In Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the reader is pulled in two directions as he or she decides for himself or herself if the ghosts are projections of the governess’ unconscious or if they are truly haunting both Miles and Flora. These two differing viewpoints are a direct result of James’ use of ambiguity of the text, which contribute to the overall eerie and uncanny feeling produced. The development of the uncanny and use of ambiguity within the text opens up a new perspective of the text that offers a new deeper meaning on the text itself as well as the characters within the text.
Through the development of the uncanny, James’ story changes from a scary story passed down through generations about a governess and two children to a story …show more content…
In other words, the real, imaginary, and symbolic orders ideally all work simultaneously without overlapping and one is able to have an answer to everything. It is only when language and one’s identity overlap that the imaginary can be perceived as unfamiliar. One begins reading The Turn of the Screw already having a preconceived notion about the existence of ghosts and the supernatural. The symbolic, real, and imaginary orders are all coexisting and working simultaneously without any problems. However, the ambiguity of the text presented forces the reader to reevaluate their ideas in order to understand the text. The line between the real, one’s identity, and symbolic, the text, becomes blurred. A feeling of uncanniness is produced. The question becomes has the governess gone mad and the ghosts are merely delusions or do the ghosts truly exist and the governess is the only thing standing between the ghosts from taking over the children? James never gives an answer to this as seen in the last portion of the story, when the governess finally confronts Miles …show more content…
Felman believes James has set the story up in such a way that “while it points to the possibility of two alternative types of reading, it sets out, in capturing both types of readers, to eliminate the very demarcation it proposes” (185). In other words, the reader can interpret the text in one of two ways, either the governess has gone mad and the ghosts are figments of her imagination, or the ghosts are truly out to get the children and the governess can be considered the heroine for trying to preserve the innocence of the children. Since the two sides are so vastly different, it is easy for the reader to get caught up trying to satisfy the need to have an answer and fall into a trap. Some readers are able to see through this trap and use textual evidence to sway one way or another, but because of the fact that the story has such an ambiguous ending the reader is often left filled with doubt. This doubt creates a feeling of not
Through the development of the uncanny, James’ story changes from a scary story passed down through generations about a governess and two children to a story …show more content…
In other words, the real, imaginary, and symbolic orders ideally all work simultaneously without overlapping and one is able to have an answer to everything. It is only when language and one’s identity overlap that the imaginary can be perceived as unfamiliar. One begins reading The Turn of the Screw already having a preconceived notion about the existence of ghosts and the supernatural. The symbolic, real, and imaginary orders are all coexisting and working simultaneously without any problems. However, the ambiguity of the text presented forces the reader to reevaluate their ideas in order to understand the text. The line between the real, one’s identity, and symbolic, the text, becomes blurred. A feeling of uncanniness is produced. The question becomes has the governess gone mad and the ghosts are merely delusions or do the ghosts truly exist and the governess is the only thing standing between the ghosts from taking over the children? James never gives an answer to this as seen in the last portion of the story, when the governess finally confronts Miles …show more content…
Felman believes James has set the story up in such a way that “while it points to the possibility of two alternative types of reading, it sets out, in capturing both types of readers, to eliminate the very demarcation it proposes” (185). In other words, the reader can interpret the text in one of two ways, either the governess has gone mad and the ghosts are figments of her imagination, or the ghosts are truly out to get the children and the governess can be considered the heroine for trying to preserve the innocence of the children. Since the two sides are so vastly different, it is easy for the reader to get caught up trying to satisfy the need to have an answer and fall into a trap. Some readers are able to see through this trap and use textual evidence to sway one way or another, but because of the fact that the story has such an ambiguous ending the reader is often left filled with doubt. This doubt creates a feeling of not