Turn of the Screw/Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly

I liked and disliked the fact that the story is so open ended. In a way, it let's my imagination roam free and make assumptions and create my own kind of story in my head. On the other hand, I wish there were more answers. I really hated the fact that the Governess is supposed to be "all-knowing", I don't like or understand how she just knows everything without any explanation. I actually found her character really annoying. She just believes that she's doing the right thing. Out of both of these stories, I definitely liked Accursed Inhabitants a lot more, mostly because it gives a good back story to Turn of the Screw, one that seems to have been lost through the numerous narrations. I found it helpful that we read this story after The Sandman and Freud's essay on The Uncanny. I was able to make a lot of connections between the stories myself, and the class discussions helped a lot too. The doubling of characters is something that especially sticks out to me. In both stories Freud's idea of the doppelganger is displayed very prominently. The Governess reminds me a lot of Nathaniel from The Sandman as well.

The Turn of the Screw was one complicated story. We could felt like Miles was a creepy child from the start though, like he was very mature and to me, like I thought he had a latency gay going on. I also think the Governess was out of her mind, and don't think Jessel and Quint were ghosts, but it was from her repressed sexual feelings that she was seeing them. The Governess "knew" enough to know that Jessel and Quint had some sort of forbidden relationship, something she would never have. When the Governess "sees" Jessel at the desk in the study room, she screams "You terrible miserable woman!" , I feel as if that is the Governess projecting her feelings of inadequacy onto Jessel. I feel as though there was something that the Governess wanted to prove to the Master to get noticed. Like she kept doing things to get noticed, and in a way vying for his attention. I also got the impression that what makes this story so "horrible", is that the children are being treated as not innocent, and "knowing" far more then they should for the ages of ten and eight. The short story, Accursed Inhabitants of the House of Bly, was a good story and anecdote to The Turn of the Screw, and really furthered my belief in Miles being attracted to males. The way Jessel spoke of herself before she "crossed over" was interesting to me too, because it was complete opposite of the type of person she was in life. Further, the way the Governess is portrayed as a strict, tight, rule abiding person gave me more insight to how she would never allow herself to be fully seduced by anyone, or ever give into her sexual desires, which gave me more more reason to believe that in The Turn of the Screw, its what makes her go mad. I also think that when Miles screams his last word, "-you devil", refers to the Governess, because she is the one who won't allow freedoms of any sort. I could be wrong and will probably read the story yet again to see if I change my feelings.