Globalization

Sharon Frieson
February 28, 2011
English 542
Dr. Christopher White
Turn of the Screw
Short Essay
Turn of the Screw by Henry James was a controversial read. This novella was based upon the living situations of a servant. It was not declared whether the maid was mentally disabled or ultimately sensitive to the existence of a spiritual world. Within this story, James discreetly, placed the servant at the mercy of the readers interpretation regardless of how he interpreted her himself.   He does not impose his beliefs of what she represents on his audience. The conclusion of the novel was then left in the hands of its reader and how they may interpret the relationship among the servant, the children and the apparitions.
James has a literary ability to captivate his audience. With this novella he’s manipulated his writings to expand the imagination into the existence of being vividly present. After reading, The Turn of the Screw, it became clear to me that he was very well in tune with what he wrote. James wanted to write a story that would cause intellectual inquisitiveness among the death of the child. How mentally disturbed may a woman be to kill a child? He’s been noted for saying his purpose for writing this piece in his format was to give the readers control as to what they wish to believe.   With great effort he’s granted this imaginative perspective.
Our ability as an audience to decipher whether the apparitions were real or fake was his sole purpose. He wanted us to be able to decide which one would be the evil-doer in the story. His way of writing steamed from the ambiguity of the stories clarity. After reading his pieces in the back I became well informed that he wanted the reader to have control of the story.
He wrote this piece as a form of entertainment but also as a thriller. What I found to be furthermore informative was the development of the story in a whole. His ability to retell a story that was once told to him assisted in his ability to... [continues]

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