'The Turn of the Screw': A Psychological Thriller, Not a Ghost Story

Since its publication in 1898, the Turn of the Screw has been interpreted in diversified approaches by different schools. Multiple individuals (Heilman, 1947, Elliot, 1981) regard it as a pure supernatural thriller, but the majority of the rest (Goddard, 1957, Wilson, 1991) utilises psychoanalysis method to decipher it. In this respect, psychoanalysts deliver explicit evidences to prove the heroine as a psychopath whose hallucinations is induced by sex repression, for example, only the governess perceives the ghosts. Furthermore, after considerable analysis on this novella, critics (Rowe, 1998, Heilman, 1947, Wilson, 1991) believe that the ambiguity and uncertainty produced by its narrative structure and focalisation mode contributes to these distinct understandings. From the perspective of psychoanalysis, due to the abundant investigation mentioned above, this essay therefore will not redundantly concentrate on identifying the credibility of psychoanalytical reading and exploring the reason for multi-interpretation, but on applying appropriate measures, especially psychological theories, to the study of this novel in order to verify it as a psychological thriller. The examination of the hallucinations of the governess, the scrutiny of the social ideology and the rebuttal of some critics who consider it as a ghost story will be covered.

hallucinations

Strachey and Frued (1954) claimed that all dreams, transformed from the realstimulations through “condensation, displacement and representation”, are producing to fulfil the desires or libido. Therefore, numerous critics like Wilson (1991) demonstrated that the ghosts in the Turn of the Screw are the illusioncreating by the sexual-suppressed protagonist. In this regard, the excessive happiness and erotic passion when the governess interacts with things associated to her employer are realised as the source of the desire. The diversified subjective information, especially the ghosts, received by the governess is considered to be her delusions. As investigated by the other psychoanalysts (Goddard, 1957, Kenton, 1924), the governess displays overwhelmingly delights at the first time she came to Bly which illustrates her significant sexual craving towards her employer. Apart from these conventional psychoanalysis of this scene, employing social psychological theory which indicates that individuals by projecting their own feelings will reinforce and exaggerate the others’ verbal and non-verbal expression(Myers, 2010), the strange and superabundant gladness of Mrs. Grose,perceived by the governess when they first meet, are actually the heroine’s own ecstasy. Correspondingly, that Mrs. Gross is continuously convinced by the ghosts described by the governess and assist her to compliment the image of the apparitions may be not because Mrs. Gross, denoted by multiple critics (Solomon, 1964), is manipulating the protagonist’s mental situation but because the narrator subjectively wishes the others to trust her story.

Invoking Freud’s theory about dream and hallucinations, plentifulsymbolisations can be exposed in this novella. For instance, at the top of the tower which recognised as the sign of penis by Strachey and Frued (1954), the governess saw Peter Quint who helps satisfy her sensual aspiration. When they encountered again, they climbed up and down the stairs which is the representation of copulation (ibid.). Additionally, Freud (1920) suggested that landscape like mountains, trees and bushes are the emblem of female organ. Therefore, in terms of Miss Jessel as the projection of the governessherself, this ghost firstly emerged on the other side of a lake which may be interpreted as the depiction of a juvenile, immature and virgin girl. Moreover, Freud designated Id as an intrinsic sexual impulse pursuing pleasant sensation without the consideration of ethics, regulations, and limitations(Storr, 2001). Hence, beyond the moral guidelines, the governess transferred her desire from the owner to Miles. For example, in her description “…as some young couple who, on their wedding journey, at the inn, feel shy in the presence of the waiter” (James, 2000)86), she drawn an analogy between a couple and her relationship with Miles.

Furthermore, analysing the protagonist’s speaking, referring to the psycho-linguistics methods, the evidence against ghost story and for psychological thriller can be obtained as well. Separating the entire story into the portray of the plot falsified by the narrative structure and the governess’s speaking sentences presumed as the original discourse, the corpus tool Wordsmith(Scott, 2012) is applied to investigate these two different part. Potter (2013)claims that people’s repetitions of the same information represent the uncertainty of what they have said and the durable hope to persuade others. After operating statistics to the heroine’s speech, it is learnt that the type-token ratio, which manifests the frequency of repetition and the lack of new information, is 13.13 compared to that of the British National Corpus (Bodleian Libraries and University of Oxford, 2007) which is 34.46. It suggests that the governess, with emphasising the similar material, unconsciously distrusts her own hallucination. Similarly, counting the positive, negative, and uncertain terms via the corpus tool, the outcomes are as follows:

This figure presents that the heroine utilises much less words presenting uncertainty in her speaking, comparing with the plot fragment by which the governess and Douglas employs to depict a horror story, indicating that she expresses assertively and insistently which should not happen in describing supernatural phenomenon. In this respect, we can also explain it to be that the governess presupposes the existence of the spectres which signifies the apparitions are only in the heroine’s fantasies.

Social Ideology

Besides the analysis of individual mental disease, the social context in this novel is concerned as a primary source of the heroine’s libido. Freud (1961)proposed that superego, influenced by social ideology, represents the moral righteousness. For example, the strict hierarchy in Victoria which contributes to the heroin’s superego conflicts her desire for the employer and higher class. In the novel, when she first reached Bly, she revealed her own feelings as “The large, impressive room, one of the best in the house, the great state bed, as I almost felt it, the full, figured draperies, the long glasses in which, for the first time, I could see myself from head to foot, all struck me--like the extraordinary charm of my small charge--as so many things thrown in”(James, 2000) (18,19). The application of comparation in this sentence elucidates her devotion and respect of patriciate but also her nervousness and anxiety of her own inferiority.

Additionally, in Victoria, governesses held an awkward position as they encounter long working time, low salary, frequent harassment from their employers, and ridicule and hostility from peeress (Walton, 1992). As Walton (1992) declared that the governess in this period solely have three final results comprising legally getting married, becoming an unchaste woman, and contracting hysteria, the protagonist finally feel compelled to choose the latter because of the impossibility of marriage and the substantial restraint of sexual indulgence. In this respect, the repression of eroticism can be found from the governess’s antipathy against Miss Jessel who pursued love despite the social hierarchy but ending up with tragedy. The governess is afraid of being attracted by males and enduring the same plight as that of Jessel, therefore, she exhibits significant contempt implying her personal suppression on her sex aspirations.

rebuttal of previous pre-ghost-story critics

Among the debate over the Turn of the Screw, the most intractable issue is that the governess has never seen Peter Quint but can describe his appearance which can be identified instantaneously by Mrs. Grose. Some refuters (Wilson, 1991) supposed that Grose’s tiny hint about the other “he” in the mansion facilitate the protagonist to establish an unfamiliar male figure in her mind. However, from psychoanalysis perspective, the illusion of Quint is possibly the mixture of sexual desire and psychological defence. Freud (1992)demonstrates that the mechanism of defence will moderate the aggressive instinctive actuation into a culturally acceptable one. In the novella, the governess first constructed the male ghost, when she expected to encounter her employer, as her master who has a similar appearance and clothing with Peter Quint. Interestingly, when Mrs. Gross tried to identify this figure as a gentleman, the heroine reflected as “I found I had no need to think. ‘No.’ She gazed in deeper wonder. ‘No’” (James, 2000) (25). This assertive claim appears to be paradoxical with her excitement of perceiving Quint, but actually reveal her unconscious abomination of her libido via the reaction formation phenomenon indicating that individuals will present the opposite attitudes to their real thought when engendering socially improper ideas (Freud, 1992). Through these processes, Peter Quint whose social status is lower than the governess has been shaped.

Conclusion

In summary, this essay has investigated several segments with reference to psychological philosophies including conventional psychology, social psychology, and psycho-linguistics. The first section discussed some evidences supporting that the apparitions are solely the governess’s hallucinations. Additionally, the social ideology which extensively affects the establishment of superego is examined. Finally, the protesters’ opinions against the psychoanalytic interpretation was refuted to further validate that this novella is a psychological thriller. As the majority of the previous discussions and analysis of the text were deliberately excluded, this essay attempted to employ new psychological and also interdisciplinary theories which may be comparatively weakly confirmed. Moreover, limited by length, this essay fails to provide enough close-reading with detailed discourse which probably diminishes the reliability. In this respect, more reliable and trustworthy investigations are required in the future.

Reference List

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