Hysterical Neurosis in Henry James's The Turn of the Screw

Abstract

This study examines how the governess, the central character in Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, suffers from hysterical experiences due to sexual repression within social rules and regulations and her own duty. Her desires and fears in the form of hallucination represent simultaneous sexual attraction and repulsion which are in fact the result of the her hysterical neurosis. The hallucinations of the ghost, she falsely believes in, interrupts her normal behaviour. She has the fear of the ghost's bad influences to the children, so she becomes extremely protective to them to get her the "handsome" master's approval, as she is infatuated with him.