Someone has
mentioned to me that The Turn of the
Screw is 'interesting'. Normally a gothic-horror-ghost story is labeled as
scary or dark, rarely interesting. But after finishing the book for R.I.P XIII challenge, I agree that this book is, indeed, interesting!
The Turn of the Screw is a novella
(my copy contains 96 pages—excluding introduction and preface). And if you are
familiar with Henry James' flowery writing style, believe me, other writers
would have written it much shorter! However, the discussion that might follow
the reading would be very long...
In short, the story is narrated by a man who was telling a story to his friends
'round the fire' on a Christmas Eve. It was a queer story he got from his
friend, a young woman who was hired by a gentleman to be a governess. The
gentleman is a bachelor who had been left guardian for his orphan niece and
nephew in a country home called Bly in Essex. He specifically instructed the
governess to never bother him for any trouble whatsoever. Arriving at Bly, our
governess found a nice housekeeper, a sweet little girl called Flora, and a
letter from the boy's school, announcing that Miles (the boy) was expelled from
school; although Mrs. Grose the housekeeper said he is a sweet child who won't
trouble anyone. Then series of queer things unrolled one after another that
distressed the governess: supernatural apparitions of a man (not a gentleman)
and a woman, who Mrs. Grose pointed as the late servant (Peter Quint) and governess
(Miss Jessel). Then there were also the two sweet children, whom the governess
knew have seen and communicated with the ghosts, but never told her anything.
Things got complicated when Mrs. Grose revealed that Peter Quint and Miss
Jessel have made a scandalous love affair. Our heroine also realised that Mrs.
Grose could not see the apparitions! The sweet children then started to behave
cunningly, and our heroine suspected that it was the dead lovers who brought
evil influence to them when they made contact with the poor children. Bad
things turned to worse, and the story ended abruptly by a sudden death of
someone in the house.
Many believe that the ghosts only existed in the governess' mind (because Mrs.
Grose never saw it), and that the whole story was only the product of her
hallucination. Is it so? Mrs. Grose did not see the apparition, and has never
confirmed the governess' suspicion. One tangible proof is the letter from
school. It could have proven that Miles had turned evil and done wicked things
to his friends. However, Mrs. Grose could not read, so she could not confirm
either.
The only
subject she positively agreed with the governess is the bad character of Peter
Quint and Miss Jessel. But what would it prove? So, all in all, I think James purposely
created an intricate condition, of which we could not find single evidence that:
a) there were ghosts, and b) the children turned evil from the ghosts’ evil
influences. James just wanted this story to be ambiguous, and to make the
readers debating forever, perhaps? He succeeded if that’s what he wanted.
Anyway, it
is a nice gothic ghost story, and certainly very interesting. However, James'
writing style sometimes washed away the spookiness of the story, and left only
the interesting bit.
3,5 / 5
