Double Consciousness in Henry James's Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw is the most famous ghost story in English, taught in numerous courses and widely popular beyond academia. The narrator, governess to two children at an isolated country house, becomes convinced that the ghosts of two former servants are attempting to corrupt the children, Miles and Flora, but there is no evidence that anyone but the governess sees them. The story builds inexorably towards its horrific climax, the death of young Miles. A century of criticism has failed to resolve basic questions about the ghosts’ reality and the governess’s mental stability; it has also failed to integrate the story’s complex narrative technique with a convincing account of its theme. Edward Lobb’s study is the first to argue that the governess’s retrospective narration, written a decade after the events, reveals a double consciousness. She scrupulously records her thoughts and feelings at the time, but is also writing a severe indictment of her earlier possessiveness, which led to Flora’s illness and Miles’s death. Professor Lobb’s interpretation sheds new light on a host of details in the story and shows its consistency with Henry James’s moral ideas, his sense of tragedy, and his frequent depiction of emotional tyranny. This study avoids academic jargon and offers an accessible, engaging, and persuasive analysis which will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers alike.