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!’[1]
Sigmund Freud said, it is the “realm of the frightening” that “evokes fear and dread” from the qualities of the ‘the uncanny’.[2] Such a realm is seen in the work of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898). It is a short story that I still look at now and then. It is still esteemed, after many years later, by the first time readers, because it manages to disquiet us by its eerie atmosphere and spookiness. These disquiets, or sensations, are achieved by the qualities of the uncanny.
In this post, I look at Henry James’s qualities of the uncanny in the work of The Turn of the Screw and how it achieves uneasiness and fear. This is evident by the character of the Governess and the qualities of the double, repetition, and silence in the story. I will give background to the notion of the uncanny by exploring Sigmund Freud essay, Das Unheimliche (1919). Then, I will explore the figure of the double or doppelgänger in the story and how it creates uneasiness and fear. As well, exploring repetition of in story and how it recreates sense of uneasiness and fear. Final, I will explore how silence creates a new sense of uneasiness and fear. These qualities will pertain also to the character of the Governess in the work of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Before we begin discussing the uncanny qualities in Henry James’s work, The Turn of the Screw, it is important to give background understanding to the notion of the uncanny from Sigmund Freud. Firstly, the uncanny, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, is something that is unpleasant, uncomfortable, mysterious, or unfamiliar. [3] These feelings occur when something signify our reaction to something that is not known to us or not familiar. Sigmund Freud distinguishes these feeling in his essay called Das Unheimliche (1919) or also known, in English, as The Uncanny. He states that the uncanny:
“is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and had long been familiar…something should be frightening precisely because it is unknown and unfamiliar”[4]
Freud’s main argument for the idea of the uncanny is that the word uncanny relates to the feeling of fear, anxiety, and terror. It is, to an extent, also a difficult and unique word to distinguish. It is a word that has “various shades of meaning”, that causes ambiguity, and is complex. [5] He traces the etymology of the German word unheimlich and how it relates to its antonym word heimlich. The uncanny contains two internally differentiated notions: the comfortable and the familiar, and what is concealed or hidden. [6] Thus, these strange mixtures of uneasiness and anxiety are familiar and unfamiliar; comfortable and concealed. It is the performance, of blurring our environment, which threatens our senses and our identity is shaken: our sense of self is challenged. The qualities of the uncanny are also fascinating because we are drawn into the unknown (what is concealed) and we want to find the known or our sense of understanding something (familiar). This something can be an object, a figure, or an experience. [7] Understanding this background notion of the uncanny by Sigmund Freud has allowed us to grasp the elements and qualities of the uncanny and understand the effects the uncanny has to us.
The idea of the double, or Doppelgänger, is evident as an uncanny element in the Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It is, as Freud describes, an experience or “spontaneous transmission of mental processes” between the subject and the object – between the person and the other. [8] It is uncanny because, for a moment or a brief time frame, there is a resemblance and a feeling of closeness – “because they look alike” [9] and share common feelings of “knowledge, emotions, and experience. [10] This idea of the double can be seen in the character of the Governess and the ghost of Peter Quint. Quint was a former member of staff at Bly, where the story takes place. The Governess becomes “aware of a person on the other side of the window and looking in”. [11] Her vision or her image was “instantaneous”. [12] This is her second occasion of seeing a figure because “the person looking straight in was the person who had already appeared to me”. [13] Thus to her shock, she recognises this figure as the same face she once saw on the tower – the same identity. Interestingly, she feels a sense of fear and uneasiness:
“He appeared thus again with I won’t say greater distinctness, for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented a forward stride in our intercourse and made me, as I met him, catch my breath and turn cold. He was the same—he was the same”. [14]
It is for a moment, a few seconds, that the uncanny experience had unfolded. Yet, it serves as a fearful and unpleasant experience. It important to note, that it is only through the window, the glass, or mirror that the uncanny formed. The window acts as a frame for the Governess to look to Quint, but it also acts as a mirror back at her own self – a sudden shock which made her catch her breath and “turn cold”. [15] The use of the double, an element of the uncanny, is used by Henry James to create the feelings of uneasiness and fear from us by of the character of the Governess and Quint.
Repetition, similar to the double, is another element of the uncanny seen throughout the story and with the character of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. When your reading the story this is the first feeling you get. The strange feeling of something repeating, reoccurring or the factor of repetition is another “source of the sense of the uncanny” for Freud. [16] We humans, as Freud puts it, have the tendency to repeat any forms of actions – the “compulsion to repeat” [17] and this can “override” us. [18] In the story there are a few examples of repetition as an uncanny element. Throughout the story there is a sense of repetition and the beginning is the first example of this occurring – the repeating of an event. This is true for the fact that we are placed in a story, “around the fire” listening to ghost stories. [19] A character named Douglas offers us to listen to another scary and “horrible” story. [20] We are then thrust into the proper story with the Governess telling her story. It is strange, we have a prologue to the prologue or an introduction to the introduction – repetitive and creates the first sense of unease in the story. This repeating creates, for us, a similar experience – we are reliving an experience which is uncanny. Furthermore, it can also be stated the character of the Governess pertain this quality as well. Her actions, her mannerism, and her choice of words are often repeated. She states, it is her “duty” [21] and her obligation to take care of the children: “They had nothing but me…I was there to protect and defend”[22] for the children. Additionally, the visitations of the ghosts to the Governess are in a constant cycle of the same manifestations; the repetitions of the ghosts are an uncanny experiences the keeps occurring to the Governess. The story, the characters, the events are repeated and this creates an unpleasant, uncanny experience as a whole for us readers – our emotions are be repeated and challenge every time. We are constantly undergoing the strange feeling of repetition and it is an element of the uncanny seen through the story and the character of the Governess in the story of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
Lastly, it can be said that silence is another uncanny element used by Henry James in the story of The Turn of the Screw. Although Sigmund Freud does not elaborate on this element in great detail, it is an element which is quite prominent in two main scenes with the Governess. Silence creates an eerie and scary environment in the story. It is uncanny because to creates an unpleasant feeling for us the readers and for the Governess. Noise is something that is usually present for us but it becomes absent; a familiar scene becomes an unfamiliar one by what is usually present in all situations becomes obsolete. [23]
The first example of a scene where noise is strange yet familiar is in chapter one. The Governess begins her observations and meeting of Mrs. Grove and Flora. She is impressed with her surroundings, the building, and its appearance. However, she hears for a moment, a “possible recurrence of a sound or two, less natural and not without but within”, a “recognised, faint and far, the cry of a child…[and] light footstep[s]”. [24] These sounds are uncanny because it makes her, and us as well, more attentive to noise, or for a brief silence, sinister sounds. The Governess explains further on how this place makes her feel when she experience Quint for the first time:
“The place moreover, in the strangest way of the world, had on the instant and by the very face…become a solitude…the hush in which the sounds of evening dropped”. [25]
It is not only the figure of Quint that frightens the Governess it is the absence of sound. The silence has become an eerie and chilling environment for the Governess in the story. What was once a place of the familiar for the Governess has now become a place that is concealed and unfamiliar for her. The solitude between her and Quint created a vacuum of space where silence and darkness. The Governess reaction with the meeting of Quint was created by the uncanny of silence and it was an infant or child’s reaction – a response or impulse to freeze. This feeling is something that relates to our reaction to something scary – we freeze, we stop, or do nothing…like a dear blinded by lights. Thus, it creates a moment for everything to be a silent dead solitude: a world of unhomely for the Governess. Silence is an uncanny element that was used by Henry James to create feelings of anxiety and unpleasant feelings for us readers and for the character of the Governess in the story.
In conclusion, Henry James uses the qualities of the uncanny in his work titles The Turn of the Screw. He knowingly understands its effect for creating a ‘realm’ to cause uneasiness and fear. We readers are drawn to it – a simple concept a great author used. He brings the comfortable and the familiar together with what is concealed and hidden. This is evident by the character of the Governess and the qualities of the double, repetition, and silence in the story. I ask though who have read the story to read it again…see if you get this sense of silences, repetitions, or unease. Henry James embodies these qualities from the uncanny and uses them to turn our emotions, our feelings, and our senses to create fear and uneasiness in The Turn of the Screw.
Reference
[1] Henry James, The Turn Of The Screw And Other Stories, ed. Tim Lustig, 1st ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). 115.
[2] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, trans. David McLintock, 1st ed. (London: Penguin, 2003). 1.
[3] “Unˈcanny, adj.”. OED Online. March 2017. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/210106?redirectedFrom=uncanny
[4] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, 124-125.
[5] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, 132.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, 135-139.
[8] Ibid, 141.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid, 141-42.
[11] Henry James, The Turn Of The Screw And Other Stories, 141.
[12] Ibid, 141.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid, 170.
[16] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny, 143.
[17] Ibid, 145.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Henry James, The Turn Of The Screw And Other Stories, 115.
[20] Ibid, 116.
[21] Ibid, 126.
[22] Ibid, 153.
[23] Although this argument can be challenged, I am implying that for the Governess, and people with no hearing problems or deafness, hearing is normal and natural in her environment.
[24] Henry James, The Turn Of The Screw And Other Stories, 124-125.
[25] Ibid, 136.
Vasile Tiano 