Ambiguities of Madness: Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw
Ambiguities of Madness: Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw
Henry James developed a polemical novella when he penned The Turn of the Screw in 1898. His twelve installments for Collier’s Weekly permitted extensive access of this ambiguous text to more citizens. This coupled with the magazine’s affordability, prompted discussion amongst its readers who debated the twists and turns of the developing tale. As James eloquently unfolded his pot-boiler, he literally turned the screw by allowing his readers, not to just read, but to participate in the scandalous plot. The deliberate ambiguities James forged into the tale allow readers to interpret the text through their own lenses, forcing them to question the validity of their own suppositions.
Early readers focused primarily on the ghostly controversies. Shoshana Felman, in her essay, “Henry James: Madness and the Risks of Practice” evaluates Edmund Wilson’s 1934 essay, “The Ambiguities of Henry James” where he turned the analytical screw of the novella. She reiterates Wilson’s claim that The Turn of the Screw “is not, in fact, a ghost story, but a madness story, a study of a case of neurosis: the ghosts, accordingly, do not really exist; they are but figments of the governess’s sick imagination, mere hallucinations and projections symptomatic of the frustration of her repressed sexual desires” (Felman 199). Wilson’s first Freudian analysis prompted a deluge of reinterpretations of the book permeating more ambiguities. So as a current reader one should ask, does the governess, deceived by her own sexual fantasies, manipulate her version of the truth with subconscious sexual undertones so destructively that she destroys the lives of the two children under her charge?
Wilson states, “The whole thing has been primarily and completely a characterization of the governess: her visions and the way she behaves about them” (172). James introduces the protagonist as she applies for the governess’s position “the
Henry James developed a polemical novella when he penned The Turn of the Screw in 1898. His twelve installments for Collier’s Weekly permitted extensive access of this ambiguous text to more citizens. This coupled with the magazine’s affordability, prompted discussion amongst its readers who debated the twists and turns of the developing tale. As James eloquently unfolded his pot-boiler, he literally turned the screw by allowing his readers, not to just read, but to participate in the scandalous plot. The deliberate ambiguities James forged into the tale allow readers to interpret the text through their own lenses, forcing them to question the validity of their own suppositions.
Early readers focused primarily on the ghostly controversies. Shoshana Felman, in her essay, “Henry James: Madness and the Risks of Practice” evaluates Edmund Wilson’s 1934 essay, “The Ambiguities of Henry James” where he turned the analytical screw of the novella. She reiterates Wilson’s claim that The Turn of the Screw “is not, in fact, a ghost story, but a madness story, a study of a case of neurosis: the ghosts, accordingly, do not really exist; they are but figments of the governess’s sick imagination, mere hallucinations and projections symptomatic of the frustration of her repressed sexual desires” (Felman 199). Wilson’s first Freudian analysis prompted a deluge of reinterpretations of the book permeating more ambiguities. So as a current reader one should ask, does the governess, deceived by her own sexual fantasies, manipulate her version of the truth with subconscious sexual undertones so destructively that she destroys the lives of the two children under her charge?
Wilson states, “The whole thing has been primarily and completely a characterization of the governess: her visions and the way she behaves about them” (172). James introduces the protagonist as she applies for the governess’s position “the
Cited: Felman, Shoshana, “Henry James: Madness and the Risk of Practice.” The Turn of the Screw, By Henry James. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, 1999. 196-228. Print. James, Henry, and Peter G. Beidler. "I." The Turn of the Screw: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical, Historical, and Cultural Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins, 2010. 32-33. Print. Wilson, Edmund, and Henry James. "The Ambiguity of Henry James." The Turn of the Screw. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999. 170-73. Print. Zacharias, Greg, and Henry James. "A Psychoanalytic Perspective ." The Turn of the Screw. Boston: Bedford-St. Martins, 2010. 320-332. Print.