Tale Of The Screw Persuasive Essay

Roland Barthes once said, “literature is the question minus the answer.” Over the years many have analyzed his observation and contemplated its validity. It has been found that in fact, many works over the years that Barthes’s statement holds true. One such novel is “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James. This book is known for its ambiguity and has ignited countless debates over the years over the recurring theme that has everyone questioning their own rationale; reality is dependent on perception.

The most uncertain aspect of the book is the storyline itself. There is discussion amongst critics and readers alike about James’s intended meaning behind his famous story. Some believe that, as stated in the beginning of the novel, the story is one told “for dreadful-dreadfulness!” as a tale of ghosts and ghouls battling a young governess for the souls of her two young charges. In the beginning, the governess’s job seems relatively routine, to care for the children at an estate named Bly. However only days into her new position, the governess spots a man on the tower during her daily stroll, little did she know that the man was no man at all, but the apparition of Peter Quint, a young former employee at Bly who had passed: “Yes. Mr. Quint’s dead.” After learning this fact, the governess undertook the harrowing task of protecting the children from the malevolent “man” she now feared. If one apparition wasn’t bad enough, not long after her encounter …show more content…
When a story is ambiguous, it creates an issue as to whether or not the information being given to us is provided by a reliable source. It can not be decided for sure if the governess is a hero fighting for the integrity of her charges or a mentally disturbed woman prone to anxiety and fantasies. The reader is simply left with many questions and the knowledge that they will never truly know the answer to