Turn Of The Screw

Over the years, Henry James' short story, "The Turn of the Screw," has provokes great discussion and debate, as it concerns the ongoing question of the existence of the supernatural. "The Turn of the Screw" relays the story of a young governess, sent to the secluded, mysterious estate of Bly to supervise two young children, Miles and Flora, her employers nephew and niece. The housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, seems to be the only adult the governess develops a relationship with and is used by James to create ambiguity concerning the truth of the happenings of Bly. Having been persuaded by the charm of her employer to accept the job, the governess arrives at the house only to be greeted by the strange appearances of apparitions she concludes to be former
After seeing the ghost of Peter Quint at the window the governess discovers that he was intently looking for Miles. "'He was looking for little Miles.' A portentous clearness now possessed me. 'That's whom he was looking for'" (31). Again upon seeing Miss Jessel's ghost across the pond the governess tells Mrs. Grose that the apparition had "'fixed the child...with such awful eyes...with a determination-indescribable. With a kind of fury of intention'" (38). These two incidents directly connect the children to the reason Quint and Miss Jessel have returned to Bly, to possess and live through Miles and Flora. The governess also concludes that the children are aware of their possessors and are deliberately trying to conceal Quint and Jessel's existence. At the pond, for instance, Flora deliberately turns her back on the apparition, consciously ignoring its existence, then later denies to the governess that it had in fact existed. It is for this reason the governess takes up her job with a new determination to save the "lost" (40) children. Again when the governess finds Flora awake late at night staring down through her window at Miles who was down on the lawn "motionless and as if fascinated... looking...at something that was apparently above me" (53). Later on Miles explains he was
Beginning with Miles and Flora's language toward the governess, referring to her as "dear" (76), their general behavior becomes less like their childish play and more corrupt. At the governess' second sighting of Miss Jessel across the lake, she points out to both Flora and Mrs. Grose the existence of the apparition. Instead Flora "without a convulsion of her small pink face, not even feign to glance in the direction of the prodigy I announced, but only, instead of that, turn[ed] at me an expression of hard still gravity, an expression absolutely new and unprecedented and that appeared to read and accuse and judge me"