Henry James: The Turn of the Screw

One of the most perfect ghost stories ever written, it has gathered lots of interpretations since it first appeared in 1898. Universally acclaimed as a masterpiece, its ambivalence and its mistery on what is the authentic reality it narrates, still perplex us today.

We don't even know, beyond the first impression, what kind of person is telling the tale. Who the narrator really is. She talks about scary riddles, insinuating (or plainly claiming) the presence of the supernatural. But nothing in this story has to be necessarily what it seems.

The story starts off as follows. A rather unexperienced 20-year old governess is called by a wealthy London gentleman. A job is offered to her. She has to take care of Miles and Flora, his nephew and niece, who stay in a splendid mansion in the countryside at Bly, with a housekeeper and a full bunch of servants. She will settle there and be in charge of the children's education. One condition for a nice job: she must not bother her employer with any problem relating to the children, which she should solve herself by her own means.  She will be paid accordingly of course, no worries. She accepts. At some point in her narration, the young governess will discreetly insinuate that she may fancy her employer. Even if this is not entirely clear to herself. Henry James as always, is a master of psychological subtlety.

Miles and Flora seem to be the nicest and best behaved-children you can think of. There is, however, in the governess's eyes, as days and weeks go by, something increasingly weird about the children, like a shadow of corruption. The insinuation of something fatally wrong, as if evil were thinly in the air. And it is unknown who or what is abducting this. As the governess carries on with her teaching duties, a slight but pure horror seems to materialize, or so she will claim in her narration. Two undesirable guests turn up in the house. Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. The first was an ancient servant at Bly, while the second is no other than the previous governess. Problem is they are supposed to be dead.

This disturbing description of the facts (some of them supernatural) is made by a woman whom we only know through her own words, and a short introduction by a secondary character in the prologue of the book. What kind of beings are those two, Quint and Jessel, apparently come from among the dead? And what kind of being is the governess herself from whom we learn it all? Where is evil here, or corruption, on what side of the mirror? Which shore of the lake?

Insanity, sexual repression, moral corruption, child abusing, truly supernatural events. Everything we might find in here. This is a superb tale written by a master of ambiguity. Ironically, Henry James was someone horrified by the possibility of misunderstanding in his everyday life, but he had this strong talent to recreate it in literature. And he himself had a few secrets. It is hard to know what is really going on in The Turn of the Screw, what is the game here, what the characters are like, or even which ones exist. But one thing is certain: this story is not only an aesthetic feast, it is also a psychoanalitic one. An achievement of complexity and concision.