The critical debates swirling around Henry James's Turn of the Screw are a product of the intentional ambiguities written into the text. The psychological thriller centers on a governess who, after accepting a job from a man with whom she has become infatuated, encounters what she believes to be apparitions of the house's former servants. Believing them to be in danger, she responds by assuming the role of hero to the children in her care, but her credibility is quickly called into question when it becomes apparent that no one else sees her visions and that her actions are, in fact, do. , putting children in a dangerous position. James's short story has been considered by some critics to be a ghost story that places the governess in the role of the evil villain; given his many acts of heroism in the story, I think this is a misreading of the short story. Narrative reflexivity blurs the story's line of credibility, leaving the reader wondering which narrators to trust, but throughout the story the governess's motivations remain clear. She maintains that she is protective of the children and that her heroic character negates the accusation that she is acting out of evil. Her actions call her sanity into question, but throughout the novel, the governess's attempts to protect the children disprove the theory that she is the novel's villain. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayIn his review of James's ghost story, “His Ghosts, His Other Selves, These Parts of Ourselves,” RP Blackmur claims that the governess is the true intentional villain of the story. He maintains that his ghosts are actually hallucinations and that his desire to turn them into reality simply stems from a "bad conscience" (Blackmur, 184). It is impossible to read Blackmur's essay without taking note of his choice of diction. He leads his readers to assume that the Governess is possessed when he says: "nothing must stop the energy in her, for this energy is creative" (185), and that she "is now moved by an energy which is adapted to this solitary energy. and without friends and in which one must not interfere” (185). Here he brings to life something within her that she has no control over, as if it were a separate entity that cannot be stopped, and his repeated use of the word "energy" serves to add a supernatural element to his message. argument. He successfully argues that she is ultimately responsible for the destruction of the children, and then refutes the popular Freudian critique of the short story, which is the main argument used by critics to show that the governess is mentally unstable. Blackmur's perspective on the short story, coupled with his repeated labeling of the governess as possessed and as a witch, are used to lead the reader to assume the governess's demonic possession. While I agree with Blackmur's observation that the ghosts are hallucinations, I refute her antiquated hypothesis that she is somehow possessed by an evil conscience. On the contrary, the governess's acts of heroism towards the children and the deceptive narrative framework of the short story prove that she is not a villain with a guilty conscience, but a mentally unbalanced woman who experiences hallucinations and carefully crafts her story to make it credible. The narrative reflexivity within the short story serves to add confusion and suspense to the text. The prologue places the reader in an aristocratic party atmosphere with friends competing to producethe best ghost story. It is through Douglas that the story of the governess is read and his introduction sets the tone for the rest of the short story. When setting up the story, Douglas told his guests, "No one but me, until now, has ever heard of it." It’s really too horrible” (TOS 1). This is the reader's introduction to the suspense to come, Douglas's introduction of the governess in the prologue is meant to give verisimilitude to her character, he describes her as "terribly intelligent" (TOS 2) and says that the only The reason she told him her story is because she liked him. These are tactics used by James to make the governess seem like a credible source early on in the story; the reader is expected to believe her and is put in a position to unravel her story through actions that show her willed heroism and her decline of reason. The governess's actions speak to her attempt at heroism and against Blackmur's theory of a "guilty conscience" throughout the novel. . This is evident in the way she talks about the children after her first interaction with an apparition: "They didn't have anything but me, and I – well, I had them." I was a screen, I had to stand in front of them. The more I saw, the less they would do it” (TOS 27). She displays exaltation when she plays the role of hero, which is not in keeping with the temperament of a witch who needs “the vicar to exorcise her, or even hang her” (Blackmur 185). By calling herself a "screen", she shows that she sees herself as someone who transparently offers shelter, that she wears a mask and is aware that she is not showing herself to children, that she reflects the mental instability that exists within it for them. The governess's intention is to protect the children, and although her actions call her mental state into question, James's continued descriptions of her naivety combined with her unwavering desire for heroism put to rest Blackmur's assertion that she acts through demonic possession. The governess's heroic nature and questionable credibility appear in the passage after her first meeting with Peter V. Even though she has just come out of a frightening experience, she applauds herself and seems to revel in the situation she imagines herself in when she says, "I hardly know how to put my story into words that are a credible image of my state of health. spirit; but I was at that time literally capable of finding joy in the extraordinary flight of heroism which the occasion demanded of me” (27). His use of the phrase "extraordinary flight" gives his heroism a superhero quality, making his actions unreal and unreliable. By acknowledging her need to put her story into words and her questionable state of mind, she shows that she is thinking and considering how best to make her story real. She is aware of her perceived mental instability and needs to craft her story in a way that will make it believable; it is this passage that forces the reader to question their credibility and sanity for the remainder of the short story. As the story progresses, more examples are given that force the reader to question the governess's state of mind. Upon arriving at Bly, she compares the house to a ship when she says: Wasn't it just a storybook that I fell asleep and dreamed about? No; it was a large old house, ugly but serviceable, embodying some features of an even older building, half moved and half used, in which I felt we were almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a large ship adrift. . Well, strangely enough, I was at the, 1983