THE GOVERNESS AS A GOTHIC HEROINE IN HENRY JAMES' THE TURN OF THE SCREW
Vol.1, Issue 1, 2015, pp.72-79 Full text
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.15.1.6
Web of Science: 000449158700006
Author
Andrea Gencheva
Affiliation:
New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria
Abstract
One of the questions perpetually plaguing the critics of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw is whether the ghosts are real or the governess had lost her mind. This paper offers an interpretation of James' novella from the viewpoint of the Gothic novel, and the author draws parallels between the actions and behavior of the young and impressionable governess and those of a heroine from the Gothic genre, taking into account the governess' narrative style, her repressed self, the evil she faces and finally, the overall position of governesses in Victorian society. The result is an aligning of James' protagonist with the generally accepted image of a Gothic heroine, thus working towards the conclusion that, seen from the perspective of the Gothic novel, the ghosts are real and the governess is caught in a battle between good and evil, fighting for the children's souls.
Keywords: Gothic novel, governess, ghosts, narrative style, Victorian
Article history:
Submitted: 13 October 2014;
Reviewed: 5 December 2014;
Accepted: 21 December 2014;
Published: 1 February 2015
Citation (APA):
Gencheva, A. (2015). The governess as a Gothic heroine in Henry James' The Turn of the Screw. English Studies at NBU, 1(1), 72-79. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.15.1.6
Copyright © 2015 Andrea Gencheva
This open access article is published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. If you want to use the work commercially, you must first get the authors' permission.
References
Habegger, A. (2004). Henry James and the 'Woman Business'. Cambridge University Press.
James, H. (1999). The Turn of the Screw. In D. Esch & J. Warren (Eds.) Norton Critical Edition of The Turn of the Screw. W. W. Norton & Company.
James, H. (2000). The Turn of the Screw & The Aspern Papers. Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Rubin Jr, L. D. (1964). One More Turn of the Screw. Modern Fiction Studies 9, 314-328.
Walton, L. P. (1992). 'What Then on Earth Was I?': Feminine Subjectivity and 'The Turn of the Screw'. In P. G. Beidler (Ed.), Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism: Henry James, 'The Turn of the Screw', (pp. 253-267). Bedford Books.