<= F rprne | Victoria Home { wns Qe ye ec Ms. Smit \or x w ayy” “ee vee The Storyteller Cannot Always Be Trusted; Y 12 AP Lit & Comp. Novembef 3, 2014 Reading The Turn of the Screw Through a Psychoanalytic Ltns Unreliable narrators are often due to something psychological. ‘The narrator will find their own thing to believe, based upon their own desires or fears and will forget what true reality is. The reliability of the narrator in The Turn of the Screw cannot be strictly determined because the deseriptions are always so vague (The author of The Turn ofthe Serew had many times in his life where he was led by sexual desires and can connect with the instances in which the narrator can be seen as insane and affected by inner oN Wx $pastito ‘The narrator is controlled by the desire to impress her master and save the children. She even goes so far to believe that she sees ghosts and eventually goes insane from this obsession. ud ins er Moré nor less than the particular fact that for a period of several months Quint and the boy had been perpetually together. It was, indeed, the very appropriate item of evidence of her having ventured to criticize the propriety..."(James 65). The narrator takes from this one fact that Quint had been leading Miles to do bad things. However, she only jumps to this, conclusion in order for her to have a reason to continue pursuing the ghosts so she can come out as ahero, which she believes will impress her master. Impressing her master is so important to her that she won’t take any other conclusion than the ghosts. With this, the ghosts are the Id in we the story. They cause the narrator to make bad decisions based upon her inner sexual desires, whether they are actually there or not. The ghosts also had their own sexual affairs when they: Mow peo woh an” © Ciacci : ew that i show me how good he is. He knows doy ee oF hor” ..*... ‘I don’t change-I simply make it out’”(88). Once again, the 5) ty conclusions in order for her to convince herself that the ghosts are the 7 2? ye le in this situation! Wehotibh not the perfect people, Miles and Flora uw rego. Both of them never believe that there are ghosts, because they never see wr. ¥ pe the crazy ones because they don’t see the ghosts, but she is the truly crazy one. aye a She's the one Who thinks the ghosts are there, leading her to go insane and ultimately be an mene AWN, pot po were still living. “He[Miles ‘ground what he “might narrator jumps to them. They arejalso the only ones kept sane, mostly because of this. The narrator believes that the children, -V*"isn’t it just proof of her blest innocence?” my friend[Mrs. Grose] bravely jught me, for the instant, almost round....’For the woman’s a horror of horrors””(58}Mrrs. Grose represents the Ego in the novel. There are parts when she believes the narrator, but other times when she questions the narrator's claims. She consciously knows that the ghosts are not real, but she is also just looking for something for her to believe and to excite her life, Also ite Part BAAA, he narator is once agai, jumping ta. conelosion in order to make herself believe there are ghosts that she needs to get rid of. Again, this is all caused by her desire to i ipress her master by being the hero. However, that fact is rarely brought up in the novel, showing that the narrator is so consumed with solving the ghost mystery that she completely forgets why she wanted to solve it in the first place. “Oh he’s with Quint. They'Il be in the schoolroo1 . My view, I was myself aware-and therefore I suppose my tone-had never yet reached so calm an assurance”(122). The narrator is so casual about the ghosts now that itis frightening. Even she realizes how calm she is, and does not think it too out of the ordinary. These two factors show how insane the narrator is because of her obsession with the ghosts. An obsession that now, seems to have no reason whatsoever. Qe ty we Swa wee ge, genie oo eran de wel an Oe on, The author, Henry James, had many sexual desires in his life and that is probably why he ‘writes about his characters having sexual desires. “It overwhelmed me now that I should tendemess of my pity embraced him”(117). Alll of the narrator's actions are led by sexual wre a jaye Serene nee be able to bear that, and it made me let myself go. I threw myself upon him and in the desires from solving the mystery of the ghosts to talking with the children, This is also an addition to the narrator's insanity because she is not able to see any other reason to solve the mystery of the ghosts. The author also had many sexual desires in his life, which is probably ‘where the root for the idea of the narrator being led by sexual desires came from. The author could probably most easily write about a narrator with sexual motives because that’s what he had inhis life. The motives of the author help the reader better connect to the motives of the narrator. ‘Through a psychoanalytic lens, it can be seen that the narrator in The Turn of the Screw is led by inner sexual desires and can be unreliable. ‘The author himself had troubles with sexual desires in his own life. The narrator initially is led by the sexual desire to impress her master which leads her to being obsessed with the ghosts. However, she eventually forgets this desire and is led by other sexual desires through the children and wants to save them from the ghosts. In this novel, the ghosts represent the Id, the children represent the Superego, and Mrs. Grose represents the Ego. The narrator's and author’s desires can lead the reader to believing the motives in this novel are sexual ones. ae _ xy! Oy Ca le we: HP Set