Turn of the Screw

3457 Words14 Pages
A Closer Look at the Governess in Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw The governess in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James can be characterized by one thing – her reliability, or lack of rather, in her narration of the story. Many scholars continue to debate as to whether the governess is a reliable narrator or not. The mystery that revolves around this novel remains unsolved – the reader is only given the governesses’ perspective in the story, which from many outstanding factors in the book is undoubtedly questionable. From her overbearing urge to be a protector to both Miles and Flora, or her crush for her master, the governess is anything but a narrator whose narration can be taken without question. In this paper I will argue that the governess in James’ The Turn of the Screw is in fact not a creditable narrator due to a number of reasons presented to the reader throughout the novel. Turn of the Screw begins with an unnamed narrator who is describing a house party in which a bunch of guests are telling ghost stories. The narration then shifts to a man named Douglas, who upon further reading is discovered to have a manuscript of a ghost story that was written by his “sister’s governess” (James 24). Douglas says the manuscript “Is in old faded in and in the most beautiful hand…a woman’s…she sent me the pages in question before she died” (James 24). Douglas goes on to describe the governess as “a most charming person…she was the most agreeable woman I’ve ever known…I liked her extremely” (James 24). This is one of the first instances where the governesses’ reliability as a narrator comes into play. According to Douglas, the governess appears to be someone who is right in her mind, and above all, right in what she perceives. However, this is most likely due to the fact that Douglas appears to be in love with the governess – the way he describes her makes this much
Open Document