The Turn Of the Screw

Cultural Criticism in context with The Turn of the Screw

Cultural Criticism pertains to the idea that literature is primarily influenced by the culture at the time that the work was written. Cultural critics examine the cultural artifacts that presumably the work that they are critiquing was influenced by. They as a critical establishment concentrate more on those particular artifacts than on the story itself. In this context, it doesn’t really matter whether the work that they are examining is good or not, as long as it is rich in cultural detail.

If one were to examine the essays written about the governesses at the time that The Turn of the Screw takes place, they as a critic would find a plethora of cultural detail. Mary Maudice’s estimation of the situation of governesses at the time was presumably a very influential essay for James in determining the character of the governess in his story. This particular essay most likely helped James determine the social situation that his governess was trapped in.

Because the governess is attractive in The Turn of the Screw, James purposefully puts her in a highly stressful situation because everyone in their right mind distrusts her. The general assumptions about governesses were that in order for the governess to become intimate with the family that she was looking after, she would inevitably, “…try and make herself necessary to the comfort of the father of the family in which she resided, and by delicate and unnoticed flattery gradually to gain her point, to the disparagement of the mother, and the destruction of mutual happiness.” No wonder Mrs. Grose doesn’t trust the governess; the social norms of the time dissuaded her in terms of her estimation of that young woman’s character. Even the children to a certain extent, particularly Miles, may be scared of just what exactly the governess is going to do to their uncle. Or, maybe this is all imagined in the governesses mind?

Her trying not to disrupt mutual happiness in the family; her trying to be a diligent, responsible governess may lead to her mental breakdown in the story. There’s great pressure when someone tries to be on their best behavior, and knows that they are being watched constantly, particularly if one is young. What makes the story a complex one, and not merely a ghost story, is that the governess does inevitably what she did not set out to do in the outset; she, “…has become (the children’s) corrupter—she has been the first to lead and to initiate into sin, to suggest and carry on intrigues, and finally to be the instrument of destroying the peace of families.” What’s ironic is that she has committed all of these detriments to the home front without actually having an affair. Her sin was simply her nervousness, which ultimately lead to her seeing ghosts.

James ideas in his novel, correlate with Anna Jameson’s estimation, that governesses didn’t really have much of a chance in life. That because of social pressures, this is the only job that they could obtain. No wonder they were so unhappy and committed illicit acts. The governess in this story hasn’t even committed a sin, and yet she like every other governess was particularly disturbed, as Anna Jameson attested to. “Now everyone has a just horror of a nervous governess; complaints of the ill-health of governesses, as a class, are so common, one meets with them at every turn; and let the physician speak of what he knows!—he could make fearful revelations, if he dared, of the constitutions of young women ruined through fatigue, confinement, anxiety, in a sphere of life somewhat above those who make shirts, and fit on finery.” Jameson states in her essay that it’s because of the social pressures attributed to the governesses at the time, for being a class below the families they looked after, and their trying to go beyond their class, is what made these young ladies crack in a sense, and sleep with the fathers of the household.

It would appear that James wrote The Turn of the Screw mainly to show the dire situation that governesses were in. His goal as a writer could presumably be that he wanted to write a fictional novel that had the same thesis as Jameson’s and Maurice’s essay; to make a best seller out of their thesis. James is on the side of the governess, and is not against her in any way. Forget about the supernatural when analyzing The Turn of the Screw; the social context in the story is enough to make any reader enthralled with the tale.