Baseline Essay: Preface

Something Screwy in Jamess Novella: Sexual Hysteria in The Turn of the Screw

This essay was written in English 201, taught by Dr. Eaton in the winter of 2012 my
second term at North Central. This course was my introduction to literary theory, and it was a
bumpy ten weeks. I struggled to use a particular lens to interpret a text. As a freshman, I much
preferred leisure reading to analytical reading. I see now that critical theory is used to reveal
what literature can mean, not what literature must mean. As I struggled with the theory readings
for English 201, I wondered if I should keep my English major or change to something that came
easier to me. It was difficult to transition from recreational reading to analytical reading. This
essay reflects my struggle with that transition because I rely on quotes from other scholarship to
support my thesis rather than using my own points to strengthen my argument.
For this particular assignment, I was required to analyze a text from the course. I chose
The Turn of the Screw, and decided to examine a topic of debate in the course: Is the governess
insane? Are the ghosts real or does the governess imagine them? If she imagines the, ghosts,
what is the source of the governess insanity? I distinctly remember writing the essay in one
night, which is never a good sign. I suppose I felt confident in my ability to research and quote
my way through my argument, which is exactly what I did. I did not use my own original logic,
and I hardly paused to explain the quotes I used. The argument itself that the governess is
experiencing sexual repression is not an original one. It was an interpretation presented to me
in class, and I remember Dr. Eaton discussing Judith Butler and feminist theory. The comments

on the graded essay are funny. Although my grammar was relatively correct, I cited the
secondary sources more than I cited the primary text. The analysis is there, but it is shallow. In
addition, Dr. Eaton commented (as she still occasionally does) that my paragraphs are too long.

Something Screwy in Jamess Novella: Sexual Hysteria in The Turn of the Screw
For readers and critics alike, Henry Jamess novella The Turn of the Screw presents a
literary challenge unlike any other. While the ambiguity of the text is increasingly twisted to
meet various interpretations, the subject of the nameless governess and her sanity are
undoubtedly the main component of each analysis. In conjunction with the critical feminist
approaches of Susan Bordo and Judith Butler, Jamess novella is transformed from a simple
ghost story to a complex and dramatic account of one young womans struggle to acquire power
and come to terms with her natural desires. In The Turn of the Screw, the unnamed governess
enters into hysteria due to an unhealthy sexual repression induced by the cultural hypocrisy of
the Victorian period.
In order to properly conclude that the governess is experiencing sexual repression from
the oppressive Victorian society in which she lives, the social and cultural expectations of the
female gender in the nineteenth century must be described in detail. According to Bordos
Unbearable Weight, a womens body can be interpreted as a cultural statement, a statement
about gender. The nineteenth-century woman was idealized in terms of delicacy and
dreaminess, sexual passivity, and capricious emotionality (Bordo 2243). In the Victorian era
social order, the vast majority of men in the nineteenth-century deemed female demonstrations of
sexual passion, lust, and aggression as morbid deviations from the normal female personality
(Showalter 169). As one nineteenth-century doctor claimed, A women is the victim of
periodicity; her life is one of perpetual change and these changes are still again subdivided
(Showalter 169). Assertions like these led many to believe that, because of a womans complex
biological processes, which were not fully understood in this time period, the female gender is
prone to emotional and physical instability, and unescapably inferior to the male gender.

According to the medical authorities of the Victorian period, mental illness was linked with the
blood. Therefore, because of the female bodys monthly menstruation, women were assumed to
be especially susceptible to mental illnesses that were generally associated with the blood
(Showalter 170). Given this theory, doctors concluded that either too large a quantity or too
small a quantity of blood lost during menstruation would interfere with the normal function of
the brain, leading to malfunctions and irrational thinking. For this reason, a womans body was
repeatedly subjected to misjudgment and oppressed by the male authorities of the nineteenth
century.
Frequently, the so-called unconventional sexual behavior that was so discouraged
among Victorian women (which was thought to include premarital intercourse, orgasms,
seduction, and erotic fantasies) was clinically diagnosed and treated by medical doctors
(Showalter 173). Typically, these symptoms were treated as a serious disease, which
ultimately stopped women from expressing their erotic desires and led to a further repression of
the female sexual appetite. These sexual restraints of the female role, found almost exclusively
in the middle class, created a powerful maddening force (Showalter 174). In effect, the male
authorities of the Victorian period established socio-sexual control over women by conditioning
them to believe that blatant, sexually provocative actions or thoughts were indecent and improper
for a lady to express.
According to Butler, cultural values result from the forces and impulses which history
either destroys or preserves by inscription on the body itself. By this theory, the human body,
specifically the female body, is constantly subjected to devastation and reconstruction by
historical context. Indeed, Butler asserts that history is the creation of values and meanings by a
signifying practice that requires the subjection of the body (Butler 2543). In the case of female

roles in the Victorian period, women were encouraged to perform the female gender by
adopting the qualities that society decided were socially acceptable: sexual passiveness and
emotional impulsiveness, for example. Remarkably, it was during this time period of female
sexual repression that the domestication of insanity among women became apparent (Showalter
159). The link between the two is obvious. Many women felt inhibited by the cultural standards
pressed upon them. Their insanity was a result of the repression of sexual desire and instincts
enforced by the hushed Victorian society and absence of female sexual rights. The patriarchal
system had inherited cultural taboos which limited the discussion of the sensual.
If the insanity expressed by nineteenth-century women is a reflection of the restricting
gender roles of women, the symbolic mental breakdowns of the governess that unfold in The
Turn of the Screw prove that the alleged ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are actually the
governesss hysterical response to her sexual repression. Thus, these figures are not the ghosts of
the dead Quint and Jessel, but the governesss projection of her sexual frustration. These
frustrations manifest themselves in the form of a stereotype deeply embedded in the mind of the
culture (Renner 176). Consequently, the subduing of the natural desires the governess has
leads to her hallucinations of supernatural beings.
In order to convince critics and readers of this theory, it is important to go back to the text
when the governess first witnesses what she thinks is a supernatural being. While strolling
through the garden, the governess imagines how delightful it would be if she were to suddenly
meet someone (James 19). In fact, she romanticizes what might be a charming encounter
with someone who would stand in front of her, smile and approve her. The idealistic little
imagined romance continues as the governess thinks to herself, I didnt ask more than that I
only asked that he should know and the only way to be sure he knew would be to see it, and the

kind of light of it, in his handsome face (James 19). Clearly, the young governess is lonesome
her daydreaming is a result of the isolated, unsocial life she is living at Bly. While she succeeds
in subduing the erotic component of her impulses, [it is clear] that the governess is indulging in
romantic fantasies of her dashing young gentleman employer (Renner 177). Indeed, the
narrator of the introduction, Douglas, admits to his audience that the young governess is
enraptured by her employer, claiming the seduction exercised by the splendid young man led
her to succumb to him (James 6). This image of the handsome young man is so clear and so
powerful in the young, single governesss head that she essentially convinces herself of his actual
presence, evident by her declaration: He did stand there! (James 19). She then begins an indepth description of the tower where who she thinks is her handsome suitor stands. The shocked
governess plainly expresses her admiration for the old, majestic towers, even admitting she had
fancies about them (James 19). If interpreted properly, this ambiguous phrase directly points to
the suppressed sexuality of the governess as she relates the tower to the mysterious handsome
gentleman of her fantasy.
Many critics view the governesss fascination with the towers at Bly as proof that she is a
sexually subdued Victorian woman who finds sexual symbolism in common objects. The tower
on which the object of her fantasy stands is what Freud would refer to as a phallic symbol.
Because of her inability to admit to herself her natural sexual impulses, the tower is a
representation of the erotic element of her fantasy (Beidler 48). However, to the governesss
horror, she realizes that the dashing gentleman is actually an unknown man (James 20). The
shocked governess then blames her mistake on a bewilderment of vision (James 20).
Conversely, it is not entirely impossible that the unknown man she claims to have seen was not
merely a mistake of her first impression, but an actual transformation of a person from a

gentleman to a horrible, pale-faced man (Renner 178). For how could a man so handsome, so
dream-like, and so welcomed by the governess be mistaken for a horrible intruder? Critics argue
that the governesss initial recognition of her fantasy gentleman is far too strong (He did stand
there!) to be simply a bewilderment of vision. Instead, the attractive male figure she first
imagines is transformed in her own mind into the frightening male figure she subsequently
projects (Renner 178). In this case, the reader becomes aware that the narrator is not entirely
trustworthy because of her misjudgment. Of course, it is only natural for the governess to
portray herself in the most flattering and convincing manner possible (Silver 207). This explains
why she does not admit to witnessing such a transformation, which would seem far-fetched in
comparison to the bewilderment if vision excuse. Despite this fact, it is evident that the
governess harbors an imminent fear of sexuality, especially male sexuality, which she does not
understand (Renner 178). This fear, as mentioned previously, is attributed to the sexually
oppressive patriarchal culture of the Victorian period.
By now, most readers would begin to question how it is possible that the housekeeper and
the governesss only companion, Mrs. Grose, identifies the man that the governess sees as Peter
Quint, the dead valet.

According to research conducted in Europe in the nineteenth century, the

population was intrigued by the theory that there exists in human nature a determinative
relationship between physiognomic features and character (Renner 181). In fact, Johann Caspar
Lavater, an eighteenth-century minister, wrote and published Physiognomische Fragmente, a
four-volume text documenting the correlation of human physical features and character. These
volumes would have been accessible to and read by most nineteenth-century men of letters
(Renner 182). A widespread belief in the nineteenth century, this theory maintained the pseudoscientific fallacy that certain physical features carried certain implications about a persons moral

character (Renner 182). The Turn of the Screw was originally published in 1898, meaning Henry
James would have been well-aware of this theory and perhaps impacted by it. The stereotypical
male villain was defined by neat and symmetrical features attractive to many women and
he may dress and adorn himself in what was commonly condemned as bad taste (Renner 183).
Returning to the governesss description of the supposed ghost, the similarities are
unmistakable:
He has red hair, very red, close-curling, and a pale face, long in shape, with straight, good
features and little, rather queer whiskers that are red as his hair. His eyebrows are
somehow, darker; they look particularly arched and as if they might move a good deal
(James 29-30).
The remarkable similarities indicate that the hallucination of the sexually repressed
governess emulate a cultural stereotype of the time period. Obviously, the straight, good
features and the strange clothes of the hallucination matched the villainous image the governess
projects in her dreadful sexual hysterics. According to critics, the most revealing characteristic
of all if the red hair, which is said to depict a person wholly good or wholly evil (Renner 183).
Furthermore, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was common knowledge that the
devil would manifest himself in a male with red hair (Renner 184). In addition, actors were
regarded by the Church as servants of Satan (Renner 184). In her description of the figure to
Mrs. Grose, the governess comments that he gave the sense of looking like an actor, to which
Mrs. Gorse exclaims An actor! (James 30). Considering the fact that the governess is the
daughter of a parson ( anxious girl out of a Hampshire vicarage), it should not come as a
surprise that the hallucinations of a sexually fearful and frustrated governess appear in the form
of a Satanic figure, the Tempter himself.

To further support the assertion that the governess has entered sexual hysteria, her second
encounter with the supposed ghost of Miss Jessel must be examined in detail. This scene
represents another mental breakdown of the governess as she attempts to come to terms with her
own sexual desire. While sitting by the lake watching Flora play, the governess conjures up
another figure across the lake that she later feels very strongly is her predecessor. However, after
hallucinating this vision, her attention is drawn to Flora who is preoccupied very markedly and
intently attempting to tighten a stick into a hole in a piece of wood (James 38). If the governess
truly has seen a ghost, would something as simple as a child playing with wood distract her from
such an appalling, unusual sight? The scrutiny the governess exercises when watching Flora
play is immeasurable proof that she is somehow sexually stimulated by the twisting motion the
child uses. In her hidden erotic desire, the governess projects a strong, sexually charged
component onto the innocent children under her care. She projects her own sexual horrors onto
Flora in this scene. In both instances, the appearances of the alleged ghosts happen in
conjunction with phallic symbols (Beidler 48). The male figure appears on a tower and the
female figure appears on a lake. The coincidence is too substantial to ignore.
The fact that no other character sees the figures of the governesss hallucinations except
the governess herself further supports the assertion that the governess conjures the images out of
her own mind. In addition, it is important to consider the background of Henry James, whose
sister Alice was stricken with a mental illness accompanied by delusions (Renner 178). That
James would have firsthand knowledge of hysteria would contribute significantly to his accurate
portrayal of the governesss psychological breakdowns. While not much is known about the
disease, sexual hysteria was a psychosexual disorder mainly afflicting women, particularly

women with fine qualities of mind and character, caused by profound conflict between the
repression of sexuality required by society and Victorian idealism (Renner 179).
While the young, troubled governess attempts to resolve the sexual conflict that rages
inside of her, the only way she can come to terms with her problem is through hallucinations and
projections of sexual horror onto the children at Bly. As described in Bordos Unbearable
Weight, women often attempt to resolve inner conflict by using a constricting condition as a
means of liberation. The governesss physical response and the way her mind works against her
to fight her sexual repression plays a crucial part in determining the symbolization and
manifestation of the female gender. Through sexual hysteria, the governess combats her natural
instinct by creating what she convinces herself is the supernatural. In the end, this method of
fighting her repression only heightens her ability to sense her desires.