Lifting the Veil of Deception in Henry James' The Turn of the Screw: How the Audience Participates in the Author's Impossible Game

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Shannon Evans English 301: Criticism

Lifting the Veil of Deception in Henry James¶ The Turn of the Screw:

How the Audience Participates In the Authors Impossible Game

When one first encounters Henry James¶ The Turn of the Screw a mental battle of

innocent and complex thoughts ensue, repeatedly challenging one another until the eventual

culmination of a necessary ultimatum. The reader takes on this challenge; finding evidence to

support whichever claim one chooses, but one knows it is impossible to have the satisfaction of

being positively accurate. The ultimatum the reader faces in the novel creates the opportunity for

countless intellectual arguments, but in all reality James will always get the last laugh. In her

Interpretation of The Turn of the Screw, Shoshana Felman makes pivotal steps in uncovering

James¶ mystery. She states that there is a ³The distinction James is making between naïve and

sophisticated readers´ one must ³Analyze the way in which the text¶s return upon itself is

capable of trapping both.´ (102). James has seemingly agreed that there is a definite trick in his

novel but leaves the deciphering up to the individual. Felman¶s claims hold true as far as

evidence goes. She has come as close as one can to figuring out James trick, but all readers of the

novel (including the most intelligent critics) are losers in his game because they are submerged

in the argument. Just by reading the book their simplicity of ignorance is gone. Although the

trick of this book may very well be that there is no right answer, critics are still fueled to prove

their views, and why they hold worth. After figuring out James trick the process of reading these

critical evaluations could seem pointless, but they still hold plenty of interesting finds on one¶s

ability to reason.



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If the reader takes on the innocent position of Mrs. Grose; blindly believing almost

anything. These readers are somewhat taking the easy way out. James strategically puts just

enough evidence in the novel to support both sides. A naïve reader will take things as how they

are said with no implication of foul play, or being deceived. For example when one reads from

this perspective, one will find validity in trusting the governess when she claims ³She¶s there,

you little unhappy thing-there, there, there , and you know it as well as you know me!´ (102).

The complexity for this reader than lies in the motivations of the ghosts, and the secrets of the

children. Regardless of interpretation the children serve a pivotal role in the story, they both

emphasize the governess¶s insanity, and aid in her own understanding of the ghosts. A gender

critic, Priscilla Walton, takes these views and finds new meaning in many of the instances.

Walton focuses on the sexual complex in the story. She seems to assume the innocent

viewpoint that the ghosts are real (this is shown through Flora¶s role models of Mrs.Grose/Miss.

Jessel, and Peter Quint¶s (homosexual?) relationship to Miles. She then elaborates on why they

could be contacting Flora and Miles. There is also an attempt to understand the meaning of Miles

Death, she argues ³The governess continues to perform as a subject. This effort leads to her

battle of wills with Quint, as the male subject, for control over Miles.´ Walton¶s views stem from

her beliefs that the novel has undertones concerning the governess¶ sexuality, and the patriarchal

battle for the children. There is solid evidence to conclude her claims could be valid. Of course

under James¶s games there is no proving this, but there is clear value into seeing how different

people can develop conflicting but equally convincing arguments. This process of interpretation

has a lot of value in analyzing not only the story but individual readers in general.



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An individual¶s interpretation can show a lot about the person itself. A prime example of

this would be the first man to acknowledge the possibly deranged mind of the governess,

Edmund Wilson. As a follower of Freud, Wilson viewed the novel through a psychoanalytic

microscope, He had tireless, and very intelligent efforts in trying to prove his theory, many of his

thoughts seem valid, and cannot be disproven, but they cannot be proven either. Wilson takes on

the role of the sophisticated reader. He is more like the governess, in terms of suspiciousness. A

sophisticated reader will attempt to delve into proving the governess¶s mental instability over the

actual proclamation of real ghosts.

When reading from this view one will see innocence in Flora¶s cries/convictions of ³I

don¶t know what you mean. I see nobody. I see nothing. I never have. I think you¶re cruel. I

don¶t like you!´ (103). Rather than assume Flora is lying, a psycho-analytic reader will attempt

to prove the governess¶ insanity. Wilson does this by making some bold assumptions such as

³The ghosts are merely the symptoms of pathological, abnormal sexual frustration and

repression´ (Felman 105). His views are in the same nature as Walton¶s (Sexuality) but the

difference is in the interpretation of the text, in which Wilson chooses to not believe the

governess. He finds evidence to support his claim in instances of the governess¶ sexual

frustration, and the numerous phallic symbols shown. Although both critics would probably

claim their views superiority James trick makes Wilson and Walton¶s views equally valid. Even

though psychoanalytic/ more suspicious readers like to think they have the upper hand in

deciphering The Turn of the Screw with their complex thoughts, and reasoning¶s, James still

finds a way to turn the tables on them. Wilson fails to see one of his arguments main flaws.

Felman elaborates on it by concluding that by proclaiming the governess mad, Wilson himself



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imitates the madness he proclaims, and then submerges himself in it. When one submerges

themselves in the insanity they are attempting to judge they are no longer an outsider, which

makes their judgment less reliable. This shows the idea that

The Turn of the Screw succeeds in trapping the very analytical interpretation it in effect

invites but whose authority it at the same time deconstructs. In inviting, in seducing the

psych-analyst, in tempting him into the quicksand of its rhetoric, literature, in truth, only

invites him to subvert himself, only lures psychoanalysis into its necessary self-

subversion. (Felman 196).

Thus the trick is especially harsh on those who are serious and egotistical, especially some

psycho-analytic critics.

The Turn of the Screw continues to be a never ending paradox of a story that begs to be

solved, presents resources to solve it, but cannot ever be fully resolved. The trick is so simple yet

so complex it hurts to think about too long. Felman summarizes James game by stating

James¶s reader-trap thus functions by precisely luring the reader into attempting to avoid

the trap, into believing there is an outside to the trap. This belief, of course, is itself one

of the traps most subtle mechanisms: the very act of trying to escape the trap is the proof

that one is caught in it. (199).

At the end of the story the governess is unable to find complete satisfaction in her µvictory¶

(because of Miles death). The reader is also unable to be completely satisfied with their

interpretations of the governess¶s sanity. Overall, The Turn of the Screw was one of the first



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stories of its kind to present such a complex paradox; an added benefit is that it remains timeless

in its teachings. It¶s thought provoking effect has left countless interpretations, all right in some

ways; all wrong in others, but in the end James will remain the master, the sole winner.

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Lifting the Veil of Deception in Henry James' The Turn of the Screw: How the Audience Participates in the Author's Impossible Game