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Date Posted: 14:30:41 04/15/07 Sun
Author: Antônio Sette Câmara
Subject: Peer editing to Marcelo Antonio Fiuza Coelho 's essay, Is The Turn of the Screw a Horror story?

Peer editing of Marcelo Antonio Fiuza Coelho 's essay, Task One Group One, Is The Turn of the Screw a Horror story?

>Marcelo Antônio Fiúza Coelho
>Adriana Tenuto
>Produção de textos
>10 April 2007
>
Is The Turn of the Screw a Horror story?

> (X)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 (Wv)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 (X)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 (Wvt) is directly linked with two ghosts
>that (V) governess (Wvt) 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.
> (Wv) Is The Turn of the Screw (Wv) 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. (We) During the plot, several elements of
>Horror Fiction based in Punter’s, Carroll’s and
>Stableford’s theories can be detected.
> For David Punter, (V) 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 (Q) mind. The taboo is related (Ww) 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 (Ww) homosexually, (Q) this
>acts (Wvt) are also considered a taboo in that era. Moreover (P)
>the possibility of Miss Jessel (Wvt) 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 (Wv) 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 (Wvt) accepting as a gothic story. The
>presence of (X) the evil trough the influence of the
>phantoms. The origin of the evil is (X) the revenge. The
>Ghosts of Peter Quint (a predatory man) and Miss
>Jessel, (P) 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, (P) contains many
>elements (Ww/e) to characterize a Horror story, mainly the
>conflict between (X) the evil and good. The ghosts
>represent evil forces that always try to conquer the
>children soul. The governess (the woman in distress),
>represents (X) the good (P) which cannot save the children
>-Flora arrived (V) her house because she (Wvt) is sick, and
>Miles (V) dead when (V) (Wvt) see Peter Quint- He died without
>(Wvt) 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

******************* Critical notes ***************************
Dear Marcelo,
In spite of some minor corrections, I found your essay cohesive, meaningful and instructive. One suggestion I didn’t know how to mark was that “good and evil”, as a collocation, is much better than “evil and good” (last paragraph).
I also think you have been a bit too analytical and descriptive, and should have been a little more argumentative, drawing a clear conclusion at the end.
Regards, see you on the 18th,

Antônio Sette Câmara

****************************************************************************

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