To Madness in Pursuit of Love. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is generally read as a ghost story in which the central character, the governess, attempts to save the souls of two children possessed by evil. However, the short story can also be analyzed from many different angles, as we encounter a number of clues that lead to various understandings of certain scenes. One possible interpretation is the psychoanalytic interpretation, in which the events are interpreted either from the point of view of the governess or from the point of view of the two children. I will focus on the problem of the governess who, limited by her own problems and moral dilemmas, projects her fears onto her students and thus harms the children. What causes his moral corruption and progressive exasperation lies deep in his psyche. Victorian upbringing and the social isolation of a poor village tell him to restrain his sexual desires evoked by reading romances. The result is tragic. The governess goes crazy and the children psychologically destabilized and frightened by the adults. The story ends with the governess strangling the boy in a hysterical fit. The Turn of the Screw is a very popular literary work, with a long history of critical interpretations where there is not much to add, which is why my essay is primarily based on The Turn of the Screw. A History of His Critical Interpretations 1898 – 1979 by Edward J. Parkinson. In Victorian society, love, sex and desire were indescribable subjects, especially for a young, single woman caring for two young children. The governess herself cannot imagine thinking about or talking about her sexual needs. Her desire for love is so strong that she immediately falls in love with the man she barely... middle of paper... with a man. Although the story is primarily a ghost story, it is also a commentary on Victorian society, its cruelty, its "destructive pressures" and its "restrictive code of conduct", which led to many tragedies. The ghost motif is undoubtedly the predominant motif and can be understood realistically as well as symbolically. As symbols, ghosts represent withheld love and the corrupted psyche of the woman who goes crazy and cannot control her sexual desires. The ghosts themselves are no more frightening than the state of mind of the woman who, in pursuit of love, goes mad. Works Cited James, Henry. The turn of the screw. London: Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.Parkinson, Edward J. The Turn of the Screw A History of its Critical Interpretations 1898 – 1979. April 6, 2006 The Norton American Anthology. New York: WW Norton and company, 1995.