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Date Posted: 20:10:21 04/10/07 Tue
Author: Marcelo Antonio Fiuza Coelho
Subject: Re: Task One Group One
In reply to: Adriana 's message, "Task One Group One" on 06:03:48 04/08/07 Sun

Marcelo Antônio Fiúza Coelho
Adriana Tenuto
Produção de textos
10 April 2007
Is The Turn of the Screw a Horror story?
The Henry James' short story, The Turn of the screw, is one of the best psychological terror stories. The plot is about a governess who tells her experience with two children that a couple of spirits intend to corrupt. The suspense is created, when Henry James arises along the narrative, the doubt if the governess is a hopeless neurotic who hallucinates the figures of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, or she is a young woman in distress battling to save the children from the evil. Independently of this both point of view, The Turn of the Screw has lots of elements of the Gothic Novel, such as “An atmosphere of mystery and suspense’’, “ Omens, portents, visions”, “Supernatural or otherwise inexplicable events” (Robert Harris, August 6, 1998). These three characteristics is directly linked with two ghosts that governess use to see. Still based on Robert Harris “ High, even overwrought emotion”, mark the relationship among the characters, mainly when it is related with the governess and the children that she takes care.
Is The Turn of the Screw can be considered as a Gothic Novel or only a story of a woman who is sexually repressed? The story cannot be restricted in the boundaries of the second question. During the plot, several elements of Horror Fiction based in Punter’s, Carroll’s and Stableford’s theories can be detected.
For David Punter, gothic story needs to have three characteristics:Paranoia, Barbarism and Taboo. In Henry James story, the feeling of persecution is directly related with the children; the governess is worried that the ghosts intend to corrupt the children’s mind. The taboo is related when the governess falling in love to her employer. This kind of relationship, between different economic classes, was condemned by Victorian society. In addition, when the head master refuses to mention in the letter what Miles did to be expelled from school, the reader can imagine that his infraction might involve knowledge of heterosexual acts, masturbation or homosexually, this acts are also considered a taboo in that era. Moreover the possibility of Miss Jessel have committed suicide was also forbidden. The uncle represents the aristocracy; He is a young and rich man who uses his power over the governess - and other women - to get them to agree to his demands. He refuses to allow the governess to contact him. In that sense, he is indirectly responsible for the evil that rounds the kids.
The main element to define if a story is gothic or not, in Carroll’s theory, is the presence of a monster as a threat. In “The turn of the Screw’’, the monsters are the ghosts, which intend to corrupt the children purity. They are impure because they wish the children ill or death as happened with Miles.
Considering Stableford , the plot has an element to be accepting as a gothic story. The presence of the evil trough the influence of the phantoms. The origin of the evil is the revenge. The Ghosts of Peter Quint (a predatory man) and Miss Jessel, want to avenge the society that did not accept their possible relationship when they were alive. They want to turn the children impure as they were in the past, in order to shake the status quo.
The Turn of the Screw, contains many elements to characterize a Horror story, mainly the conflict between the evil and good. The ghosts represent evil forces that always try to conquer the children soul. The governess (the woman in distress), represents the good which cannot save the children -Flora arrived her house because she is sick, and Miles dead when see Peter Quint- He died without confess his sins. The Governess failed as a savior.

Works Cited
James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. New York : Oxford University Press, 2004
Punter, David. The Literature of Terror. London: Longman, 1980
Carroll, Noël. The Philosophy of Horror, or Paradoxes of the Heart. New York: Routledge, 1990

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