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Liu meiyi English 202 Professor Gray 7/10/2012 Suspense and Mystery The turn of the screw written by Henry James is the most suspenseful story that I have never read. Before I totally read the whole story, for making the novel more interesting, I watched the movie version made by BBC in 2009. I will not make a film review, maybe I should read the story first before I saw the movie. But the film indeed help me a lot in understanding and analysis the novel better. I really like the opening of the story, a story has been told in front of people by Douglas, its a story in story. Douglass status is a mystery. We never know who is this man that 10 years old younger than the governess, deeply in love with her, know the whole story, full of feeling when telling the story. He might be the prince Miles if he didnt die at the end of the story. Or if not, he would just a boy met the governess after the scare story happened. But how can governess trust another boy after what happened in Bly with Miles and Flora. The governess is a complex person, have many characteristics at the same time. She might be more intelligent than you can think of. She seems like pure and nice. Had a crush on the host, made her mind to go to a strange place. The story described the scene when she meets all the people in the house in Bly. She felt everyone is so

nice to her. But in the movie, all the servants look at her in a strange even scared way. In the first chapter, the novel said I perceived within half an hour that she was so glad as to be positively on her guard against showing it too much. I wondered even then a little why she would wish not to show it, and that, with reflection, with suspicion, might of course have made me uneasy. That was how Mrs.Grose acts like. The whole family makes her a little uncomfortable and depressed, the atmosphere was very serious sometime. But actually, she was very proud of herself. She came from countryside and born in a poor family. She did not have a good education, working as a teacher in the house like that, makes her satisfied. She said I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm! This time, she looks like a hero or just in her imagination, she saw herself as the saver of two innocent children. She think thats her duty. This feeling makes her stronger than before to face the evil, but what if there is nothing? She might just have too much pressure on herself and force the children to face something may not even exist. There is a big mystery in the novel, ghosts are really exist or not. We can say the cry of a child and light footstep before her door were her imagination, as the same as the face on Mrs.Grace and childrens laugh. But how can she know what Miss Jessel and Quint looks like. In the movie, she can only described their faces and dresses, but in the novel, she can say their names aloud. How can you recognize someone before you never meet them and didnt know what they look like. Maybe she can

guess who the woman was, because she knew there was a former governess. But what she described of Quint is a coincidence or she really saw him. If was only her imagination, how to explain childrens strange acts. Flora will get up in midnight the same evening that the governess just met Miss Jessel. Why when the Flora got a fever and kept saying dirty words that people would never know in her age. Why Miles kept her accompany for a whole night and kept silence all the time. Why he would say Quints name at the end of the story. Because this novel is written in the governesss way. So you cannot really tell others characters. Mrs.Grace is a nice person but gullible and a little cowardliness. She believed what ever the governess said and acted more nervous than the governess. She was honest and loyal to the family until the governess came. She knew many things but because her cowardliness, she was afraid to believe in what she saw and knew. She didnt believe in herself but had faith in the family even she always has bad feeling about things would happen one day. Quint was a charming man, remarkably handsome. Definitely, he was not a gentle man. In the movie, he is more evil than in the novel. He violated all the servants and pushed one of them from the roof. In the novel, he did had a fair with Miss Jessel. And thats why Miss Jessel had to leave Bly for some reason and didnt finish her teaching. She was pregnant. That must be Qunits child. So Miss Jessels character seems simple in the story. She just fell in love with a bad guy and was abandoned because of pregnancy. She may hate the new governess, because she took her job

took the adorable angel Flora and Miles, maybe she would take Quint from her. Because Quint likes beauty. She had no idea about it. So every time Miss Jessel shows, you can felt the jealous and sadness. But she never do something but looking and sighing. The sibling in the story is beautiful but strange. They were the real actors in life. Sometime they were angels. They played piano together or played with dolls quietly beside the lake. There were many scenes in the movie that they were singing together and hold their teachers hand and show her around. But sometime t hey acted like they were hiding something from everyone. Miles stood on the ground in the midnight alone, which was really scared in the night with the cold moonlight. Flora rowed the boat alone to the other side of the lake and stay there for a while. You dont know what they were doing, they didnt look like normal kids at that time. Maybe they just played trick with you, or they met someone secretly. If there was no ghost in them, them might influence by these two people before they dead. I really like the ending in the movie. Quint absorbed and took Miles life. The governess held Miles body and cried hard. Like a month later, the new governess came to the house. All the servants gave warm welcome to this beautiful lady. Lady entered the house, she found that adorable Flora was playing the piano. And then she stopped and looks into the new governess face and said, You finally here. We all waiting for you for a long time. Do you know who means we here? Thats the suspense and mystery that leave behind for all of us.