TURN OF THE SCREW essays

TURN OF THE SCREW essays For as long as recorded history people have been trying to prove and disprove theories on the afterlife of humans. Most believe that the spirits of the dead go either to an exquisite heaven or to the depths of hell. The novel Turn of the Screw by Henry James challenges your beliefs about ghosts and your life after death. During the novel the reader can interpret the book in a variety of ways depending on whether or not you choose to believe in the spirit world coinciding with the world of the living. As the plot starts meandering on an unmarked road, it soon splits into a fork between believing that there are ghosts haunting Bly, or that the governess, whose name remains mysteriously unknown, is mad. The most logical explanation was that the governess did not in fact see a ghost at all. The story unfolds at the gloomy castle of Bly buried deep within the barrens of Britain. As depicted in the book, the castle and the grounds on which the story took place were actually quite beautiful although there seemed to be a sense that queer things could happen. From the beginning this mentality allowed every odd incident to turn into a larger ordeal. In addition, because the governess was raised in a vicarage, she had never really been exposed to the world and had a complete innocence about her. The beliefs taught to her there also contributed to how she dealt with the happenings at Bly. From her teachings she believed completely in ghosts and spirits as well as there being a good and an evil. Since she was trained like this she automatically began looking for ways to incorporate these ideas in her life; Bly being the perfect place. Also her innocence takes a role in her secret infatuation for the master and her employer. When she envisions the so-called ghost on top of the tower while she was taking her stroll he just so happened to be dressed in the masters rather baggy clothing. Could it then be possi...