to get Miles to tell her of the ghost of Peter Quint and his mistress, Miss Jessel. All of the different occasions had some type of encounter with a ghost or evil, as the governess would say. During every encounter the governess insists that the children are talking to one of the ghosts but she is always the only one in the story who mentions or sees either one of the ghosts throughout the story.

The first incident that I mentioned that made me think the governess was crazy took place in chapter ten. In this chapter little Flora and the governess were speaking and explaining to each other why they both were up so late that morning. The governess catches Flora glancing out of her bedroom window and states, you were looking for me out of the window, you thought I might be walking on the grounds (pg 41). Little Flora clearly states that she thought somebody else was out there but the governess instantly believes that the little girl was seeing one of the ghost. The governess thought that she was talking to one of the ghost outside her window at that time but there is no proof in the story to show that she was. Later in the chapter flora gets out of her bed to look out the window again. This time the governess was eager to see what exactly the little girl was looking at or looking out for. She sneaks around to another room in Bly and takes a peek out the window to see for herself. The governess glances out into the yard to discover Miles looking back up at the window above her towards little Floras room. The governess looks above her to see what Miles was staring at and states, there was clearly another person above me---there was a person on the tower (pg 43). James did not write in the story that there was a ghost outside of Floras window that she was speaking to. Personally, I think Flora was staring down at Miles and wondering why he was up and outside the mansion so late at night while Miles was just looking back up at her window.

The second incident from the story where I believe the governess is crazy is when little Flora went missing. The governess and her friend, Mrs. Grose, went out looking for her. They found the little girl out by the lake with a boat picking a flower. The governess thought she was out there speaking to Miss Jessel, the other ghost in the story, and was trying to prove it to her friend and co-worker Mrs. Grose. The only thing they were able to see was little Flora picking a flower, a fern to be exact. At the end of chapter nineteen, Mrs. Grose says to the governess, where, my pet, is Miss Jessel (pg 69) because she was eager to see the ghosts that the governess was so concerned about. In the beginning of chapter twenty, the governess states that she sees the ghost of Miss Jessel and is desperately pointing and trying to show the figure to Mrs. Grose. Mrs. Grose does not see the image and gets disturbed by the governess actions. Mrs. Grose says to the governess, she isnt there, little lady, and nobodys there---and you never see nothing my sweet (pg 71). The governess finally has the audacity to ask little Flora if she saw the ghost as well. The child says that she has not and never has and now thinks that the governess is cruel. This makes little Flora upset and now she wants to leave the house so she would not be bothered by the governess anymore. Flora is later moved back to London to find help elsewhere. Like I said, the governess continues to see these images of ghosts but no one else seems to see anything she says, thus they are not going to believe anything she say.

The last occasion where I find the governess to be crazy happens toward the end of the story in chapter twenty-four. The governess and Miles are having a conversation to one another. The governess was trying to get Miles to tell her about him speaking or seeing any ghosts during the time he spent at Bly. Miles, on the other hand, was letting her know why and how he stole the letter that the governess wrote to his uncle and the reason why he was expelled from school. He explained to her that he tore up the letter because there was no need for it. He says he was expelled from his school because he used to say things. I took it like he used to say bad words or tell bad stories to the other little children to try and fit in and make friends. He did not once say he saw or had spoken to any ghost. At the end of the story the governess and the ghost of Peter Quint got into an altercation with one another. The whole time that she and the ghost were going at each other, she was trying to convince Miles that the ghost was after him. The only thing poor, little Miles could do was wonder what was she talking about and where the ghost was. The governess says at the end, they are in my ears still, his supreme surrender of the name and his tribute to my devotion (pg 86), which clearly means that she was having visions in her head of Peter Quints ghost. That statement let me further know that the governess was crazy and that she may have been the one who was possessed by the ghosts and not the children.

Although The Turn of the Screw has some very vague parts throughout the story that are unclear, it is still a good book to read. The story makes the reader think more and wonder about the governess character but it is nothing like any of the newer ghost stories written in the past few years. James attempts to convince the reader that the governess is doing everything she can to help the children but as you read the story she really is not and turns out to be a psycho. I like at the beginning of the story where it opens up with a different narrator who tries to persuade the crowd that this is one of the scariest stories that you will ever hear or somewhat. That was suppose to make the story seem more believable to the reader but the story was interesting and I would like to read more books from the author Henry James.