Good or Evil,Both or Neither——An Analysis of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw

Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw has drawn much attention from critics, and the discussion mainly dwells on the ghosts’ existence or the governess’ sexual desire repression, which result in the children’s tragedy.This paper tries to approach the story from a new perspective. In accordance with James’ theory of "unity" and "roundness",this paper avoids the judgment on the governess of being simply good or evil,but focuses on the analysis of the process of being protective to persecutive.