Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T12:16:44.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Turn of the Screw: innocent performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Philip Rupprecht
Affiliation:
Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Get access

Summary

Thank you for your suggestions of titles. I do not feel we have arrived yet,

although something to do with Bly is hopeful I think. I am not worrying about

it until forced to, but I must confess that I have a sneaking horrid feeling that

the original H. J. title describes the musical plan of the work exactly!!

Britten, 30 March 1954, letter to Myfanwy Piper

Lost in my labyrinth, I see no truth. Oh innocence, you have corrupted me,

which way shall I turn?

The Governess, Act 2, Scene

The title of Henry James's novella presents an intriguing image even before a reader opens the book. What can the figure of a turning screw stand for? How is the phrase to be read? That the words do hold some sort of importance for the story about to begin is intimated early in the unnumbered opening chapter, a framing prologue in which James's narrator reports the conversation following an evening of ghost tales, quoting one of those present, Douglas, directly:

“I quite agree – in regard to Griffin's ghost, or whatever it was – that its

appearing first to the little boy, at so tender an age, adds a particular touch.

But it's not the first occurrence of its charming kind…. If the child gives the

effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children –?”

“We say of course,” somebody exclaimed, “that two children give two turns!”

Douglas's reference to “another turn of the screw” can hardly fail to strike a reader as a reiteration of James's title, and yet the phrase itself is playfully vague in its connotations, scarcely more precise in its reference than the title itself. Only the context of Douglas's remark – the discussion of the merits of the tale of “Griffin's ghost” (a story not shared with the reader) – confirms that the turning-screw image refers to some quality of the story's telling, and that this narrative “effect” relates somehow to the presence of children.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×