On this week's blog, write about your reaction to The Turn of the Screw. Write a quote and tell why it is important and how it fits in with the rest of the story.
I believe this book has a good basic concept, but the language sometime makes reading it long and tiresome. I will have to finsh the book to really get a feel for the plot and basis.
Quote: "On the spot there came to me the added shock of a certitude that it was not for me he had come there. He had come for someone else." (pg.20 IV)
This quote is said when she finally realizes that the "ghost" Peter Quint has not come looking for her, but yet the children. This is right after she sees him for the second time outside the window. I am curious of what plays out in the next few chapters.
I find "The Turn of the Screw" to be very interesting. I like the story so far and want to see whqt will happen to the children and the governess.
"To gaze into the depths of blue of the child's eyes and pronounce their loveliness a trick of premature cunning was to be guilty of a cynacism in preference to which I naturally preferred to abjure my judgement and, so far as might be, my agitation. (154)"
This quote calls into question the battle between good and evil. Have the children lost thier innocence? Are they truely evil under the sweet exterior? On the other hand James could be calling to attention the paranoia of the governess, seeing evil in even the most gentle of creatures. I think that at this point in the book it looks like the children might know more than they are letting on and that the governess might not be entirely crazy, only a little bit.
"The Turn of the Screw" is an interesting book, but sometimes hard to understand at times. If you can follow along with the book than it keeps you interested but when you have to keep re-reading paragraphs and pages it gets very boring.
"No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half replaced and half utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!" (Chapter I)
This quote is the closing paragraph to the first chapter and also is one of the main paragraphs that begins to shape the book. We are just starting to learn who the characters are and this gives a perfect description of the ship imagery and when the Governess is at Bly.
You really have to be paying attention to "Turn of the Screw" if you would like to fully understand it's concepts and everthing that is going on within it.
"only you haven't my dreadful boldnes of mind, and you keep back, out of timidity and modesty and delicacy, even the impression that, in the past, when you had, without my aid, to flounder about in silence, most of all made you miserable". (p. 35 VIII)
This quote shows how the governess thinks she is so strong and in a way gives insight to how she thinks she is protecting the children. The quote also shows the reader how the governess feels as if she has everyone in the house figuered out, particularily Mrs. Grose, when she has only just met and, and does not know very many things about her as well.
The book takes more concentration to filter out the fluff of the long sentences and find the main points, therefore taking much longer to read. However, despite this, I find the book to be mesmerizing.
"I dashed at the place in which I had left her lying and over which (for the small silk counterpane and the sheets were disarranged) the white curtains had been deceivingly pulled forward..." (41).
This quote suggests a foreshadowing of the novel. One could perceive the white curtains as a ghost, like a white sheet over someone's head to resemble a ghost. Therefore, with the absence of Flora, and the ghost in her place (the white curtains), something could happen to Flora where she disappears because of the ghost, or maybe she gets possessed. Another idea based off of this quote is, since Flora's name means flower to resemble innocence, she is gone, or the innocence will be lost because of the ghosts. Therefore the governess could fail to protect the children's purity.
The Turn of the Screw is one of the most interesting books I have read in school. It keeps me guessing and wanting to find out what happens in the end. "At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied..."
This quote was when the governess saw Flora looking at the window and when she asked her what she was looking at, Flora started to say that she saw someone. But when the governess questioned her more she then said that she had not seen anyone. I think the girl was trying to play a trick on the governess, but I'm not quite sure why since the children seem to like her. Maybe the next few chapters will give more incite.
I'm really enjoying reading The Turn of the Screw, however the language and the sentences can be hard to decipher. You really do have to be paying attention while you're reading, and I sometimes find myself having to re-read some of the sections to fully understand the concepts.
My quote is at the end of VII, the very last paragraph.
"I burst, as I had, the other time, made her burst, into tears; she took me to her motherly breast, and my lamentation overflowed. 'I don't do it!' I sobbed in despair; 'I don't save or shield them! It's far worse than I dreamed---they're lost!'"(32)
This quote is when the governess is feeling that she is losing all control of the children, like she has no protection over them, and they are perhaps losing their innocence. I think that this quote could also foreshadow something later in the book, in that the governess no longer protects the children, so they could possibly turn into some sort of evil? This is just my interpretation, and this book seems to leave room for many different views from the reader. I'm looking forward to what will happen towards the end.
I find The Turn of the Screw to be very interesting, although the excessive use of commas makes it somewhat difficult to read.
"Dishonored and tragic, she was all before me; but even as I fixed and, for memory, secured it, the awful image passed away. Dark as midnight in her black dress, her haggard beauty and unutterable woe, she had looked at me long enough to appear to say that her right to sit at my table was as good as mine to sit at hers." (Chapter XV, page 58)
I find this quote to be important for two reasons. First, I think it is a good example of how the book uses wonderful imagery to set a dark and eerie tone. The way that the author has written this book is, as Mr. Schindler has mentioned, very much like a poem. Also, this quote makes me think that Miss Jessel's ghost is a metaphor for evil and human corruption. The previous governess has the right to sit at the table with the current governess because she was once in her place and similar to her. Maybe the governess will end up evil or even dead just like Miss Jessel?
I think this book is a twist on the typical good versus evil plot. So far it is the original plot but I think that more towards the end something different will happen. I can already tell something is happening back in chapter 11. "Think me- for a change- bad!"...."At Midnight. When I'm bad I am bad!'(pg. 46). I just think its interesting that Miles says this because no normal people ever actually try to be "bad" especially when they have the angelic or perfect appearance like Miles does. So something between the ghosts and the children is definately going on. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Despite the complexity of the reading, Turn of the Screw is a rather interesting book. Every time I sit down to read this book it takes me a while to adapt to the writing style. Once I do I am able to enjoy it. I have come to understand that some passages can be very important and loaded with meanings, while others seem to go on and on with no real purpose.
Quote: "I do mean, on the other hand, that the element of the unnamed and untouched became, between us, greater than any other, and that so much avoidance could not have been so successfully effected without a great deal of tacit arrangement."
This quote struck me as being rather spooky. I can relate to having to avoid a topic and in the process making the fact that I know more obvious. The governess believes that the kids are after her with the ghosts.
I am enjoying "The Turn of the Screw," I feel that the idea that you can make the plot into many different scenarios is very interesting..
Quote(s): "I want my own sort." "There are not many of your own sort, Miles!" I laughed. "Unless perhaps dear little Flora. (Pg 55,XIV)
This scene suggests that Miles has insight into the Governess' suspicion of his relations with the "devil-type" character Mr. Quint. She has discovered he is not as innocent as it seems, and he is aware of that but still kind of strings her along, playing on her naivety. Comparing him to Flora is an insult in his eyes because she is just "a baby girl" and he is in the process of discovering himself as a person and desiring more freedom. This part also hints that there is some other underlying part of Miles hidden because he mentions "the way I'm going on" this can only mean a negative path.. and the way he questions the governess seems that he feels she knows his "secret" and wants to somehow find out just how much she knows by subtly mentioning it.
I really find this book's language complicated because i would have to re-read (which is a burden) to understand what is going on, but overall it is really intriguing.
Quote: No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half replaced and half utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!
This quote describes Bly as a ship and there are more future references to ships/boats in the book. In this quote i thought governess sounded really optimistic and since everything so far is going well especially having Flora's introduction as a behaved child that it was going to be "smooth sailing", but it is kind of an irony because through further references of the "drifting ship" it becomes completely opposite and things become a "ship wreck."
I like "The Turn of the Screw". I think it is a great book because it keeps us wondering. Since most things are implied rather than stated directly, it requires us to question and make predictions all the time which helps keep our attention.
Quote: "The place, with its gray skies and withered garlands, its bared spaces and scattered dead leaves, was like a theater after the performance-all strewn with crumpled playbills" (pg. 50 XIII).
In this quote the governess is describing Bly when the season had changed to autumn. I thought this quote was important because it gives the reader a dark, chilly view of the house and gives the effect as if the place may be haunted (which indeed, according to the governess, it is), like an empty theater might be. Also, this quote could be a foreshadowing of how with the changing season, the good moods and happiness of the children and the governess will change also.
"The Turn of the Screw" is a challenging book to read, but as we keep getting farther into it, I am getting more and more interested. The author doesn't just come out and say a fact, it is implied so therefore can be translated in many different ways.
The quote I found is: "What it was most impossible to get rid of was the cruel idea that, whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora saw more - things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse in the past"(52).
This quote is basically just saying that the children still kept an advantage over the governess and what she believed was going on. Later on it says that Miles and Flora always had something to throw her off such as mentioning something about their uncle. It shows that the children are very sly and able to top anything that the governess sees that might lead her to the answers.
This is a make up blog for last week's College Essay reflection.
While I did not turn in a college essay I have started one. Essay's have never been my strong point and when I do one I like to have a lot of time. I hate feeling rushed when I have to write and I hate what I write when I am rushed. So I have decided to take my time on this essay, as it will determine whether or not I get into college. I have learned that this is not such a great idea seeing as now I have a D in this class which will prevent me from getting into college... quite the predicament. This experience has left me with the need to find a better process for writing essays.
I believe the book could end up in a lot of different places, and could be interpreted in many different ways, but I still enjoy looking at it as simply a short suspense novel full of ghosts. I have no idea how it will end, but the conclusion should resolve the conflicts between the characters and the "ghosts", revealing the truth about whether or not they are figments of the governesses imagination or if the children are using her to entertain themselves (The whole book is a game that the children have been playing since the beginning of the novel. Lastly, I think that the conclusion will ahve something to do with Miles. He seems to be becoming more mischievous as the book progresses. Especially after he went outside just to anger the governess in the last section I read.
Turn of the Screw is pretty interesting so far and i enjoy the story. The language is a little bit annoying because if you are not completely focused then you forget what you read. ""I know I know I know!" My exaltation grew. "And you know, my dear!"" (pg.25 VI) This quote puts into question the validity of the ghosts because we see the governess accusing Mrs. Grose as knowing that the ghosts is looking for miles too when there is definetly no proof for the accusation. I am curious to see if the governess continues to break down the realism of the ghosts that she left us with after the first encounter.
The Turn of the Screw strikes me as a novella full of strange symbolism. At times it appears as if the only sane one in the household is the Governess. The children have weird fancies and are found in absurd locations throughout the story. Mrs. Grose seems to be hiding something from the Governess, or at least to be concealing part of the truth. The Governess however, is witty enough to figure something suspicious is going on. From the very start she notes, "Was there a 'secret' at Bly- a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?" Though her guess might have been off, her general idea of something secret occurring is right on the ball. She seems to be a character from which nothing can be kept a secret. We also see that she tries to manipulate the children by allowing them to write letters, and then not sending them. She also threatens to leave Mrs. Grose if she informs the Uncle about their current state. The governess is an ambiguous figure, who I think will ultimately play a key role in the end.
I think that this book is a good book. I don't like the fact that it's hard to read but i think that it's worth the extra time to read it. " but it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of m little girl." I think that this is a good quote by the governess because it shows how she thinks that the kids are perfect angels and it sets up her trying to always protect them from everything.
After our first week of reading “Turn of the Screw” I first became drawn to it with our discussions in class but when I read it at home I really don’t enjoy anything that this book has to offer for its readers. First, the way that Henry James writes this novel is confusing and more work that a book should be to read. I constantly find myself rereading different pages or rereading lines because I get easily lost within the many commas. I think the plot is exciting, but again it’s hard to follow who is talking and who is in each scene. Overall I have read better books and cant wait to move on to a different novel that attracts a little more attention and makes me want to keep reading after each chapter instead or confused.
I believe that the kids know about the ghosts and they are trying to keep their knowledge from the governess. However, direct examples are not shown. They are just situations when Flora or Miles are being clever or mischievous. One example is when Miles is found outside. Mile’s reason for leaving his bed was, “Think me- for a change- bad!” (pg.55) However, I believe that this was just a cover up or a story for what he did. Furthermore, one other time that showed the children were just playing with the governess is when Miles keeps calling the governess “My Dear.” To me, Miles sounds like he is trying to be older than what he really is. When he speaks to her I don’t think what he is saying in really genuine.
“The Turn of the Screw” has been somewhat difficult to read. I have had to reread many times to catch and understand the symbolism and complex themes although many of them are very intriguing. “Poor woman – she paid for it! ‘Then you know what she died of?’ No – I know nothing. I wanted not to know; I was glad enough I didn’t; and thanked heaven she was well out of this!” (VII pg. 32) Mrs. Grose always seems to know more than she is letting on. She was openly talking about Miss Jessel until the governess asked about her death; Mrs. Grose claimed to know nothing. Another example is when Mrs. Grose mentioned someone in the past tense and when the governess asked, she claimed she was talking about the master. I wonder if Mrs. Grose knows something that we don’t and can explain what happened in the past and how it ties into the strange events taking place now.
When analyzing the Turn of the Screw, the story is appealing and interesting to discuss. Simply reading it though, I find to be somewhat uninteresting. The way in which the novel is written makes it difficult (at least for some) to show an interest and pay attention to the story. The most grasping points of the read typically end up being the ghost encounters.
"He knew me as well as I knew him; and so, in the cold faint twilight, with a glimmer in the high glass and another on the polish of the oak stair below, we faced eachother in our common intensity."
After this quote the governess continues by explaining the rush of confidence she feels in place of fear. With each encounter, she realizes that Quint is not after her.
To tell the truth, Turn of the Screw is not the greatest book I've ever read. It is supposed to be at least a somewhat scary book, but I really have never felt scared or spooked at all after having read it. There are some unique things about the book that make it a worthwhile read though, like the fact that the story forces the reader to make their own conclusions on whether the ghosts are real or whether the Governess is making them up. One important quote I think is crucial to the story is "I had made her a receptacle of lurid things, but there was an odd recognition of my superiority - my accomplishments and my function - in her patience under my pain. She offered her mind to my disclosures as, had I wished to mix a witch's broth and proposed it with assurance, she would have4 held out a large clean saucepan."-pg.44. This is when the Governess was thinking about how she now had almost complete control of how Mrs. Grose thought and could tell her anything and she'd believe it. This is important because it shows how the Governess starts to feel superior and feel that it is her responsibility to keep the children "safe" from the evil influences of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint.
Despite the confusing language, I have enjoyed reading the Turn of the Screw. It is interesting to see the relationship between the governess and the children because James does not make it clear whether or not the children actually see the ghosts like the governess does. However, the governess seems to be convinced that the children are devilish and are purposefully finding ways to interact with the ghosts, against her wishes. My quote is from the end of Chapter 19, when the governess and Mrs. Grose find Flora at the lake. After Flora asks where Miles is, the governess explains that “There was something in the small valor of it that quite finished me: these three words from her were, in a flash like the glitter of a drawn blade, the jostle of the cup that my hand, for weeks and weeks, had held high and full to the brim and that now, even before speaking, I felt overflow in a deluge. ‘I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me’ I heard myself say, the heard the tremor in which it broke.....‘Where, my pet, is Miss Jessel?” (115)
This is the first time in the book where the governess confronts Flora about the ghost Miss Jessel. However, we are still unsure if Flora can actually see the ghost or not. Although the governess believes that the children are going behind her back to meet with the ghosts, Flora’s reaction of disgust towards the governess could be taken to mean that Flora thinks the governess is insane. The ghosts are not necessarily real ghosts, but rather hallucinations of the governess.
While reading this book I'll actually occasionally drop the book and rummage for a dictionary, it's not too often that I come across words I don't know, books like these always have me wandering if everyone back in the day talked so sohpisticated.
This book didn't strike me as scary at first, I guess I'm just so used to movies with the generic monsters jumping out of closets scary, some of the scenes in which I believe are supposed to be creepy I just have a hard time understanding the wording and it doesn't come out bone-chilling in any sense of the word.
I'm having a difficult time with this book to be honest. I finished it but quotes like, "AS horrible as it was his lies made up my truth" really confused me. And I dont see ANY of the sexual hints that were talked about in class. -Kristy Cottle
Turn of the Screw has been an enjoyable book to read so far. I like the ghost story and nature to the book because I believe it keeps me intrigued and I want to keep reading. I know I am expecting something huge to happen just to make it really worth the read and maybe it will maybe it won't. But I have enjoyed this book more than others so far because it is captivating. However I do have some difficulty understanding some of the language. "The person looking straight in was the person who had already appeared to me. He appeared thus again with I won't say greater distinctness, for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented a forward stride in our intercourse and made me, as I met him, catch my breath and turn cold." (pg. 20) Quotes such as this have kept my interest in the book and make me want to continue reading. You never know maybe the crazy governess will end up killing herself or the children.
It has been very difficult for me to get into the book, "The Turn of the Screw". A lot has been released about the characters, but it seems to be the same ideas over and over again. We learn a lot about the Governess. and her feelings towards the two children and their so called "father figure". The Governess hears noises which I believe don't actually exist, and she always seems to be distraught and needs to seek advice from others. Even after seeking advice she never seems to make decisions very rationally and it seems like she doesn't trust anyone, not even the children. This is proved when she says "in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied...", refering to Flora. I believe that in the and the Governess is going to become so distraught that she ends up killing herself.
I think that "The Turn of the Screw" is a really interesting book if you can understand it. At times it can be hard to follow and you have to re-read some things, but overall the book has an interesting plot line.
Quote: "Both the children had a gentleness (it was their only fault, and it never made Miles a muff) that kept them- how shall I express it?-almost impersonal and certainly quite unpunishable." (19)
This quote brings up the conflict between good and evil. It shows that even though the children give off such an innocence about them, there is still a possibility that they may not be as innocent as they seem.
Turn of the Screw seems to be a rather repetitive book and I find it long and boring at times, but sometimes rather interesting. No matter how hard I try, I can't pin down the real meaning of the book.
Quote: "With a determination-indescribable, with a kind of fury or intention." Chapter 7 Page 31
This quote from the book shows the paranoia of the governess. She thinks that the ghosts are out to have sexual relationships with the children, which is a bit wierd. This can also show that the governess is an extreme case of sexual repression and that the ghosts are actually a representation of herself.
I really think Turn of the screw is a strange story. I don't quite like the governess as a character, because she seems so inconsistent most of the time. Almost like half of what she says happens is made up and didn't really happen. For example, she quotes Miss Jessel, saying that "She wants Flora" (pg. 99). I think the governess is really losing her sanity, because I really can't see any reason why she would be inconsistently recalling the encounter and then claiming the spirit she encountered said something that she didn't mention when describing the event.
I've found that The Turn of The Screw has actually been a lot more complicated to understand then I thought it would be. You have to pay really close attention to what exactly is going on, and you can't read it very fast. The plot is still kind of hidden to me, and hopefully will become more clear
The quote " I just want to help me to save you!" (Pg. 64 XVII)
This quote is a prime example of what the governess is trying to do with the children. She believes that both Flora and Miles are filled with evil and all she wants is to cleanse them of their evil.
I've found The turn of the Screw to be a very confusing book. The themes that I found in the book are not the ones we have talked about in class. In class we talk about sexual repression and other sexual things..i dont really know because i have missed a few days. This book reminds me of the movie Fight Club in a weird indirect way. The only quote i found to have a somewhat sexual hint was:
"What it was most impossible to get rid of was the cruel idea that, whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora saw more - things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse in the past"(52).
The turn of the screw is a struggle for me to stay interested while reading it. I think the language is the biggest barrier and the way the action doesn't flow well through the book.
"She [Miss Jessel] was there and I was justified; she was there, and I was neither cruel nor mad." pg 70
I think the governess is coming to terms with herself and doubting what she has been seeing all along. She has been brought to believe the ghosts were merely tricks her mind was playing on her but she is trying to reason that they were not tricks and find out what is truth and what is imaginary.
I thoroughly enjoy "The Turn of the Screw" and all of its detailed and insightful lines. One such that I found to be very pertinent to the the meaning of the book as a whole is when the governess is describing Miles' suspension from school. "My conclusion bloomed there with the real rose flush of his innocence; he was only too fine and fair for the little horrid, unclean school world, and he had paid a price for it" (18-19). The governess despises the "unclean" and corruptive school world and is quoted often throughout the book trying to protect, so to speak, the children. She fears the dirty minded institutions of the world, namely sex, and this is the first instance in the book where we see her speak out and lash against the corruption of a youth.
My quote is from the beggining of the last paragraph of IX (Page 40). "I had plenty of anguish after that extraordinary moment, but I had, thank God, no terror. And he knew I had not-I found myself at the end of an instant magnificently aware of this."
This is after the governess has jsut seen the ghost Peter Quint and she realises that she is not afraif of him. I found this really odd and to me it mnade the governess seem even more weird becuase i don't understand who would not be scared in that situation; your in a big house, and you keep seeing ghosts everywhere. How is that not scary? I think she also thinks that she can "protect" the children better from the ghosts if she is not scared of them.
This book seems to become more ambiguous and vague as time goes on. Yet there are a few facts that are not only obvious through the text, but are bluntly stated by the governess herself.
"I walked in a world of their invention-- they had no occasion whatever to draw upon mine" (28).
This shows that she obviously cares so much for the children that she has lost her own sense of reality and is now living in a world created by the children. The governess may not have meant this quote literally, but it is proven to be quite literal throughout the text with long paragraphs where she gushes about the kids and their extraordinary innocence and intelligence. However, in reality their innocence is in question.
I thought that Turn of the Screw was hard to get into for the first couple nights of assigned reading but I am enjoying the story more and more with every chapter. The one problem I have with the book is the fact that the author adds in so much detail to his sentences that its hard for to keep the main point straight and for me to figure out what details, if any, in the sentences can be ignored.
"Something in his tone and the expression of his face, as I got this from him, set my heart aching with such a pang as it had never yet known; so unutterably taxed to play, under the spell laid on him, a part if innocence and consistency." p.62
I think this is an extremely important quote because it shows that the Governess no longer believes that the children are innocent. While she has no proof that they have lost this innocence by communicating with the ghosts, she believes whole heartedly that they are trying to fool her now, and I am very interested in how this is going to affect her actions towards the children throughout the rest of the book.
I find this book to be confusing but very captivating. It's practically impossible to skim over the words and get the gist of the story, but it's also very hard to set the book down. I like the language and the tone that the author brings to this book. It makes it much more mysterious.
Quote: "There had a been a moment when I believed I recognized, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been another when I found myself just consciously starting as at the passage, before my door, of alight footstep." (pg 8)
This quote supports the eventual ghost story that this book turns in to. It is subtle and yet this mood plays a huge part in the story later.
I have a bit of trouble with the reading like almost everyone else because of the odd way that the sentences are structured and also the way that the governess speaks by jumping around her point. "I had made her a receptacle of lurid things, but there was an odd recognition of my superiority - my accomplishments and my function - in her patience under my pain. She offered her mind to my disclosures as, had I wished to mix a witch's broth and proposed it with assurance, she would have4 held out a large clean saucepan."-pg.44. This quote is important because it shows that the governess has controle over Mrs. Grose because she can tell her anything and she will take every word of it to be true.
I think that the book is a little weird, and almost creepy. See I get freaked out real easily, but pretty much anything. So when I'm reading about "supposed" ghosts I'm a little uneasy. So I am not taking very well to this book.
Though one thing I find interesting is at the 3rd paragraph in chapter 3, it says, "How can I retrace to-day the strange steps of my obsession?" I don't understand if she is talking about her obsession with Miles or with the ghosts. I'm leaning more towards she is talking about the ghosts because she is really crazy about and thinks that the ghosts are trying to steal the innocence of the kids. It deepens the story because not only is she admitting to the fact that she has an obsession but she is also show herself as a hypocrite.
I've come to rather dislike our "Heroine" the governess and her sidekick Mrs. Grosse. Mrs. Grosse just does whatever the governness tells her to and spends the entire book belittled. And then the governess herself, what a nut job. She's a fool, thinking that she can protect these children from otherworldly spectors. She even admits that she can't, saying "I don't do it, I don't protect and shield them."(34) I liken her to Holden Caulfield from Catcher in The Rye. They think that it has fallen onto their shoulders to protect the innocence of all the children around them. As if they need protecting. They can't be children all their lives, and shielding them will only cause them to malfunction when they try to survive out in the adult world, which is what happened to Billy Bibbit. They had overprotective mother figures who felt it was their duty from "God" to protect their charges from naughty things like sex and other vulgarities. The idiots are practically killing the ones that they are trying to save. Maybe I just try to hard to find the social critique in all these books...
The book is a little troublesome to read, especially with the commas, but it has been an enjoyable story.
"Why not break out at her on the spot and have it all over?-give it to her straight in her lovely little lighted face? "You see, you see, you know that you do and that you already quite suspect I believe it; therefor, why not frankly confess it to me, so that we may at least live with it together and learn perhaps, in the strangeness of our fate, where we are and what it means." (pg.41, X)
The governess wants to help the chidren very badly and wants to know exactly why these ghosts are appearing. She wants to save them by haveing them tell to seeing them and to proove that the governess is not just crazy seeing things.
The book is challenging to read but is pretty good. It seems like there are so many different things that could be going on. It will be interesting to see what is really happening.
"I had made her a receptacle of lurid things, but there was an odd recognition of my superiority - my accomplishments and my function - in her patience under my pain. She offered her mind to my disclosures as, had I wished to mix a witch's broth and proposed it with assurance, she would have4 held out a large clean saucepan."
This is when the Governess was thinking about how she now had almost complete control of how Mrs. Grose thought and could tell her anything and she'd believe it. This is important because it shows how the Governess starts to feel superior and feel that it is her responsibility to keep the children "safe" from the evil influences of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint.
The first time when I read this book it seems hard to follow when the governess speaks of many things in one paragraph, and that she doesn't go back to what she was speaking of. It would be much easier to read if other characters in this book has some says in what was happening and to what the governess was stating, whether she is stating a fact or that she was predicting everything up, to which we are not certain of, and this is what we are trying to decide when reading this book. We don't know yet if she is making everything up about the children or that it is true about Flora being ill was caused by seeing the ghost on the opposite edge of the lake. However, when I read the book at a much slower speed, I can justify to what I was reading.
A quote that I feel is important to the story is when the governess tells Ms. Gross that "I'll get it out of him. He'll meet me-he'll confess. If he confesses, he's saved"(77) And another quote about Miles trying to say everything to the governess when he promises her that, "I'll tell you everything," "I mean I'll tell you anything you like. You'll stay on with me, and we shall both be all right, and I will tell you-I will. But not now"(p82). I learned that Miles has been wanting to say something to the governess about something that I think is the importance of he trying to prove to her that he is bad, and that it may or may not relate to the ghost, whether it was the governess who was fool by the children foolish jokes or that they did see the ghost, but was scared to tell someone. But, why would it takes so long for Miles to say whatever he is intended to want to tell the governess, but instead to tell her that he will be telling her, but not just now. What is it? I am very curious to find out what it would be, and how it would relate to the entire story or not, but much importantly, how would that effect the death of the governess 20-something years later. Is her death portrays the death of the former governess? Also, whatever Miles is trying to say, would it relates to the Master coming to see them and the governess?
I found Turn of the Screw a captivating book once I got into it. Every night that I read it took me a page or two to get into it, and many times I would have to re-read parts that confused me. There were even times when I fell asleep. On the flip side there were other times when I could not put the book down because of the suspenseful nature. Parts of the book were hard to understand because of the intricate detail and underlying themes. Henry James composes this novel in an intriguing but unusual manner. I learned you must really have to pay attention to this book while you are reading because there are many subtle details and you are forced to make inferences about what is happening throughout the novel. I am still not sure about a few things :-/. Overall I can not decide if this would go on my “top read list.” This book seems to be one that you need to read 2-3 times so that you can pick up more and more each time you read it.
“I saw my response so strongly and so quickly…I was there to protect and defend…I was a screen-I was to stand before them. The more I saw the less they would. What saved me as I now see as that it turned into another matter all together. It didn’t last as suspense-it was superseded by horrible proofs. Proofs, I say, yes-from the moment I really took hold.” (VI pg 42-43)
This quote is from one of the first times the governess sees the ghosts and gains courage. She feels it is her job to protect the children no matter what length she must go to do it. This quote tells us her views for the next few chapters on protecting the children from these ghosts. It also foreshadows that later on in the novel she will come across something horrible (horrible proofs).
49 comments:
I believe this book has a good basic concept, but the language sometime makes reading it long and tiresome. I will have to finsh the book to really get a feel for the plot and basis.
Quote: "On the spot there came to me the added shock of a certitude that it was not for me he had come there. He had come for someone else." (pg.20 IV)
This quote is said when she finally realizes that the "ghost" Peter Quint has not come looking for her, but yet the children. This is right after she sees him for the second time outside the window. I am curious of what plays out in the next few chapters.
I find "The Turn of the Screw" to be very interesting. I like the story so far and want to see whqt will happen to the children and the governess.
"To gaze into the depths of blue of the child's eyes and pronounce their loveliness a trick of premature cunning was to be guilty of a cynacism in preference to which I naturally preferred to abjure my judgement and, so far as might be, my agitation. (154)"
This quote calls into question the battle between good and evil. Have the children lost thier innocence? Are they truely evil under the sweet exterior?
On the other hand James could be calling to attention the paranoia of the governess, seeing evil in even the most gentle of creatures.
I think that at this point in the book it looks like the children might know more than they are letting on and that the governess might not be entirely crazy, only a little bit.
"The Turn of the Screw" is an interesting book, but sometimes hard to understand at times. If you can follow along with the book than it keeps you interested but when you have to keep re-reading paragraphs and pages it gets very boring.
"No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half replaced and half utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!" (Chapter I)
This quote is the closing paragraph to the first chapter and also is one of the main paragraphs that begins to shape the book. We are just starting to learn who the characters are and this gives a perfect description of the ship imagery and when the Governess is at Bly.
You really have to be paying attention to "Turn of the Screw" if you would like to fully understand it's concepts and everthing that is going on within it.
"only you haven't my dreadful boldnes of mind, and you keep back, out of timidity and modesty and delicacy, even the impression that, in the past, when you had, without my aid, to flounder about in silence, most of all made you miserable". (p. 35 VIII)
This quote shows how the governess thinks she is so strong and in a way gives insight to how she thinks she is protecting the children. The quote also shows the reader how the governess feels as if she has everyone in the house figuered out, particularily Mrs. Grose, when she has only just met and, and does not know very many things about her as well.
The book takes more concentration to filter out the fluff of the long sentences and find the main points, therefore taking much longer to read. However, despite this, I find the book to be mesmerizing.
"I dashed at the place in which I had left her lying and over which (for the small silk counterpane and the sheets were disarranged) the white curtains had been deceivingly pulled forward..." (41).
This quote suggests a foreshadowing of the novel. One could perceive the white curtains as a ghost, like a white sheet over someone's head to resemble a ghost. Therefore, with the absence of Flora, and the ghost in her place (the white curtains), something could happen to Flora where she disappears because of the ghost, or maybe she gets possessed.
Another idea based off of this quote is, since Flora's name means flower to resemble innocence, she is gone, or the innocence will be lost because of the ghosts. Therefore the governess could fail to protect the children's purity.
the previous entry was completed by Molly Riegel
The Turn of the Screw is one of the most interesting books I have read in school. It keeps me guessing and wanting to find out what happens in the end.
"At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied..."
This quote was when the governess saw Flora looking at the window and when she asked her what she was looking at, Flora started to say that she saw someone. But when the governess questioned her more she then said that she had not seen anyone. I think the girl was trying to play a trick on the governess, but I'm not quite sure why since the children seem to like her. Maybe the next few chapters will give more incite.
I'm really enjoying reading The Turn of the Screw, however the language and the sentences can be hard to decipher. You really do have to be paying attention while you're reading, and I sometimes find myself having to re-read some of the sections to fully understand the concepts.
My quote is at the end of VII, the very last paragraph.
"I burst, as I had, the other time, made her burst, into tears; she took me to her motherly breast, and my lamentation overflowed. 'I don't do it!' I sobbed in despair; 'I don't save or shield them! It's far worse than I dreamed---they're lost!'"(32)
This quote is when the governess is feeling that she is losing all control of the children, like she has no protection over them, and they are perhaps losing their innocence. I think that this quote could also foreshadow something later in the book, in that the governess no longer protects the children, so they could possibly turn into some sort of evil? This is just my interpretation, and this book seems to leave room for many different views from the reader. I'm looking forward to what will happen towards the end.
I find The Turn of the Screw to be very interesting, although the excessive use of commas makes it somewhat difficult to read.
"Dishonored and tragic, she was all before me; but even as I fixed and, for memory, secured it, the awful image passed away. Dark as midnight in her black dress, her haggard beauty and unutterable woe, she had looked at me long enough to appear to say that her right to sit at my table was as good as mine to sit at hers." (Chapter XV, page 58)
I find this quote to be important for two reasons. First, I think it is a good example of how the book uses wonderful imagery to set a dark and eerie tone. The way that the author has written this book is, as Mr. Schindler has mentioned, very much like a poem. Also, this quote makes me think that Miss Jessel's ghost is a metaphor for evil and human corruption. The previous governess has the right to sit at the table with the current governess because she was once in her place and similar to her. Maybe the governess will end up evil or even dead just like Miss Jessel?
I think this book is a twist on the typical good versus evil plot. So far it is the original plot but I think that more towards the end something different will happen. I can already tell something is happening back in chapter 11. "Think me- for a change- bad!"...."At Midnight. When I'm bad I am bad!'(pg. 46). I just think its interesting that Miles says this because no normal people ever actually try to be "bad" especially when they have the angelic or perfect appearance like Miles does. So something between the ghosts and the children is definately going on. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Despite the complexity of the reading, Turn of the Screw is a rather interesting book. Every time I sit down to read this book it takes me a while to adapt to the writing style. Once I do I am able to enjoy it. I have come to understand that some passages can be very important and loaded with meanings, while others seem to go on and on with no real purpose.
Quote: "I do mean, on the other hand, that the element of the unnamed and untouched became, between us, greater than any other, and that so much avoidance could not have been so successfully effected without a great deal of tacit arrangement."
This quote struck me as being rather spooky. I can relate to having to avoid a topic and in the process making the fact that I know more obvious. The governess believes that the kids are after her with the ghosts.
I am enjoying "The Turn of the Screw," I feel that the idea that you can make the plot into many different scenarios is very interesting..
Quote(s):
"I want my own sort."
"There are not many of your own sort, Miles!" I laughed. "Unless perhaps dear little Flora.
(Pg 55,XIV)
This scene suggests that Miles has insight into the Governess' suspicion of his relations with the "devil-type" character Mr. Quint. She has discovered he is not as innocent as it seems, and he is aware of that but still kind of strings her along, playing on her naivety. Comparing him to Flora is an insult in his eyes because she is just "a baby girl" and he is in the process of discovering himself as a person and desiring more freedom. This part also hints that there is some other underlying part of Miles hidden because he mentions "the way I'm going on" this can only mean a negative path.. and the way he questions the governess seems that he feels she knows his "secret" and wants to somehow find out just how much she knows by subtly mentioning it.
I really find this book's language complicated because i would have to re-read (which is a burden) to understand what is going on, but overall it is really intriguing.
Quote: No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half replaced and half utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!
This quote describes Bly as a ship and there are more future references to ships/boats in the book. In this quote i thought governess sounded really optimistic and since everything so far is going well especially having Flora's introduction as a behaved child that it was going to be "smooth sailing", but it is kind of an irony because through further references of the "drifting ship" it becomes completely opposite and things become a "ship wreck."
Quote: Chapter I pg 9
I like "The Turn of the Screw". I think it is a great book because it keeps us wondering. Since most things are implied rather than stated directly, it requires us to question and make predictions all the time which helps keep our attention.
Quote: "The place, with its gray skies and withered garlands, its bared spaces and scattered dead leaves, was like a theater after the performance-all strewn with crumpled playbills" (pg. 50 XIII).
In this quote the governess is describing Bly when the season had changed to autumn. I thought this quote was important because it gives the reader a dark, chilly view of the house and gives the effect as if the place may be haunted (which indeed, according to the governess, it is), like an empty theater might be. Also, this quote could be a foreshadowing of how with the changing season, the good moods and happiness of the children and the governess will change also.
"The Turn of the Screw" is a challenging book to read, but as we keep getting farther into it, I am getting more and more interested. The author doesn't just come out and say a fact, it is implied so therefore can be translated in many different ways.
The quote I found is:
"What it was most impossible to get rid of was the cruel idea that, whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora saw more - things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse in the past"(52).
This quote is basically just saying that the children still kept an advantage over the governess and what she believed was going on. Later on it says that Miles and Flora always had something to throw her off such as mentioning something about their uncle. It shows that the children are very sly and able to top anything that the governess sees that might lead her to the answers.
This is a make up blog for last week's College Essay reflection.
While I did not turn in a college essay I have started one. Essay's have never been my strong point and when I do one I like to have a lot of time. I hate feeling rushed when I have to write and I hate what I write when I am rushed. So I have decided to take my time on this essay, as it will determine whether or not I get into college. I have learned that this is not such a great idea seeing as now I have a D in this class which will prevent me from getting into college... quite the predicament. This experience has left me with the need to find a better process for writing essays.
I believe the book could end up in a lot of different places, and could be interpreted in many different ways, but I still enjoy looking at it as simply a short suspense novel full of ghosts. I have no idea how it will end, but the conclusion should resolve the conflicts between the characters and the "ghosts", revealing the truth about whether or not they are figments of the governesses imagination or if the children are using her to entertain themselves (The whole book is a game that the children have been playing since the beginning of the novel. Lastly, I think that the conclusion will ahve something to do with Miles. He seems to be becoming more mischievous as the book progresses. Especially after he went outside just to anger the governess in the last section I read.
Turn of the Screw is pretty interesting so far and i enjoy the story. The language is a little bit annoying because if you are not completely focused then you forget what you read.
""I know I know I know!" My exaltation grew. "And you know, my dear!"" (pg.25 VI)
This quote puts into question the validity of the ghosts because we see the governess accusing Mrs. Grose as knowing that the ghosts is looking for miles too when there is definetly no proof for the accusation. I am curious to see if the governess continues to break down the realism of the ghosts that she left us with after the first encounter.
The Turn of the Screw strikes me as a novella full of strange symbolism. At times it appears as if the only sane one in the household is the Governess. The children have weird fancies and are found in absurd locations throughout the story. Mrs. Grose seems to be hiding something from the Governess, or at least to be concealing part of the truth. The Governess however, is witty enough to figure something suspicious is going on. From the very start she notes, "Was there a 'secret' at Bly- a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?" Though her guess might have been off, her general idea of something secret occurring is right on the ball. She seems to be a character from which nothing can be kept a secret. We also see that she tries to manipulate the children by allowing them to write letters, and then not sending them. She also threatens to leave Mrs. Grose if she informs the Uncle about their current state. The governess is an ambiguous figure, who I think will ultimately play a key role in the end.
I think that this book is a good book. I don't like the fact that it's hard to read but i think that it's worth the extra time to read it.
" but it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of m little girl."
I think that this is a good quote by the governess because it shows how she thinks that the kids are perfect angels and it sets up her trying to always protect them from everything.
After our first week of reading “Turn of the Screw” I first became drawn to it with our discussions in class but when I read it at home I really don’t enjoy anything that this book has to offer for its readers. First, the way that Henry James writes this novel is confusing and more work that a book should be to read. I constantly find myself rereading different pages or rereading lines because I get easily lost within the many commas. I think the plot is exciting, but again it’s hard to follow who is talking and who is in each scene. Overall I have read better books and cant wait to move on to a different novel that attracts a little more attention and makes me want to keep reading after each chapter instead or confused.
I believe that the kids know about the ghosts and they are trying to keep their knowledge from the governess. However, direct examples are not shown. They are just situations when Flora or Miles are being clever or mischievous. One example is when Miles is found outside. Mile’s reason for leaving his bed was, “Think me- for a change- bad!” (pg.55) However, I believe that this was just a cover up or a story for what he did. Furthermore, one other time that showed the children were just playing with the governess is when Miles keeps calling the governess “My Dear.” To me, Miles sounds like he is trying to be older than what he really is. When he speaks to her I don’t think what he is saying in really genuine.
“The Turn of the Screw” has been somewhat difficult to read. I have had to reread many times to catch and understand the symbolism and complex themes although many of them are very intriguing.
“Poor woman – she paid for it! ‘Then you know what she died of?’ No – I know nothing. I wanted not to know; I was glad enough I didn’t; and thanked heaven she was well out of this!” (VII pg. 32)
Mrs. Grose always seems to know more than she is letting on. She was openly talking about Miss Jessel until the governess asked about her death; Mrs. Grose claimed to know nothing. Another example is when Mrs. Grose mentioned someone in the past tense and when the governess asked, she claimed she was talking about the master. I wonder if Mrs. Grose knows something that we don’t and can explain what happened in the past and how it ties into the strange events taking place now.
When analyzing the Turn of the Screw, the story is appealing and interesting to discuss. Simply reading it though, I find to be somewhat uninteresting. The way in which the novel is written makes it difficult (at least for some) to show an interest and pay attention to the story. The most grasping points of the read typically end up being the ghost encounters.
"He knew me as well as I knew him; and so, in the cold faint twilight, with a glimmer in the high glass and another on the polish of the oak stair below, we faced eachother in our common intensity."
After this quote the governess continues by explaining the rush of confidence she feels in place of fear. With each encounter, she realizes that Quint is not after her.
To tell the truth, Turn of the Screw is not the greatest book I've ever read. It is supposed to be at least a somewhat scary book, but I really have never felt scared or spooked at all after having read it. There are some unique things about the book that make it a worthwhile read though, like the fact that the story forces the reader to make their own conclusions on whether the ghosts are real or whether the Governess is making them up. One important quote I think is crucial to the story is "I had made her a receptacle of lurid things, but there was an odd recognition of my superiority - my accomplishments and my function - in her patience under my pain. She offered her mind to my disclosures as, had I wished to mix a witch's broth and proposed it with assurance, she would have4 held out a large clean saucepan."-pg.44. This is when the Governess was thinking about how she now had almost complete control of how Mrs. Grose thought and could tell her anything and she'd believe it. This is important because it shows how the Governess starts to feel superior and feel that it is her responsibility to keep the children "safe" from the evil influences of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint.
Despite the confusing language, I have enjoyed reading the Turn of the Screw. It is interesting to see the relationship between the governess and the children because James does not make it clear whether or not the children actually see the ghosts like the governess does. However, the governess seems to be convinced that the children are devilish and are purposefully finding ways to interact with the ghosts, against her wishes. My quote is from the end of Chapter 19, when the governess and Mrs. Grose find Flora at the lake. After Flora asks where Miles is, the governess explains that “There was something in the small valor of it that quite finished me: these three words from her were, in a flash like the glitter of a drawn blade, the jostle of the cup that my hand, for weeks and weeks, had held high and full to the brim and that now, even before speaking, I felt overflow in a deluge. ‘I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me’ I heard myself say, the heard the tremor in which it broke.....‘Where, my pet, is Miss Jessel?” (115)
This is the first time in the book where the governess confronts Flora about the ghost Miss Jessel. However, we are still unsure if Flora can actually see the ghost or not. Although the governess believes that the children are going behind her back to meet with the ghosts, Flora’s reaction of disgust towards the governess could be taken to mean that Flora thinks the governess is insane. The ghosts are not necessarily real ghosts, but rather hallucinations of the governess.
While reading this book I'll actually occasionally drop the book and rummage for a dictionary, it's not too often that I come across words I don't know, books like these always have me wandering if everyone back in the day talked so sohpisticated.
This book didn't strike me as scary at first, I guess I'm just so used to movies with the generic monsters jumping out of closets scary, some of the scenes in which I believe are supposed to be creepy I just have a hard time understanding the wording and it doesn't come out bone-chilling in any sense of the word.
I'm having a difficult time with this book to be honest. I finished it but quotes like,
"AS horrible as it was his lies made up my truth"
really confused me. And I dont see ANY of the sexual hints that were talked about in class.
-Kristy Cottle
Turn of the Screw has been an enjoyable book to read so far. I like the ghost story and nature to the book because I believe it keeps me intrigued and I want to keep reading. I know I am expecting something huge to happen just to make it really worth the read and maybe it will maybe it won't. But I have enjoyed this book more than others so far because it is captivating. However I do have some difficulty understanding some of the language. "The person looking straight in was the person who had already appeared to me. He appeared thus again with I won't say greater distinctness, for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented a forward stride in our intercourse and made me, as I met him, catch my breath and turn cold." (pg. 20) Quotes such as this have kept my interest in the book and make me want to continue reading. You never know maybe the crazy governess will end up killing herself or the children.
It has been very difficult for me to get into the book, "The Turn of the Screw". A lot has been released about the characters, but it seems to be the same ideas over and over again. We learn a lot about the Governess. and her feelings towards the two children and their so called "father figure". The Governess hears noises which I believe don't actually exist, and she always seems to be distraught and needs to seek advice from others. Even after seeking advice she never seems to make decisions very rationally and it seems like she doesn't trust anyone, not even the children. This is proved when she says "in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied...", refering to Flora. I believe that in the and the Governess is going to become so distraught that she ends up killing herself.
I think that "The Turn of the Screw" is a really interesting book if you can understand it. At times it can be hard to follow and you have to re-read some things, but overall the book has an interesting plot line.
Quote: "Both the children had a gentleness (it was their only fault, and it never made Miles a muff) that kept them- how shall I express it?-almost impersonal and certainly quite unpunishable." (19)
This quote brings up the conflict between good and evil. It shows that even though the children give off such an innocence about them, there is still a possibility that they may not be as innocent as they seem.
Turn of the Screw seems to be a rather repetitive book and I find it long and boring at times, but sometimes rather interesting. No matter how hard I try, I can't pin down the real meaning of the book.
Quote: "With a determination-indescribable, with a kind of fury or intention." Chapter 7 Page 31
This quote from the book shows the paranoia of the governess. She thinks that the ghosts are out to have sexual relationships with the children, which is a bit wierd. This can also show that the governess is an extreme case of sexual repression and that the ghosts are actually a representation of herself.
I really think Turn of the screw is a strange story. I don't quite like the governess as a character, because she seems so inconsistent most of the time. Almost like half of what she says happens is made up and didn't really happen. For example, she quotes Miss Jessel, saying that "She wants Flora" (pg. 99). I think the governess is really losing her sanity, because I really can't see any reason why she would be inconsistently recalling the encounter and then claiming the spirit she encountered said something that she didn't mention when describing the event.
I've found that The Turn of The Screw has actually been a lot more complicated to understand then I thought it would be. You have to pay really close attention to what exactly is going on, and you can't read it very fast. The plot is still kind of hidden to me, and hopefully will become more clear
The quote " I just want to help me to save you!" (Pg. 64 XVII)
This quote is a prime example of what the governess is trying to do with the children. She believes that both Flora and Miles are filled with evil and all she wants is to cleanse them of their evil.
I've found The turn of the Screw to be a very confusing book. The themes that I found in the book are not the ones we have talked about in class. In class we talk about sexual repression and other sexual things..i dont really know because i have missed a few days. This book reminds me of the movie Fight Club in a weird indirect way. The only quote i found to have a somewhat sexual hint was:
"What it was most impossible to get rid of was the cruel idea that, whatever I had seen, Miles and Flora saw more - things terrible and unguessable and that sprang from dreadful passages of intercourse in the past"(52).
Then again I really do have no idea.
The turn of the screw is a struggle for me to stay interested while reading it. I think the language is the biggest barrier and the way the action doesn't flow well through the book.
"She [Miss Jessel] was there and I was justified; she was there, and I was neither cruel nor mad." pg 70
I think the governess is coming to terms with herself and doubting what she has been seeing all along. She has been brought to believe the ghosts were merely tricks her mind was playing on her but she is trying to reason that they were not tricks and find out what is truth and what is imaginary.
I thoroughly enjoy "The Turn of the Screw" and all of its detailed and insightful lines. One such that I found to be very pertinent to the the meaning of the book as a whole is when the governess is describing Miles' suspension from school. "My conclusion bloomed there with the real rose flush of his innocence; he was only too fine and fair for the little horrid, unclean school world, and he had paid a price for it" (18-19). The governess despises the "unclean" and corruptive school world and is quoted often throughout the book trying to protect, so to speak, the children. She fears the dirty minded institutions of the world, namely sex, and this is the first instance in the book where we see her speak out and lash against the corruption of a youth.
My quote is from the beggining of the last paragraph of IX (Page 40). "I had plenty of anguish after that extraordinary moment, but I had, thank God, no terror. And he knew I had not-I found myself at the end of an instant magnificently aware of this."
This is after the governess has jsut seen the ghost Peter Quint and she realises that she is not afraif of him. I found this really odd and to me it mnade the governess seem even more weird becuase i don't understand who would not be scared in that situation; your in a big house, and you keep seeing ghosts everywhere. How is that not scary? I think she also thinks that she can "protect" the children better from the ghosts if she is not scared of them.
This book seems to become more ambiguous and vague as time goes on. Yet there are a few facts that are not only obvious through the text, but are bluntly stated by the governess herself.
"I walked in a world of their invention-- they had no occasion whatever to draw upon mine" (28).
This shows that she obviously cares so much for the children that she has lost her own sense of reality and is now living in a world created by the children. The governess may not have meant this quote literally, but it is proven to be quite literal throughout the text with long paragraphs where she gushes about the kids and their extraordinary innocence and intelligence. However, in reality their innocence is in question.
I thought that Turn of the Screw was hard to get into for the first couple nights of assigned reading but I am enjoying the story more and more with every chapter. The one problem I have with the book is the fact that the author adds in so much detail to his sentences that its hard for to keep the main point straight and for me to figure out what details, if any, in the sentences can be ignored.
"Something in his tone and the expression of his face, as I got this from him, set my heart aching with such a pang as it had never yet known; so unutterably taxed to play, under the spell laid on him, a part if innocence and consistency." p.62
I think this is an extremely important quote because it shows that the Governess no longer believes that the children are innocent. While she has no proof that they have lost this innocence by communicating with the ghosts, she believes whole heartedly that they are trying to fool her now, and I am very interested in how this is going to affect her actions towards the children throughout the rest of the book.
I find this book to be confusing but very captivating. It's practically impossible to skim over the words and get the gist of the story, but it's also very hard to set the book down. I like the language and the tone that the author brings to this book. It makes it much more mysterious.
Quote: "There had a been a moment when I believed I recognized, faint and far, the cry of a child; there had been another when I found myself just consciously starting as at the passage, before my door, of alight footstep." (pg 8)
This quote supports the eventual ghost story that this book turns in to. It is subtle and yet this mood plays a huge part in the story later.
I have a bit of trouble with the reading like almost everyone else because of the odd way that the sentences are structured and also the way that the governess speaks by jumping around her point.
"I had made her a receptacle of lurid things, but there was an odd recognition of my superiority - my accomplishments and my function - in her patience under my pain. She offered her mind to my disclosures as, had I wished to mix a witch's broth and proposed it with assurance, she would have4 held out a large clean saucepan."-pg.44. This quote is important because it shows that the governess has controle over Mrs. Grose because she can tell her anything and she will take every word of it to be true.
I think that the book is a little weird, and almost creepy. See I get freaked out real easily, but pretty much anything. So when I'm reading about "supposed" ghosts I'm a little uneasy. So I am not taking very well to this book.
Though one thing I find interesting is at the 3rd paragraph in chapter 3, it says, "How can I retrace to-day the strange steps of my obsession?" I don't understand if she is talking about her obsession with Miles or with the ghosts. I'm leaning more towards she is talking about the ghosts because she is really crazy about and thinks that the ghosts are trying to steal the innocence of the kids. It deepens the story because not only is she admitting to the fact that she has an obsession but she is also show herself as a hypocrite.
I've come to rather dislike our "Heroine" the governess and her sidekick Mrs. Grosse. Mrs. Grosse just does whatever the governness tells her to and spends the entire book belittled. And then the governess herself, what a nut job. She's a fool, thinking that she can protect these children from otherworldly spectors. She even admits that she can't, saying "I don't do it, I don't protect and shield them."(34) I liken her to Holden Caulfield from Catcher in The Rye. They think that it has fallen onto their shoulders to protect the innocence of all the children around them. As if they need protecting. They can't be children all their lives, and shielding them will only cause them to malfunction when they try to survive out in the adult world, which is what happened to Billy Bibbit. They had overprotective mother figures who felt it was their duty from "God" to protect their charges from naughty things like sex and other vulgarities. The idiots are practically killing the ones that they are trying to save. Maybe I just try to hard to find the social critique in all these books...
The book is a little troublesome to read, especially with the commas, but it has been an enjoyable story.
"Why not break out at her on the spot and have it all over?-give it to her straight in her lovely little lighted face? "You see, you see, you know that you do and that you already quite suspect I believe it; therefor, why not frankly confess it to me, so that we may at least live with it together and learn perhaps, in the strangeness of our fate, where we are and what it means." (pg.41, X)
The governess wants to help the chidren very badly and wants to know exactly why these ghosts are appearing. She wants to save them by haveing them tell to seeing them and to proove that the governess is not just crazy seeing things.
The book is challenging to read but is pretty good. It seems like there are so many different things that could be going on. It will be interesting to see what is really happening.
"I had made her a receptacle of lurid things, but there was an odd recognition of my superiority - my accomplishments and my function - in her patience under my pain. She offered her mind to my disclosures as, had I wished to mix a witch's broth and proposed it with assurance, she would have4 held out a large clean saucepan."
This is when the Governess was thinking about how she now had almost complete control of how Mrs. Grose thought and could tell her anything and she'd believe it. This is important because it shows how the Governess starts to feel superior and feel that it is her responsibility to keep the children "safe" from the evil influences of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint.
The first time when I read this book it seems hard to follow when the governess speaks of many things in one paragraph, and that she doesn't go back to what she was speaking of. It would be much easier to read if other characters in this book has some says in what was happening and to what the governess was stating, whether she is stating a fact or that she was predicting everything up, to which we are not certain of, and this is what we are trying to decide when reading this book. We don't know yet if she is making everything up about the children or that it is true about Flora being ill was caused by seeing the ghost on the opposite edge of the lake. However, when I read the book at a much slower speed, I can justify to what I was reading.
A quote that I feel is important to the story is when the governess tells Ms. Gross that "I'll get it out of him. He'll meet me-he'll confess. If he confesses, he's saved"(77) And another quote about Miles trying to say everything to the governess when he promises her that, "I'll tell you everything," "I mean I'll tell you anything you like. You'll stay on with me, and we shall both be all right, and I will tell you-I will. But not now"(p82). I learned that Miles has been wanting to say something to the governess about something that I think is the importance of he trying to prove to her that he is bad, and that it may or may not relate to the ghost, whether it was the governess who was fool by the children foolish jokes or that they did see the ghost, but was scared to tell someone. But, why would it takes so long for Miles to say whatever he is intended to want to tell the governess, but instead to tell her that he will be telling her, but not just now. What is it? I am very curious to find out what it would be, and how it would relate to the entire story or not, but much importantly, how would that effect the death of the governess 20-something years later. Is her death portrays the death of the former governess? Also, whatever Miles is trying to say, would it relates to the Master coming to see them and the governess?
~~Sovannary (Mea) Pen
I found Turn of the Screw a captivating book once I got into it. Every night that I read it took me a page or two to get into it, and many times I would have to re-read parts that confused me. There were even times when I fell asleep. On the flip side there were other times when I could not put the book down because of the suspenseful nature. Parts of the book were hard to understand because of the intricate detail and underlying themes. Henry James composes this novel in an intriguing but unusual manner. I learned you must really have to pay attention to this book while you are reading because there are many subtle details and you are forced to make inferences about what is happening throughout the novel. I am still not sure about a few things :-/. Overall I can not decide if this would go on my “top read list.” This book seems to be one that you need to read 2-3 times so that you can pick up more and more each time you read it.
“I saw my response so strongly and so quickly…I was there to protect and defend…I was a screen-I was to stand before them. The more I saw the less they would. What saved me as I now see as that it turned into another matter all together. It didn’t last as suspense-it was superseded by horrible proofs. Proofs, I say, yes-from the moment I really took hold.” (VI pg 42-43)
This quote is from one of the first times the governess sees the ghosts and gains courage. She feels it is her job to protect the children no matter what length she must go to do it. This quote tells us her views for the next few chapters on protecting the children from these ghosts. It also foreshadows that later on in the novel she will come across something horrible (horrible proofs).
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