...The Innocents, a film directed by Jack Clayton, adapted from Henry James’ short novel The Turn of the Screw by John Mortimer, William Archibald and Truman Capote, can be argued to have subject matter of either a supernatural or psychological nature. The same can be said for Henry James’ original, but having digested both texts it is made clear to me that there are some very noticeable differences between the two, that both hinder and enhance our understanding of the stories. In both the film and the novella, the principal story is narrated, somewhat unreliably, by Miss Giddens, the governess appointed to care for the two children by their uncle. In Henry James’ version however, the story is framed in the prologue by an unknown character, Douglas, who introduces the story to a few friends at a house party. In the film, we see Miss Giddens crying with her hands together as if praying, emotionally exclaiming: “All I want to do is save the children, not destroy them. More than anything I love children. More than anything.” It then fades into the interview scene with the uncle, soft focus, to suggest a flashback. Both these openings elicit an anachronistic or nostalgic feel, and with The Innocents, this sensation is strengthened by the black and white cinematography. The cameraman, Freddie Francis, used a special filter which darkened the edges of the frame similar to the ‘vignette’ effect. This had practical uses for characters walking of screen but it also gave the impression that...
Words: 2028 - Pages: 9
...HENRY JAMES ( 1843 - 1916 ) Henry James was born an American and Joseph Conrad a Pole. Each chose to settle in England to become a British subject and for each, the collision of different cultures was an important themes. The relation of America to Europe is a central concern in James’ fiction : in major novels such as “ The Portrait Of A Lady “(1881), “ The Wings Of The Dove” ( 1902 ),or “ Daisy Miller” (1879) the moral consequences of the meeting of American innocence and enthusiasm with a sophisticated but corrupt European culture are explored by means of irony , a sustained attention to the nuances of individual CONSCIOUSNESS , and a prose style of increasing subtlety and complexity . But in their technique James and Conrad are most revolutionary .Modernist novelists sought radical redefinition of the REAL. Since the individual always perceives reality through his or her own consciousness , the contents and structure of consciousness represent the only accessible reality .A number of philosophical influences are relevant here : William James ‘ Henry James’ brother ‘ a psychologist and philosopher elaborated the notion of “pure experience”, all reality being described in terms of SUBJECTIVE HUMAN EXPERIENCE ( and he also named the new trend “ stream of consciousness”). Sigmund Freud (1856- 1939) had had an enormous influence upon modern literature as a result of his idea that “ all mental phenomena have meaning...
Words: 1837 - Pages: 8
...Turning the Screw: Analysing Douglas’s Tale In this essay I will be exploring the narrative style present in “Turn of the Screw” by Henry James and discussing the character called Douglas as a frame narrator for the governess’s tale. I will explore the reliability of Douglas and his relationship with the governess and look at any bias caused by this relationship. I will be analysing the narrative style of the novella, and discussing how this style contributes to the development of the story. Along with this, I will be comparing “Turn of the Screw” to traditional ghost stories, and discussing whether there are differences between the two. Douglas is presented from the outset of the story as a frame narrator in that he begins his tale by offering to recite a manuscript written by his sister’s former governess, who is a person who Douglas holds in high esteem. This act of recounting another person’s story, or presenting a story within a story, is a clear indication that the type of narrative present in the book is frame narrative (Frame Story - Wikipedia, n.d.). If we look at this fact in terms of the quote presented within the study material, we notice that Douglas places particular emphasis on his story, proclaiming to be “quite too horrible” (pg 1). Due to the fact that Douglas is a frame narrator rather than an omnipresent narrator, he comes complete with a range of human faults, including exaggeration and bias. The introduction of the story adds to this idea, as Douglas betrays...
Words: 1563 - Pages: 7
...The Character of Catherine Slooper in Washington Square Catherine Slooper, the protagonist of the novel Washington Square by Henry James, has been a highly controversial character. While many scholars argue that she is an ordinary woman others consider that she is an extraordinary heroine. In this essay I would like to demonstrate that she is both, an ordinary woman and an extraordinary heroine. To some extent it is true that Catherine is an ordinary woman. As Henry James points in the novel “she was not ugly; she had simply a plain, dull, gentle countenance”. She is not sociable either, in fact, she is very shy; she is not very ladylike, for example when her father comes home she just runs wildly towards him; her father is ashamed of her because she is not really skilful and, as consequence she is not self-confident. However, it is necessary to remember that Catherine has a huge variety of elements of strength which make her an extraordinary heroine. To start with, she shows us through two moments that she cares about love rather than about money. The first one is when she wants to marry Morris even though her father wants to disinherit her; and the second one is when at the end of the book, she does not promise her father that she is not going to marry Morris although she knows she is not going to do it, and even knowing that she is going to lose her fortune. This second act could be considered heroic in another way too: she does not say to her father what he wants...
Words: 453 - Pages: 2
...Ibn Baṭṭūṭah the greatest medieval Arab traveller and the author of one of the most famous travel books, the Riḥlah (Travels), which describes his extensive travels covering some 75,000 miles (more than 120,000 km) in trips to almost all the Muslim countries and as far as China and Sumatra. Henry James (American writer): Career—first phase ...of the novel Roderick Hudson, the story of an American sculptor’s struggle by the banks of the Tiber between his art and his passions; Transatlantic Sketches, his first collection of travel writings; and a collection of tales. With these three substantial books, he inaugurated a career that saw about 100 volumes through the press during the next 40 years. Samuel Johnson (English author): Journey to the Hebrides ...the inducement of having Boswell as his companion. He was propelled by a curiosity to see strange places and study modes of life unfamiliar to him. His book, a superb contribution to 18th-century travel literature, combines historical information with what would now be considered sociological and anthropological observations about the lives of common people. (Boswell’s complementary narrative... Marco Polo: Compilation of Il milione ...to write about his 25 years in Asia but possibly did not feel sufficiently comfortable in either Venetian or Franco-Italian; however, with Rustichello at hand, the traveler began dictating his tale. The language employed was Franco-Italian—a strange composite tongue fashionable during the 13th...
Words: 255 - Pages: 2
...Response Paper: The Talented Mr. Ripley The Talented Mr. Ripley, a novel by Patricia Highsmith, raises questions of identity for both its characters and the novel itself. Protagonist Tom Ripley is a con man, impersonating at the beginning of the novel an income tax agent, not for profit but for amusement. He is then mistaken for a close friend of Dickie Greenleaf’s -- an identity which he is happy to assume. He eventually murders Dickie and assumes his identity as well. Ripley’s identity is amorphous, his ambiguous true self pushed aside in favor of less “boring” personas. The novel’s characters -- seemingly one-dimensional, easily summarized and described -- all find themselves in crisis, each desperately wanting something. Tom Ripley desires higher class status and to become Dickie, to assume his identity. He believes that “It was impossible ever to be lonely or bored...so long as he was Dickie Greenleaf," that somehow a complete change in identity would cure all ills. Dickie yearns for external validation and acclaim, while Marge wants Dickie’s affection and a committed relationship with him, and Freddie wants attention from others. Some actively conceal or ignore parts of themselves. For Ripley, this is his queerness. There are various cues to Ripley’s homoerotic desires: when he is young, he is called “sissy”; he lived with an older man who “preyed” on young men; he was “very friendly” with a male Princeton student last summer; he covets Dickie and describes the man...
Words: 1058 - Pages: 5
...In the novel The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton presents May Welland as a naïve and pure girl; the embodiment of everything Newland Archer perceives as immaculate. But in truth she is not as ignorant as she is described as; she knows all of the things Newland has been doing and she shows him that she is not all he expected her to be. May was previously depicted as being abysmally pure, and Archer loves this part about her; he wants to expose her to all types of literature and open her eyes to the real world. May later shatters this façade with her knowledge that one would not expect; that Archer didn’t expect. She first indicates her awareness by saying, “And if you feel yourself in any way pledged…pledged to the person we’ve spoken of…and...
Words: 423 - Pages: 2
...Through ambiguity, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James accomplishes multiple attributes of a traditional gothic story. This ambiguity, however, spurs some debate regarding the plot of the story, whether it is a ghost story or psychological horror. The protagonist, the governess, is convinced she is interacting with the supernatural, but no one is able to confirm this, indicating that the ghosts do not exist. As her hysteria grows, she sees more ghosts and the children’s behavior becomes stranger and more distanced. One can conclude from these aspects of the story that it is not the ghosts that are harming the children, but it is the governess in fits of madness. On the eve of her employment at Bly, the governess is unable to get a proper...
Words: 553 - Pages: 3
...Shortly after dropping out of the Trotskyist movement in 1978, I embarked on a systematic reading project of the world?s greatest novels. Since I had made the decision to begin writing fiction myself, I wanted to learn the craft from the masters. Additionally, I wanted a change of pace from the hard-core Marxist literature I had been reading for 11 years. (Within two years, however, I had returned to radical politics, largely under the impetus of the Central American revolution.) I soon discovered that some of these masterpieces left me cold, including those written by Henry James, Joseph Conrad and especially Jane Austen. Although I would never deny that they were great writers, their words did not resonate with me. After reading 50 or so pages of ?Pride and Prejudice,? I found myself wondering what all the hype was about. I was left cold by an endless round of country balls, dinner parties and arch dialogue that always sounded self-conscious and somewhat artificial. To illustrate: Elizabeth Bennett, the major character who is based on Jane Austen herself, is in one of her frequent 'cutting' exercises with Fitzwilliam D?Arcy--reminiscent of an old Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy movie. Like Hepburn and Tracy, these two spend most of their time hating each other until they finally discover that they really are in love. (I myself had a different take on the matter. In my experience, people generally start off in love and then discover that they really hate each other...
Words: 266 - Pages: 2
...The themes in the Canterville Ghost The Canterville Ghost is a ghost story. Ghost stories belong to the genre called horror literature, whose purpose is to scare the reader with situations that cause horror or fear. The most common technique is suspense, the slow insinuating of a doubt or of a frightening revelation, which keeps the reader interested. This story can be defined an inverted ghost story, because a lot of elements are different from the traditional ones. The main difference is the fact that Mr Otis is not scared by the ghost, while usually people should be. Moreover, the Ghost itself is frightened by the Otis twins. There is also comic relief bordering on farce, including buckets of water balanced on half-open doors. But the story has a dark centre. The crime and retribution which led to the haunting is ghastly, and this is really not a comedy at all, but a tale of redemption through the power of love. The innocent girl of the family, appropriately called Virginia, prays for the ghost and endures terrifying if unnamed experiences to release the ghost. Also, The Canterville Ghost is both a parody of the traditional ghost story and a satire of the American way of life. Wilde obviously intends to satirize American materialism, but he pokes fun at English traditional culture as well. American vs. British society: “The Canterville Ghost” is a study in contrasts. Wilde takes an American family, places them in a British setting, then, through a series...
Words: 361 - Pages: 2
...English 102 20 February 2014 Question 5: Question 5: Women at the End of the 19th Century Daisy Miller is the female main character in the short story by Henry James. Mr. Winterbourne describes her as a pretty American flirt, suggesting she is somewhat liberal and improper, as per the young man’s impression. Mr. Winterbourne is also a relatively young American man, about twenty-seven years old. He has spent a lot of time in Europe, becoming accustomed to a different world view from that of the American family and more specifically that of Daisy Miller. When the story begins, Winterbourne is seated at the garden of a hotel in Vevey when he meets Daisy’s younger brother Randolph, a pleasant little fellow, brave enough to ask a stranger for sugar, and justifying his request by saying that he is an American boy who misses candy from back home. When his sister Daisy appears and is introduced to Winterbourne, he expects her to be as proper and uptight as the women in Geneva. He even fears for his image, as he struggles to decide what would be proper for him to say to her, considering that he found her attractive. However, Winterbourne is put at ease when he finds Daisy more liberated than he had seen in a long time. When James describes her, as “…very charming; but how deucedly sociable” (12), he gives the impression that he had expected her to exercise some form of restraint upon their acquaintance, since they had just met. He did enjoy her company, but he certainly wasn’t entirely...
Words: 592 - Pages: 3
...Can You See The White Elephant? Have you ever been forced to make a life altering decision? A decision where you much choose one option or the other? The short story Hills Like White Elephants depict a situation in which many, if not all readers can relate to at one point in their lives. The author Ernest Hemingway describes this scenario with a young couple who are at a crossroads in their life, and they are unsure of the future. The young couple are forced, but shying away from the rather large “white elephant in the room”, deciding to go through with having a child or an abortion. The theme in Hills Like White Elephants is expressed using typical thematic literary elements. Hemingway uses elements such as character, setting, conflict, and irony all to express the short story theme and symbolism. All of these elements help to develop the theme of decision making and sacrifice. The reader gets very little background on the relationship of the young couple but at the same time receives insight into the norms of the relationship between the “American man” and Jig the “girl” who is pregnant. Jig is represented as a young dependent girl, in article Tim O’brian writes, “Even the nickname "Jig" develops this central conflict. The name suggests a dance, the music for the dance, and a joke, for instance, and thereby exposes the man's ultimately condescending attitude toward her: she is entertainment, material for an interlude, perhaps. “Hemingway uses the character as an element...
Words: 1701 - Pages: 7
...Week 7 Case Study – Going Global You are the HR manager of a firm that is about to send its first employees overseas to staff a new subsidiary. Your boss, the president, asks you why such assignments often fail, and what you plan to do to avoid such failures. How do you respond? After careful research I would present the president with six challenges of using expats: 1. Problems with selection and recruitment of appropriate candidates on overseas assignments 2. The problems of an expatriate and/or a spouse with adjustment to the host country, and/or family problems 3. Expatriates’ lack of knowledge of the host countries social cultural environment as well as cross-cultural misunderstandings. 4. An expatriate’s lack of command of the local language 5. Limited foreign language proficiency among the local mangers 6. High costs of expatriates’ pay package Next I would outline the steps we are taking to overcome the challenges: Our first step is to do an analysis of critical job competencies then select potential candidates from the results. Step two is to perform psychological tests on the candidates and their family members. Step three is determine who is the best candidate for the position by factoring in all of the above. Step four is to verse the whole family in the culture the host country. Step five is to provide the family with basic language skills and the employee with targeted language skills. Step six is to hire a translator in the host country...
Words: 324 - Pages: 2
...Analysis of Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” In Ernest Hemingway's short story "Hills Like White Elephants," the decision on whether or not to have an abortion puts strain on the characters’ relationship. The two characters, Jig and the American, have differing views on abortion. Hemingway uses the elements of symbolism and dialogue to portray such a serious conversation in which a major life decision is about to be made. Like the proverbial elephant in the room that everyone sees, but no one wants to acknowledge, not once is the subject of abortion mentioned, but it is implied. The reader must be willing to read what is not there. While most writers set the stage for their readers, Hemingway leaves the interpretation completely up to the reader. This story takes place in 1926 in Spain, a country where abortion was illegal until 2009 (“History of Abortion”.) The fact that the procedure was illegal is probably why the word abortion was never mentioned during their public conversation in the bar. Money is obviously not an issue for the American as referenced to the many hotel stickers on their suitcases and as we know, money can buy anything including medical services. Jig is interpreted as a young and naïve girl, who is struggling with the decision that is laid upon her. The American is interpreted as an harsh, manly man who is adamant during his dialogue about what he wants, even to the point of trying to downplay the procedure by stating that it was an “awfully...
Words: 591 - Pages: 3
...Professor Lynda Lambert English 102 5 November 2013 Hills Like White Elephants In “Hills like White Elephants”, the main character’s dilemma serves at the symbolic setting of the story. By giving the reader just enough information in the form of using symbols, Ernest Hemingway’s concept gives readers an opportunity to draw deeper meaning from the tale. He focuses on symbolism to deliver the idea of an abortion as the main point. Jig, the main character, struggles with the decision to continue her pregnancy or continue her hard-nosed lifestyle with the American; this is represented by describing two different scenerios of the railroad tracks. “Hills Like White Elephants” is the title Hemingway uses as a symbol for Jig’s pregnancy. A rare, expensive possession that is a financial burden to maintain is defined as a “white elephant”. “On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun” (Hemingway 591). The complicated decision of abortion plagues Jig and the American, even though the term “abortion” is not found in the story. From the symbolic interpretation of the setting, there are only two choices, or two directions, similar to how there are only two rail lines that pass through the station. (Rankin 1). However, the situation is regarded in separate viewpoints from both characters. “Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads...
Words: 1141 - Pages: 5
