Henry James: The Turn of the Screw

"Welcome to where time stands still
No one leaves and no one will
Moon is full, never seems to change
Just labeled mentally deranged"
/Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)/

Now, that James Hetfield has done the greetings for me, let me begin this week's dose of antidote for sanity with a foretaste of what's to come. As the fact that I opened the treatment with a few lines of lyric suggests, I will bring some music therapy for you. May all our senses contribute to our brain's derailment from its rational route.

After this little sneak peek, we can get down to work. This time, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is on the menu. What kind of a dish is that, you ask? Twisting.. creaking.. ghostly.. gloomy... and spooky.. Mouth-watering, isn't it?

The title itself is quite significant. It is mentioned only a few times in the whole novel, and those instances create a frame. Namely, when the phrase first appears in one of the dialogs, the screw is only about to commence its way into the woodwork of the story, whereas near the end, it is already tightened to its place. In between this frame and throughout the narrative, several turns lead towards the tragedy of the last chapter. The most important of them is, perhaps, uttered in the following sentence: "What a dreadful turn, to be sure, miss! Where on earth do you see anything?" The reason why this particular change of course might carry special importance is that this is the first occasion, when the reader has doubts about the credibility and sanity of the governess, the protagonist (whose name, most peculiarly, is hidden throughout the whole book).

However, Mrs. Grose, the main character's friend continues to believe her. She might do so because she trusts adults more than children - what a petty mistake this can become -, or because she's under the spell of the governess's manipulation. It is surprising how skillfully the protagonist uses the wits that have left for her. Not only does she color her fancies and the materializations of her imagination to a great extent, but she doesn't even realize how many times she's lying. In addition, she learns to get hold of people and have them do what she wants with her gift of the gab. It's as if by letting herself go, which she often refers to as something she must do -, she can get to others. Losing control over herself gives her control over other people. In fact, so much control that she can't even handle it, and she ends up using it in the most dreadful way.

Nonetheless, the question of why the governess is seemingly going mad is still unanswered. And, most importantly, why are ghost the subject of her hallucination? The best answer I can think of is that she was so terrified by the letter telling about the little boy's dismissal from school that her unhinged mind could bear it only by putting the blame on the dead; for instance, on late Mr. Quint and Miss Jessel.

That's all for now, dear patient. One last piece of advice: keep your screwdriver at hand. You can never know when you have to unscrew a screw so that it wouldn't fasten your brain to the wicked, screwy corner of your skull.