Turn Of The Screw

"The Turn of the Screw"

Henry James, the famous author of 'The Turn of the Screw' was born on April 15, 1843 to his wealthy parents Henry James and Mary Walsh. His father, also called Henry James, was an Irish immigrant and by the time his own children were born he had inherited a lot of money from his father; and at this time Henry James senior and his family were living in New York.

Henry James author of 'The Turn Of The Screw' was one of five children and had an older brother William who was born in 1942 he had four younger siblings also; Garth Wilkinson born 1845, Robertson born 1846 and Alice born 1848.

Henry James' father was devoted to studying theology, philosophy and mysticism (religion) as he was keen on studying and wanted his children to get the best education he could possibly afford. He made his children's lives very academic and all four children were taught in very unusual ways to a normal family. They never stayed in a single school ,were sometimes taught by private tutors and always had access to books. They were constantly always open to new experiences also. On many occasions, famous artists, writers and thinkers visited the children giving them views and teaching.

At the age of twelve Henry James and his family went on a three year long trip to Geneva, London and Paris, a trip that later in life would influence Henry to live and write his famous book in England, also become a British citizen, rather than a member of his home country America.

His older brother William was very intellectual and studied medicine at Harvard and spent most of his professional life there, first as a professor of psychology and later in a new department of psychology. William became renowned for his public lectures on psychology and became well known in America and Europe. Henry also attended Harvard but went to the law school for a year but withdrew to concentrate on his writing career, he was awarded an honorary degree in 1911.

Throughout Henry's life he was always questioning things and was also brought into the world with a family that did exactly the same. The family questioned everything and were particularly intrigued in the working of the mind; his brother William, was even named the 'father of psychology'. Many of Henry's books dealt with problems of hysteria and stress and how this affected his characters was a frequent theme in his writing.

Henry had always been encouraged to look into and question issues people took for granted in every day life. Maybe this was the actual start of 'The Turn Of The Screw'.

At the time the book was written it was the late 19th century, Victorian era; and at the time Victorians were fascinated by ghosts - a perfect reason to write a psychological ghost story.

The Victorians were convinced ghosts were dangerous though, evil spirits believed either to get them, to possess the living or to do the devil's work. People in the 19th century were also intrigued by the after life, including what happened when you actually died. Henry James' family was also included in this. This would give Henry James a perfect reason to write the novella aimed at a huge proportion of people who would be actually interested in reading a book involving ghosts.

As 'The Turn of the Screw' was written in the 19th century when most of his family were famous and praised for their study of the mind and investigations into spirit phenomena, this could have inspired Henry to write the story. The fact that his older brother was famous and successful man when it came to psychology and physiology may have contributed to sibling rivalry. Henry had written novels that hadn't sold well and had written plays that were far too intellectual for many of the general public to even watch. Writing a psychological ghost story in a spirit-obsessed era when his family were renowned for their knowledge seems to be best explanation as to why the novella was written.

The whereabouts of the actual tale has real evidence because in one of Henry's notebooks he records a visit in 1895 to his friend, Edward White Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who told him the tale of young children corrupted by the ghosts of depraved servants. Another friend Edward Gurney, published an account of a woman and a child living in a house haunted by a wicked male servant and a female ghost dressed in black. Henry had obviously taken both stories and mixed them together to get the resulting: "The Turn of the Screw" .

"The Turn of the Screw" was not originally published as a book, indeed it did not become a book until 1898. It was first written as a serialised novel in 'Colliers Weekly' and lasted thirteen weeks.

When the book was published the structure comprised a prologue and 12 chapters. This may seem long but it is not a long book at all and in fact, the chapters are quite short.

At the beginning of the novella comes the prologue. The prologue is used to set the scene of the story, it also gives a bit of background information and history. In that the readers learn of a manuscript written by a woman, now dead, who used to be a governess of the sister of one of the house guests who had joined together one Christmas eve..

The prologue begins when a group of friends are sitting round a fire of an old house of the 18th century, in England. They are all sharing ghost stories when a man going by the name of Douglas, proposes to tell a true story about two children. It then arises that he keeps the manuscript in a drawer locked in London. Three days later, the story has been sent by post and has arrived. Before reading the manuscript, Douglas explains, that a young woman had been interviewed for her first governess job with a gentleman on London's Harley Street. She was quite smitten with him and because of this he was able to convince her to accept the position. I say, "convince" as her occupation and responsibilities were quite out of the ordinary. She was to be with the governess of his nephew and niece at his country house called Bly. The previous governess was now deceased but no details were given. His nephew was away at school and his niece was in the care of the housekeeper.

The only thing that could put her off the job was the condition that had put other interviewees off : she could not contact him at any point and she must deal with all problems herself. In the end she accepts the job and Chapter 1 begins with her on the way to Bly.

The plot of the story is somewhat interesting, it has a storyline full of mysteries and surprises that make the reader want to read on even more. The beginning of chapter one brings us to the scene and mind of the governess. We never