30th October

Psychoanalysis & Lit

Janet Chwalibog

Thando Skenjana-0734116

The Turn of The Screw Essay

Henry James’s The Turn of the screw is a novel rendition of an intermingled Male

and Female repressive hysteria, repressive because of the societal affects present

within the characters, which psychoanalytically express an effort to silence respective

parts of the Male and Female characters, while producing psychologically

repressive/hysterical symptoms in each.

In a quotation from from one of Henry James texts, The Art of fiction, he has written,

“The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.”

(James,1884) , and although The Turn of the Screw is a Gothic novel with

supernatural elements, it is no less a novel attempting to convey something to the

reader about him or herself. In this regard it is my view that this is most aptly done

when viewed through the expression of the male and female characters in the text.

Central to this concept of male and female identity, is the element of uncertainty

The essence behind the impact left upon a reader of the novel, is the overriding sense

of multiple threads of uncertainty weaved throughout the storytelling experience. A

primary consideration to analyzing this is to inspect its effects on one’s interpretation

both the figures identity in the text.

In looking at the primary female figure of the governess, Freud states in regard to

Hysteria that, in the absence of physical symptoms the mental/psychological effect is

the result of repressed “emotion developed in the pathogenic situation’ which ‘was

prevented from escaping normally”. (Freud,1909).

In light of this it is my opinion that it is difficult to argue that the Governess is

certifiably unstable because of the fact that upon initially describing her encounter

with a male Ghost to Mrs.Grose, Mrs.Grose affirms her description by crying out

“Quint!” (James,1995)

However, in reference to the quotation of the expression of hysteria above, there is

certainty as a reader that the Governess’s mental state is indeed questionable.

Furthermore, it is the element of doubt regarding her disposition, which may alert the

reader to what the text may be saying in regard to this unexplored and uncertain

aspect of the text, Femininity. Uncertainty, regarding identity, as it pertains to the

individual and towards sex, is what creates anxiety not only for the reader, but the

characters as well.

The Governess is anxious in regard to the presence of ghosts, and the unpredictability

of what they represent and when they will present themselves, as readers we question

her because of our own experience or inexperience with Ghosts but also because of

the psychosexual inner desires present within the Governess as well as her excessive

Maternal feelings for the Children, who are not her own.
Therefore, it is her inward nature which may considered most pertinent to a

psychoanalytic interpretation of her. To begin with she does appear to be unstable in

the way of the extreme degree of affection she expresses towards both Miles and

Flora, stating in relation to Miles, “Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful

part is that, even at the time, I perfectly knew I was. But I gave myself up to it; it was

an antidote to any pain, and I had more pains than one.” (James,1995)

This quote is revealing in two aspects; one, in spite of her knowledge of Miles’s

alleged transgressions, she willingly puts this aside in favor of upholding her

previously held, highly favorable disposition towards him, while secondly, she does

so knowingly, with the intent of shielding her self from the emotional pain of the

alternative, which may be considered an example of displacement of what she

considers an unacceptable outcome, inwardly as it pertains to her outer reality. It is

also points towards the earlier quotation regarding past unexpressed emotion, which

did not escape normally. The Governess is determined in many of her views to see

things as she wishes them, in regards to the children but also in reference to

psychosexual elements, expressive in an apparent desire for a male, that are present

when she initially experiences visual exchanges with the as yet unknown male figure,

stating before the occurrence of incident that “it would be charming as a charming

story suddenly to meet someone. Someone would appear there at the turn of path and

would stand before me and smile and approve. I didn’t ask more than that – I only

asked that he should know.” (James,1995) What is clear from this quotation are

primary elements of her own inward desire, that she should meet some, that they

should approve of her and that a certain ‘he’ should know, however it is left to our

interpretation as to who this is.

desire, is further evidence of undesired outcomes not being within the reality of the

Governess’s experience, as Freud States in further relation to Hysterics, “They cannot

escape from the past and neglect present reality in its favour”(Freud, 1909)

, this supports not only the Governess’s statement on past pain, and it’s concurring

effects regarding her expression of love and desire, as it pertains to her present in the

shape of Miles, and the future in the form of the Ghost, but also her inability to live

beyond it, which supports the sentiment of female instability, as expressed by James,

while being viewed through the lense of Freudian Psychoanalytical theory.

The representation of the male found within the text is that of Douglas, Quint, The

Governess’s male employer and even Miles, because of not only, his proximity to the

Governess, but also because of the already stated question of his identity. In regards to

male identity in relation to uncertainty, the cause for this anxiety as a reader and for

the character’s (principally the Governess), is the lack of expressed identity amongst

the male characters, whether it be emotive expression, or in the case of Miles and

Douglas, the literal expression of the identity of the two and if they are in fact one,

which is an anxiety of the reader.

When given opportunity, the males in the text are seen expressing themselves in either

definite or wholly uncertain terms as and when it relates to themselves as individuals.

Certainties are that the Governess’s male employer does not wish to be communicated

with, Miles does not at any stage speak of his expulsion from school, while the

Governess is alarmed by his failure to speak of his past and fully reveal himself.

Furthermore, genuine inward revelation of male characters is either simply not present
or when expressed, is subject to stifling, for example, when Douglas remarks, that he

considered the Governess to be “a most charming person, but she was ten years older

than I.”(James,1995) This is an instance of an inward revelation, which is instantly

disqualified by the speaker as having no intimate revelatory meaning, in an attempt to

potentially shroud the nature of Douglas’s full expression of feeling towards the

Governess. This argument also adds credence to the question of whether or not

Douglas is in fact Miles, given that both were ten years younger than the governess.

The question of whether Douglas is Miles is one that may be considered pertinent,

once again because of the anxiety caused by the uncertainty, this implies that based on

the information given, the outcomes of a psychoanalytic reading may vary,

particularly as it relates to one’s psychosexual interpretation of the relationship

between Miles and the Governess and as such, how it correlates to our interpretation

of Douglas or vice versa. What I consider to be most important about the question of

the identity of Douglas and Miles is the manner in which it relates the representation

of male figures, namely that the true nature of what either male figure was expressing

at any given time is subject to immense uncertainty because of the ever present doubt

as to who’s feeling are in fact being represented, does the sentiment represent one

individual or two, which creates a strong argument for the unrevealed and

undetermined nature of masculine identity throughout the text, which is a contrast to

our understanding towards the female expression.

In conclusion it is my opinion that Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw is not just a

Gothic novel but a very revealing and yet complex rendering of social commentary,

especially as it relates to Victorian Society, yet remaining relevant to the modern

repression, because of the manner in which the revelation of male inward identity

remains unknown, in the shape of Douglas’s emotions for the Governess, whether

Douglas is Miles, and if our greater knowledge of Miles in the text is representative of

further knowledge about the Douglas and Miles as one individual, as well the Ghost

of Quint whom doubt exists around firstly because of being a Ghost but also because

his arising out of the Governess’s expressed desire for a male figure. This idea links

strongly to the realization that the text’s Female identity of open and even excessive

expression, is a complete contrast to what is provided by the text as male identity, yet

the two sets of identities submerge in that in spite of being characteristically

polarized, from the eye of a reader, both are subject to similar if not equal degree of

doubt and uncertainty as to it’s essential truth as an identity. The effects being that

both sexes are subject to a metaphorical bondage of expression, irrespective of the

expression used to break free. Male and Female figures all suffer, society and it’s own

ghosts, real or not, are representative of it’s own repressive behavior, in essence

succeeding in silencing itself from itself, and genuinely embodying the image of the

turning of a screw that spins round and round in a cyclical and painful direction.
Citations

Freud, S. (1909, September 1). About Psychoanalysis. Retrieved October 30, 2015.

James, H & Beidler, P. (1995). The turn of the screw. Boston: Bedford Books of

St.Martin’s Press.

James, H. (1884, September 4). The Art of Fiction. Retrieved October 30, 2015.