The turn of the screw

1.

«THE TURN OF THE
SCREW»
Henry James

2.

General information
■ Written in 1898
■ Genre: horror, gothic fiction, ghost
story
■ First appeared in serial format in
Collier's Weekly
■ Published by Macmillan in New York
City and Heinemann in London
■ Setting: London, a country house in
Bly, Essex

3.

Characters
Main characters:
■ The Governess
■ Mrs. Grose
■ Miles
■ Flora
■ The uncle
■ Peter Quint
■ Miss Jessel
■ Douglas
Minor characters:
■ Unnamed
Narrator
■ Griffin
■ Mrs. Griffin
■ Luke

4.

Plot
■ Douglas reads a manuscript written by his
sister's late governess
■ The story in the manuscript: The governess
travels to Bly to take care of Flora and Miles
■ Miles returns from a boarding school
■ The governess begins to see the figures of a
man and woman
■ The governess becomes convinced that the
two children are aware of the ghosts'
presence
■ The governess finally confronts Flora
■ Miles dies

5.

Main themes
■ The Supernatural
■ Storytelling
■ Youth and Innocence

6.

Symbols
■ Windows
■ Light
■ Unnatural Silence

7.

Background
■ Financial troubles
■ Health had also
worsened
■ Deaths of close friends
■ A ghost story told by
Edward White Benson
"I see ghosts everywhere"

8.

Criticism
■ Terry Heller: formidable piece of Gothic fiction
■ Virginia Woolf: ghosts were the governess'
awareness of evil in the world
■ Edna Kenton, Edmund Wilson: ghosts were
hallucinations of the governess
■ Andrea Gencheva: ghosts were real
■ Marxist critics: class-based explorations
■ Priscilla Walton: the story's origin disparaged
the ability of women to tell stories

9.

Adaptations
■ Broadway play
■ Chamber opera
■ Films
■ Miniseries by Netflix