Psychoanalytical Criticism Of Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey provides a storyline about personal experiences he saw occur in a mental asylum. Ken Kesey worked as a staff member in an insane asylum in Oregon. When he wrote the book, he was providing personal memories about the patients and other workers into a story. The entire novel is about patients that are checked into a mental asylum, and their unwillingness to act against the nurse. Throughout the novel, there is a theme of “manipulation” implied. The theme that manipulation is only a powerful tool if the victim is weak enough to not resist it is revealed through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and the patients in the mental institution.

Within the Bly household as read in The Turn of the Screw, where the governess is the only person able to see ghosts, everything seems as it is falling apart. As the governess starts working at Bly, everything seems picture perfect, but is quite the opposite as the story progresses. As everything unfolds at Bly the governess seems to become progressively mentally incapacitated. As days pass by the governess believes she begins to see the ghosts on a daily basis, and she becomes so frustrated she accuses the children, Miles and Flora, of meeting with the ghosts. The children never admit to her accusations, which upsets the governess to sure a high degree that she even starts to blame the children of conspiring against her. All of the governess mental episodes is all just a lead up to prove that she is mentally insane.

“Social oppression is a concept that describes a relationship of dominance and subordination between categories of people in which one benefits from the systematic abuse, exploitation, and injustice directed toward the other.” This quote, stated by Ashley Crossman on Thoughtco, perfectly describes what oppression is especially from a feminist point of view. As Britannica stated, Feminism is “the belief in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes.” In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many relationships. However, none of them are based on love and in most of the relationship, the women are also being oppressed. They are either oppressed physically, socially, psychologically, or politically, in some way or another.

The conventional social and religious values the grandmother feels she is ethically superior to others by virtue and can pass judgment on others. The Grandmother is exposed during the story when she lies to her family about a mansion with a secret panel to get her son to drive there and hides the mistake that the house was in Georgia. In the story when the misfit states “She would of been a good woman ... if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”, implies that she talked about everything and anything a lot with little or no knowledge on the subject. Also, she felt her judgment was always right if she had someone that would have keep her from talking continuously. The functions of the other family members are, her only son Bailey who she pushes around to get her way, bailey’s wife a young and quite person and the two unruly children John Wesley and June Star.

They Cage the Animals at Night by Jennings Burch is a picaresque journey to the heart or even the very soul of humans, and it can be compared to a madman trying to procure peace and tranquility. At every pit stop he makes, his wisdom increases and is affected by others, positively or negatively. Jennings Michael Burch, the young, feeble, and reticent protagonist, is on a crusade to find the true meaning of love, peace, and tranquility which started with him being dissevered from his family and taken from home to home and from institution to institution. Several times he questions himself if it truly is imperative for him to love and if it is worth the loss. Unlike Andy of Tears of a Tiger, Jennings has the courage and selflessness to withstand

Katherine Mansfield wrote about an aged woman, Miss Brill who is isolated from the real world. Miss Brill attempts to build a fantasy life to protect herself from the harsh facts of her existence. The short story “Miss Brill” is very descriptive and has decent examples of imagery to help readers better understand and see what is happening. Robert Peltier mentioned that “Miss Brill” has a rise and fall in each paragraph, so in his overview of “Miss Brill”, he also “chose the rise and fall of every paragraph to fit her, and fit her on that day at that moment” (Peltier), to help readers picture what is happening. The character Miss Brill does not look past what is present, which causes her to be narrow minded and not understand why things happen

In Charlotte Gilman's short story The Yellow Wallpaper, the speaker seems to be suffering from postpartum depression or "temporary nervous depression." (648). Accordingly, her husband makes the decision for her and takes her to a country house because he believes that it would be good for her. The narrator is not allowed to take care of her own child as she was imprisoned in her room where she should do nothing but "rest." In her childhood, the unnamed narrator has had a wild imagination which still haunts her: she admits "I do not sleep," and as a result she becomes restless.(653). Her imagination makes her live in an imagined world of her own and completely detached from reality. The

In Sedgwick’s A New-England Tale, Mrs. Wilson is the classic representation of a novel’s antagonist, especially in regards to how she treats protagonist, Jane Elton. However, it is the parenting, or lack thereof that has the greatest impact on the lives of Elvira and David Wilson, who despite being prohibited from engaging in sinful behavior, do just that. Sedgwick demonstrates that Mrs. Wilson’s salvation may have given her an authority over others, but when she failed to teach her children the ways of the Lord, her responsibility abandonment led to her children’s act of sin.

Jane Eyre, published in 1847, by focusing on its protagonist’s, Jane’s personality, dependency and self governance. The aim of this study is to look into Jane’s development and analyze her identity with the help of a theoretical framework drawn from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology, and within the context of the Victorian era. The novel focuses on Jane’s experiences and psychological growth from youth to adulthood.

The essay Confluences by Jennifer Sinor was my choice for this reading reflection. First published in the American Scholar in 2008, seemed like a good choice for this assignment since it is a popular essay and attracts the attention of a variety of readers. Being a personal narrative, I was eager to learn about the author’s experiences and share a part of her life. The title seemed intriguing, since I had to search for the meaning of the term ‘confluences’ even before reading the essay. The title revealed nothing about the essay and created a sense of mystery that readers might want to uncover through reading the essay. This was an interesting read and it provided a new perspective into personal narrative

In the book “The Turn of the Screw” the Governess’s interpretation of the unusual events might be based on her fantasy and twisted thought.

To briefly state, the storyline begins with a seemingly innocent start with a mother attempts into persuading her son to visit her beloved state of Tennessee instead of the trip to Florida. Yet furthering into the story the reader begins to notice how the grandmother carries herself and abides by the way she believes a good woman should dress and act. Thus furthering on into the plot the reader becomes aware of an underlying sense of foreshadowing when the grandmother leads the family to the wrong plantation and ultimately they end up confronting the misfit himself. The reader is able to feel this foreshadowing by the grandmother belief in being a lady to be moral, the actions of the grandmother to keep her safe from the misfit, and the way

The way that Henry James opposes several binaries in his work The Turn Of The Screw is intriguing and riveting. James’ novel opposes several binaries throughout the story. These binaries are used to serve as a form of normalcy in most books, but in this novel it is used to confuse the reader and also lay a solid foundation of the setting in this book. There are several

In the novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the story revolves around the unchanging ambiguity that constantly questions the reader of the book, do the ghosts exist or is it just a figment of the governess’ imagination. Although obscure at first, to a certain audience, James is able to prove the existence of the occult by creating situations and actions that are considered absurd when questioned, so that the only possible reasoning has to be something impossible that in some way, shape, or form, the supernatural is involved.

In The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, the governess’ sanity is constantly being questioned. James initially displays the governess as a lovely agreeable woman, then adds aspects to her character that may be seen as insane. However, as a whole, the governess’ actions and character traits confirm her sanity. The governess is sane because she tries to protect the children and makes rational decisions. Furthermore, she is not the only one that senses the ghosts.