From Tradition To Innovation—on The Gothic Writing In The Turn Of The Screw

Henry James is a famous novelist, literary theorist and critic. The Turn of the Screw is a representative work of James’ small amount of gothic novels. The narration of the whole story is expanded around the horrible experiences of a governess who encounters ghosts in the house of Bly. The plot is fluctuant and the whole story is attractive. The author argues that James succeeds in doing so because he takes the tradition of gothic novel as the keynote and merges his original novel theories into it. By giving this gothic novel a new vitality and significance, he makes it his own, and endows it with a profound significance based on the sophisticated reality of Victorian era. Therefore, this thesis expands the discussion on James’creation of this gothic novel in three aspects:its tradition, its innovation and its significance.The thesis begins with a brief introduction to Henry James’and The Turn of the Screw. It is followed by chapter one which analyzes the traditional gothic elements in this novel, including the horrible environment and setting, the certain types of characterizations and the conventional subject matter of the gothic novel, with an argument that James uses traditional gothic elements to create a rich gothic atmosphere and lay a solid foundation for his innovations. And then, in the following chapter, the author mainly interprets James’ innovative techniques in his writing of this novel and the strong gothic effects it enhances. In this chapter, the author firstly argues that the uncertain tone of the narrator causes the spontaneous doubt and confusion of the readers, and creates rich strangeness and attractiveness which differ from the features of traditional gothic novels. Then by interpreting the hysterical mental world of the governess, the author shows James’ delicate exploration into the psychology and the strong resonance of the readers aroused by that to reach the horror of the soul. In the last chapter, the significance of such gothic writing in this novel is interpreted by the analysis on the moral values revealed by the "blanks", the terror of the lack of faith shown in a vacuum space and the struggle of the new woman represented by the protagonist. On the whole, this thesis aims to discuss that The Turn of the Screw is a great gothic novel with both gothic tradition and James’ innovations, and to help the readers to get a better understanding of this novel and its writer. Furthermore, the thesis also tries to demonstrate James’concern of human nature and his keen perspective of the times.