Forbidden Subject In The Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

Forbidden Subjects One of the most challenging features of “The Turn of the Screw” is how frequently characters make indirect hints or use vague language rather than communicate directly and clearly. Throughout Henry James’s novel there is a theme of forbidden subject, which demonstrate the lack of communication between characters. The use of silence along with visual and written accounts express the feelings between characters. James’s use of interior monologues allows the reader to formulate their own conclusions to the loose ends. First in the sequence of events is when the headmaster expels Miles from school and refuses to specify why. The Governess has several guesses about what he might have done, but just says he might be “Corrupting” the others. This assumption is almost as uninformative as the original letter from the headmaster announcing the expulsion. The Governess fears children understand the nature of Quint and
Innocence of the children runs through the novella, according to the clarity of their eyes when the governess looks into their eyes. Again, nothing verbally communicated to assure the reader the children are actually innocent but yet visual encounters as evidence. However, her fear of the corruption of innocence is a clue as to why the characters have such an indirect approach to dealing with the problems around Bly. The interpretation of the silence upon meeting Quint in the staircase as “ dead silence”, but, the visual world around her appears to be unaffected which she related to the encounter being unnatural. When Quint disappears into silence alludes to the idea that the dead dwell in a realm without sound. Thus marking silence being related to the unnatural and unloving. Without this silence, the governess would have thought Quint was a living being, to due to real nature he presented on the