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Ashlyn Thurston

Prof. Teresa Traver

English 340-01

26 February 2019

Contemporary Criticism for Henry James’ ​The Turn of the Screw

Henry James’ 1898 horror novella ​The Turn of the Screw​ is a story about a governess that

cares for two children in a secluded estate which she believes is haunted by ghosts. Though its

premise is relatively simple, ​The Turn of the Screw​ is anything but. In fact, James’ novella is still

widely discussed and debated among literary critics today for its ambiguous ending and readers’

broad array of differing interpretations. In Peter G. Beidler’s edited version of James’ novella,

Beidler includes a few case studies in contemporary criticism by esteemed critics that analyze the

text using their own literary criticism lenses in support of their interpretations and arguments.

Out of the four essays included in Beidler’s edition, Wayne C. Booth’s critical essay “‘He began

to read to our hushed little circle’: Are We Blessed or Cursed by Our Life with ​The Turn of the

Screw​?” best explains the work because of its focus on the reader-response theory in his analysis

of the novella. By directing attention at the reader’s experience of a text rather than the author or

the content and comparing that to other interpretations aids in a better, balanced understanding of

the work as a whole.

Not many readers seem to agree on what happened in the story or what it means when it

comes to ​The Turn of the Screw​. Because of the abrupt ending and ambiguity of other events in

the story, James indirectly forces the readers to engage with the story and its content to figure out

the mystery for themselves. As Booth explains in his essay, reader-response criticism focuses on

“the discussion of what stories do to the ethos of those who respond to them with full attention”
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(Booth 289). In rhetoric, ethos refers to character, but more specifically, ethos concentrates on

the ethics and credibility of that given person (their ​character​) in regards to the argument they

are trying to get across to their audience. In other words, reader-response criticism asks readers,

“How does [the text] ask me to respond, and will that kind of response be good or bad for me?”

(Booth 289). This question highlights the idea that readers are influenced by the stories they read

which in turn has led people to believe that potentially harmful ones should be censored from the

public eye, hence the infamous banned book list. Wayne C. Booth’s essay best explains​ The Turn

of the Screw​ because he analyzes the text through a more all-encompassing, holistic approach of

reader-response criticism that refrains from censorship and brings light to a variety of different

interpretations.

While the other essays take a very objective view regarding their argument on ​The Turn

of the Screw,​ Booth provides support for both sides of the debate on whether the ghosts are real

or not, whether the governess is reliable or unreliable, and the true cause of Miles’ death. Booth

focuses on how “everything will depend on the quality of the whole experience that a story offers

[and] will be judged in the context of what is seen as that total experience” (Booth 291). He then

outlines the three distinct kinds of readers including the straight reader which takes the text more

literally, the ironic reader which is skeptic and searches for discrepancies within the plot, and the

mazed reader who expects to be confused because of literature’s nature to be paradoxical. James’

novella has elicited so many contradictory readings, it is hard to confirm which interpretation is

correct, but that is the strength of Booth’s essay. Reader-response criticism provokes readers to

consider Booth’s belief about literature and life in general: “no interpretation of any story, or

indeed of any event in real life can ever be fixed, determinate, counted on as ​the​ interpretation;
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all views are undeterminable … [and] controversies must be seen as unresolvable” (Booth 297).

While some readers may be irritated by this perspective, it is supported by the story’s tendency

to incite contrasting appraisals. Reader-response criticism is beneficial in that it persuades

readers to think about their own experience of a given text and then illustrate through the

comparing and contrasting of interpretations, supporting Booth’s claim that “all ideas are equally

questionable” and “no one reading can ever triumph over all others” (Booth 299). By

acknowledging the three different point of views regarding James’ ​The Turn of the Screw,​ Booth

accentuates through his essay that readers can gain a deeper understanding of the text as a whole

and then decide for themselves how the ideas presented will influence their initial interpretation.

When it comes to interpretations in literature, there is no right or wrong, only the details

presented in the text and what the reader takes away from it.
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Works Cited

Booth, Wayne C. “‘He began to read to our hushed little circle’: Are We Blessed or Cursed by

Our Life with ​The Turn of the Screw?​ ” ​The Turn of the Screw​, edited by Peter G. Beidler.

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009, pp. 287-301.

James, Henry. ​A Turn of the Screw​. Edited by Peter G. Beidler, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.