Chapter 4
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Notes and Annotations
► “Was
there a “secret” at Bly---a mystery of
Udolpho…”
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe, a
ghost-novel in which the heroine is carried
off to a lonely castle in the Apennines; the
alternative describes the situation which
confronts the governess heroine of Charlotte
Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Regardless, the allusion
lends itself to the governess’s interest in
Romanticism.
Chapter 4
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Notes and Annotations
Romanticism: a movement in the arts
that flourished in Europe and America
throughout most of the 19th century.
Romantic writers glorified nature and
celebrated individuality. Their
treatment of subject was emotional
rather than rational, intuitive rather
than analytic.
Chapter 4
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Notes and Annotations
► “They
were like those cherubs of the
anecdote who had---morally at any rate--nothing to whack!”
► Once again, we see the governess compare
the children to angels. How would this skew
her view of children and essentially,
childhood? How does her allusion to
Romantic literature lend itself to a skewed
POV?
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