This article posits a subversive reading of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. The novella ostensibly tells the story of a governess who fights to protect her charges from supernatural malevolence. Yet I suggest that it is actually the story of a governess who abuses her charges in an attempt to take control of Bly. Ghosts, on the other hand, are benevolent companions of children. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay My thesis is loosely based on Sami Ludwig's article, "Metaphors, Cognition, and Behavior: The Reality of Sexual Puns in the Crackdown," in which Ludwig argues that Miles and the housekeeper are having an affair Ludwig argues that when Miles says to the housekeeper, as they go to church - "You know, my dear, that a man is always with a lady -" (53) - he is subtly suggesting that their relationship becomes sexual, thus instigating their affair. . affair. Ludwig highlights the feelings of helplessness and fear that Miles's suggestion arouses in the housekeeper, arguing that her precarious position, as a woman who is neither a member of the family nor a servant, makes her incapable of categorically refusing. She then reacts confused, dodging the boy's innuendos and hurrying towards the church. Ludwig later cuts to the second bedroom scene, in which Miles asks the housekeeper to come to his room and admits that he has been lying awake thinking about her. The housekeeper reacts by changing the subject and asking about his old school, from which he was expelled. Their conversation gradually becomes physically intimate, culminating in fierce hugs and kisses between the two. Ludwig interprets this scene as a further step in Miles' sexual advances towards the housekeeper. He refers to the boy's request for "a new field" (62), arguing that with this request Miles demands sex education. Ludwig also interprets words such as "posses", "little", and "die" as Shakespearean erotic allusions. Analyzing the epilogue of the story, Ludwig states that the chaotic sentences following Peter Quint's final appearance are a fictitious description of the sexual act. Ludwig notes that the physical positions of the housekeeper and Miles are not specified in this scene, but their emotions, movements, and the sounds they make are detailed. He interprets this discrepancy between omission and specification as a subtle delineation of the sexual relationship between Miles and the housekeeper. Ludwig consequently interprets Miles' "death" as a Shakespearean death: an orgasm. He concludes that The Turn of the Screw is a bildungsroman describing the sexual initiation of a boy by his governess. Ludwig's analysis, while innovative and insightful, suffers from two fundamental drawbacks. First, the critic's argument that Miles manipulates the governess into an affair is on shaky ground, and I intend to counter that it is rather the governess who seduces Miles. Secondly, Ludwig does not explain the function of ghosts in the story. I will address this issue later in the document. Ludwig's claim that Miles is the instigator of the affair can be refuted in three places. First, the governess refrains from any action that would allow Miles to resume his studies at school. When he learns of the boy's expulsion, he reacts by doing "'Nothing at all.'" (13). Even after Miles repeatedly asks to return to school, she remains unmoved. This consistent and unprofessional refusal suggests that he has an ulterior motive for keeping Miles in Bly. Secondly, the behavior ofhousekeeper towards Miles is openly sexual even before the church scene, in which, according to Ludwig, Miles initiated the relationship. The night Miles wanders off onto the lawn, the housekeeper takes him back to his room and caresses him as follows: "I put hands of such tenderness on his little shoulders that... I held him there well under the fire." (45). Furthermore, as the boy leans forward to kiss her goodnight, the housekeeper kisses him back, holds him to her breast, and suggests he remove his clothes: "I met his kiss and... I held it for a minute in my arms... I could say: 'So you didn't undress at all?'" (45-6 Unbecoming behavior for a housekeeper who is). simply demonstrating maternal affection towards her protégé. Third, the housekeeper refers to Miles as "the little gentleman" (10), shortly thereafter she describes her uncle as "a gentleman" (7). This similarity in title suggests that the governess sees Miles in a similar light to that in which she views her uncle as a man of higher status and therefore a potential husband. Although some critics, such as Beth Newman, claim that the governess is infatuated with her uncle, I I maintain that she feeds him. no intense feelings for him, rather she wishes to marry him to improve her financial situation and social status. Douglass explicitly tells us that "what struck her [the housekeeper] most of all [about her uncle]...was that he did everything as a favor to her." (emphasis mine, 4). The housekeeper believes that her uncle requests her cooperation as a personal "favor" and that he will consequently be indebted to her if she consents. We can assume that she hopes that he will repay her with marriage, the most important act that an upper-class gentleman could bestow on a middle-class woman. Therefore, the housekeeper takes a calculated, not infatuated, attitude towards her uncle. Also, in the scene between the governess and Mrs. Grose, when the latter dashes the governess's hopes of marrying her uncle by telling her, "'Well, Miss, she's not the first - and she won't be' the last." (8), the housekeeper responds, "'Oh, I have no claim...to be the only one.'" (8). Her collected response supports my contention that the housekeeper perceives the uncle as nothing more than a social ladder to wealth and high status In light of the governess's practical approach to marrying her uncle, we should pay particular attention to the question she asks Mrs. Grose, immediately after learning that he is not interested in her: “Will my other pupil, at least… return tomorrow?” (9). The juxtaposition between the housekeeper's revelation that his uncle is unreachable and her question regarding Miles suggests a connection between the two of two facts. First, Miles will become Bly's master when he becomes an adult, and second, Douglas tells us that the governess has "supreme authority" (5) over Miles. We can therefore conjecture that the comparison means the housekeeper's decision to replace Miles with his inaccessible uncle, compared to whom he has an advantageous position. The governess, I suggest, believes she can use her power over Miles to manipulate him into marrying her when he comes of age. Their marriage will give her the title of Bly's mistress, thus guaranteeing her social and financial advantages, similar to those that aroused her interest in her uncle. The housekeeper's interest in Miles can be further understood through her frequent use of the term "possession." He applies the word to a variety of actions, including physical grasping: "it always ended up...taking possession of my hand" (65), accumulation of knowledge: "they were in possession of everything that had come my way" (49) , Andeven self-control: “my demonstration of self-control” (33). The housekeeper's reiteration of the word in so many different contexts suggests that she perceives everything around her in terms of possession. In his eyes, people constantly struggle to control property, others, and themselves. As a result, the housekeeper attempts to possess Miles, and thus indirectly possess Bly. Early in the story he notes that "he [the uncle] had put them [Miles and Flora] in Bly's possession" (italics mine, 5), and later describes his behavior towards Miles as an attempt to possess the boy: “I…seize[d] the opportunity once again to possess him [Miles]” (62 ). This description is particularly significant when one observes that, among other denotations, “to possess” also means “to have sexual intercourse with” (OED). Based on the arguments presented so far, I suggest reading the scenes discussed by Ludwig). this is diametrically opposed to his analysis. Instead of flirting with the housekeeper on the way to church, Miles is trying to break free from her. She has been overly intimate with him – “for a boy to be with a woman all the time” (53 ) – and he is frightened by her behavior, asking her to let him go: “when will I ever, please, go back to school?” (53), and when she dodges the question, he resorts to pleading, "'you can't say I wasn't very good, can you?'" (53). Finally, he threatens to contact his uncle. This is not the behavior of a guy teasing his love interest. In the bedroom, when the housekeeper prods Miles - "'I thought you wanted to go on like this.'" (61) - the boy rejects her: "'I don't want to, I don't want to. I want to get far'" (61). Yet she fights back imposing herself on him, twice in the same scene: "I threw myself on him and... I hugged him" (62), "he made me... fall to my knees and grab him..." (62) . Miles first asks her to stop - "'leave me alone'" (62) - and when she grabs him a second time, he lets out "a loud cry" (63). she would have screamed for fear of "a gust of freezing air" (63). Having established the governess's malevolence, I would now like to make the case for the benevolence of the ghosts. It seems appropriate at this point to re-evaluate the governess's statements regarding the "horror and the entirely unmistakable evils" of ghosts (30). Ellis Hanson has already observed that ghosts do not "call to, invite, or solicit children or . . . cause them to put themselves in physical danger" (377). He also points out that "the children found nothing terrifying about a living Quint and a living Miss Jessel" (377). Dawn Keetley reinforces Hanson's observation, suggesting that Quint and Miss Jessel "may in fact have been beneficial influences" (149). By integrating these comments with our previous observations about the housekeeper, we can conclude that the housekeeper's portrayal of ghosts is unreliable and attempt to draw our own conclusions regarding Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. Miss Jessel's ghost is portrayed throughout the tale as either a weeping victim or a companion to Flora. The fact that Flora enjoys and even seeks the ghost's company is exemplified by the girl's assembling of a toy boat, while playing on the lake shore opposite the shore where Miss Jessel is standing. By assembling this toy boat, Flora expresses her desire to create a vehicle that can transport her across the lake to the ghost. Furthermore, towards the epilogue of the story, Flora goes to that area on a real boat, thus closing the circle that began with her toy boat. The governess, for her part, uses the knowledge of the secret meetings between the ghost and the girl to carry out her plans. Haneed to get rid of Mrs. Grose and Flora to force Miles into full sexual intercourse. He then puts emotional pressure on the girl to reveal her secret, thus bringing her to breaking point: "she [Flora] gave an almost furious cry. 'Take me away, take me away - oh take me away from her!'" (70 ). The housekeeper then uses Flora's breakdown as a pretext to send Flora and Mrs. Grose away: "'You must take Flora... Away from here. Away from them.'" (73). Note that it is the housekeeper, "she" (70), not the ghosts, "they" (73), from whom Flora wishes to escape. Quint's ghost rivals the housekeeper in her efforts to possess Miles. Their fight over the boy begins after the governess sees Quint for the second time, realizing her interest in Miles: "'He [Quint] was looking for little Miles... That's who he was looking for" (25). Later in the same scene, Mrs. Grose remarks, "'Quint was too free'" (25), to which the housekeeper replies, "'Too free with my boy?'" (25), thus claiming Miles as her possession , and expressing anger at Quint's intrusion on his request. The housekeeper henceforth regards Quint as a threat - "he was absolutely... a detestable and dangerous living presence" (39 ) - and compares their fight for Miles to "the fight with a demon for a human soul" ( 82). It is worth noting that many critics hold to her point of view, interpreting Mrs. Grose's remark about Quint's excessive freedom as a euphemism for his sexuality. abuse of Miles. Robert W. Hill Jr., for example, states that “Quint appears to have been capable of…involving a prepubescent boy in whatever satisfied the man's perverse fantasy (58). Quint's denigration. In contrast, Miles seems to have loved Quint: "for a period of several months Quint and the boy had been perpetually together... as if Quint were his guardian - and very great" (34-35). Mrs. Grose's observation that "'Quint was too free'" (25) further states that Quint "'did what he wanted'" (32). initial observation. If we accept it as such, then Quint's freedom is his ability to act as he wants, without submitting to the will or customs of others. Furthermore, his freedom challenges the ruler's view of people as possessors or possessed , the housekeeper herself admits that Miles desires freedom: "he [Miles] should probably be able to...get, for his purposes, more freedom." (55), and in a moment of desperation states that Miles has won "his freedom now" (71). We can therefore assume that Quint and the housekeeper have opposite approaches to Miles. While the governess attempts to possess him, Quint tries to give the boy the freedom he craves. The thesis of Quint's benevolence is further strengthened by a biblical allusion incorporated into the ghost's first appearance. Quintus' appearance "right at the top of the tower" (15) alludes to the prophet Habakkuk: "I will stand guard, and I will stand on the tower, and watch to see what he will say to me" (emphasis mine, King James Version, Hab 1.1 ). Habakkuk stands at the top of a tower to speak to God and condemn sinners, especially the proud: "he is a proud man... who expands his desires like hell and is like death" (Habakkuk 1.5) . This biblical allusion appears immediately after the governess entertains proud thoughts of becoming Bly's lover: "I fancied myself...a remarkable young woman, and took comfort in the faith that this would appear more publicly." (15) – thus presenting Quint as a prophet who rises from the dead to chastise the housekeeper for her, 1966.