Shakespeare's Hamlet and Turn of the Screw

This research provides a comparison and contrast of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. The research will identify ways in which Hamlet resonates in James's story, with a view toward evaluating the extent to which elements of the latter text can be said to replicate those of the former.

There is no shortage of critical commentary on certain analogues between Hamlet and The Turn of the Screw. One of the most striking of analogues is that critical opinion of each of these texts is sharply divided. Just as Hamlet critics seem divided on how to explain why Hamlet delays so long in killing Claudius, Turn of the Screw critics seem divided on the question of whether the ghosts the governess sees at Bly are "real" or only a product of the governess's insane mind, though the effects of her ideas--notably Miles's death--are real enough, whether she is mad or the ghosts are really present. Whether the ghosts are evil because they are palpably (so to speak) present or because preoccupation with them causes the governess to beleaguer the children to distraction, the impact of the encounter with the presumed ghosts so intimidates little Miles that it "dispossesses" his "little heart" and makes it stop forever (James 403).

One does not have to be armed with the panoply of critical theory that accompanies Shakespearian and Jamesean criticism to see affinities between narrative design and technique between Hamlet and Screw. Ghosts, especially the reaction of the ce

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's governess speaks of Miles's little heart) is failing. In Screw, the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel are problematic because it is never quite clear whether they are real. Whereas some of the characters in Hamlet see (but do not hear) the Ghost Hamlet sees, only "Miss" clearly sees the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel. The trouble for Miles and Flora is that Miss, as a governess, is in a position to affect the unfolding experience of the children. But there is more. Hamlet's Ghost is seeking to avenge a crime; Quint and Miss Jessel turn out to have been involved in a squalid domestic crime that the children never should have been aware of and that Miss is fully unprepared to deal with. In that regard, Ward (68) says that James "reveal[s] the true nature of Bly and contrast[s] the ugly real ghosts with the imagined garden of bliss" that Miss, who is quite stupidly enamored of the squire, imagines her workplace to be. In contrast with Hamlet, the character of the governess in Screw is one of limited complexity and intelligence. Hamlet critiques his own tendency to "lose the name of action" (III.i.88) in favor of analyzing the current status of events. Screw's governess is altogether different: She is rarely other than impetuous

Category: Literature - S