Innocent Or Not in novella, 'The Turn of the Screw'
Innocent Or Not in novella, 'The Turn of the Screw'
In Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw we are presented with an unreliable governess that tells a story about a haunted mansion. The novella is so ambiguous that at the end the question still remains: do the ghosts exist or is the governess going wildly insane? The film version, directed by Jack Clayton is much less ambiguous, but with evidence of both sides. The Innocents leans more toward the fact that the ghosts do exist and the children are possessed, although they might not realize it. This is a scary approach because the children seem so helpless at the hands of these apparitions. The governess is no saint though, as she has her bizarre hallucinations. The combination of the ghosts truly existing with the fact that the governess is becoming terribly eccentric really raises the suspense factor. This film succeeds because it makes the viewer think about what is going on and then come up with his or her own conclusion.
There are some scenes that support the side that the governess is completely out of control and it's all in her head. There is a scene in the beginning of the film that gets the viewer's attention right away. Miss Giddens is coming to the mansion for the first time and she sees Flora and they become acquainted. While they are speaking the governess hears a voice calling "Flora, Flora." Flora actually hears nothing at all and she smiles as if nothing has happened. This is strange and the viewer immediately knows that something is wrong with the governess because she hears voices in her head. Monica Sullivan agrees with the fact that the governess is crazy and unreliable:
"Miss Giddens gets more and more paranoid about the ghosts and although we SEE ghosts, we see them through the increasingly unreliable eyes of the governess. And as for the precocious behavior of the children, isn't it a childhood obligation to drive ANY new authority figure out of her mind?"(1)
"Sullivan is correct in her reasoning but the children aren't just being children. There is something else definitely going on with these strange kids other than tormenting their governess. Brian Koller describes it as "sinister aspects to their personalities."(1)
There is another scene in the film that points out the lack of sanity on Miss Giddens part. When she is...