Entertaining Dread the Contrived Aesthetic Experience of Fear in Henry James The Turn of the Screw - Literature Essay Samples

The Turn of the Screw has been read by some analysts as a straightforward ghost story and by others as a psychologically accurate – whether pre-or post-Freudian portrait of mental illness or repression breaking out. However enjoyable it is to consider Henry James’ short story from any of these or similar points of view, it strikes me as particularly interesting to look at it as a kind of metafiction, a story about storytelling that explores the power of language to create mood or to evoke emotional or psychological responses through the power of suggestion. In some ways this story and its opening frame are reminiscent of the almost archetypal scenario of children sitting in the dark telling spooky stories. Also, it calls to mind a particular scene in the Wonderworks film adaptation of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. In that scene, the characters Anne Shirley and Diana Berry are alone together in a gloomy wood, and they start reciting to one another all the chilling ghost tales they can recall and talking about how â€Å"deliciously frightened† they are. In the novel, Anne confesses to her aunt that â€Å"Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are sosoCOMMONPLACE. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic.†¦ Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things† (Montgomery 229). Similarly, Henry James demonstrates in his Turn of the Screw a keen understanding of the delight that typically imaginative people derive from being scared and, indeed, in scaring themselves. James’ story is a masterful sort of meta-chiller that works on the imagination of the reader while allowing events recounted by characters within the story to work on the imaginations of other characters, to effects at times obvious and at other times ambiguous. Part of the ambiguity surrounding the story involves whether the governess who narrates her own tale has effectively scared herself with phantasms and other observations that originate in her own mind. Her indirect reference to certain then-contemporary works of Victorian horror or gothic suspense (The Mystery of Udolpho, Jane Eyre) may be a hint from the author about her or about the story in which she finds herself. â€Å"Was there a ‘secret’ at Bly—a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?† (James 312). Although the interpretation of the story and the question of its realism are debatable, it seems obvious that James intended, while telling a chilling tale, also to explore the complicity of the imaginative audience member in creating the effect – the pleasurable dread or terror – such tales may convey. Whether or not these kinds of stories are true is less important than the effectiveness of the storytelling style, whether the narrative elicits the desired response in hearers or readers. Of course, James occasionally uses some fairly heavy-handed means to evoke the edgy mood in The Turn of the Screw, even beginning his story with a discussion about what makes a tale the kind of story that can hold listeners â€Å"sufficiently breathless† (James 291), what gives it each successive â€Å"turn of the screw† (James 292). Also, the author has his characters offer their own commentaries on the emotional impact of their stories – Douglas refers dramatically to the â€Å"dreadfulness† of the account he is leading up to telling, even stating that it is â€Å"beyond everything. Nothing that I know touches it,† with respect to its â€Å"uncanny ugliness and horror and pain† (ibid). This is quite a dramatic setup for a story that has yet to be revealed. Such a characterization creates anticipation, primes the reader for a strong response and demands a payoff. It is a bold move on the part of James, since to fail to provide a sufficient emotional payoff could leave the author open to accusations of overstatement or melodramatic superfluity. And speaking of the superfluous, throughout the story there is continual repetition of emotionally evocative pejoratives like dread, horror, queer, insane, corrupt, et cetera, as well as frequent use of exclamation points and italics. The text itself seems emotionally manipulative, bent on an effect, and if the reader is unwilling or unable to go where the text is apparently leading, the effect would certainly be, from an author’s point of view, unfortunate, and the story would likely fail to satisfy. James leaves the reader with little reason to doubt that the payoff he has set up is coming. However, one of the author’s principle means of manipulation in Turn of the Screw is delayed gratification. There is much hesitation, holding back of details after the insinuation of what is to come, inviting the listeners within the story as well as readers of the story to let their imaginations flow into the gaps. Again, the author is not at all subtle about it; he blatantly points to the technique early on (James 297), in an exchange between Douglas, his secondaryin the ordinal sensenarrator, and one of his listeners. So far had Douglas presented his picture when someone put a question. â€Å"And what did the former governess die of? – of so much respectability?† Our friend’s answer was prompt. â€Å"That will come out. I don’t anticipate.† â€Å"Excuse me – I thought that was just what you are doing.† Further down the same page, after giving out a few more thin details, Douglas makes an insinuation, a reference to some unforeseen danger in the governess’s story, of which she was unaware at the outset but of which â€Å"she did learn. You shall hear tomorrow what she learned.† Again Douglas gives out more sparse information and, as the primary, unnamed narrator states, â€Å"with this, [he] made a pause that, for the benefit of the company, moved [him] to throw in† his own titillating guess about what was still to come in the narrative. This prompts Douglas to get up, turn his back on his audience, and stir the fire before going further with his tale – that is, his setup of the governess’s tale. While I count three main narratives in Turn of the Screw, nested like Babushka dolls, there are technically several more stories within stories in this complex narrative, and even more storytellers mentioned than there are narratives given, rather than summarized or referenced. Notably Douglas begins his allusion to the unnamed governess’s story after at least two other narrators, Griffin and another, have told their own ghost tales to the company, to varying effect. Within Douglas’ story, there is the governess’s tale, in which she speaks of what she learns from Mrs. Grose and, even before that, of being told by her master what he judged to be his own pertinent history: â€Å"He told her frankly all his difficulty – that for several applicants the conditions had been prohibitive. They were, somehow, simply afraid. It sounded dull – it sounded strange; and all the more so because of his main condition† (James 297). Meanwhile, Miles, the governess’s male charge, has a number of opportunities in dialogue to tell his story, carefully clipped as it is by his wariness and clouded by the impressions and interpretations of the governess who transcribes it. All this underscores the likelihood that James is telling a story about storytelling, about the impact of the interplay between text and allusion, reference and repetition, insinuation and inference, hesitation and anticipation, mood and manipulation. With an audience that is willing to be guided or capable of being mesmerized and an author who is adept at it, as James is, a story can create impressions, misdirect or focus attention, and evoke particular and highly entertaining effects, dreadful or otherwise. In the case of The Turn of the Screw, the author has given his short story just enough masterfully contrived â€Å"turns† to encourage his readers, especially those with the right sort of susceptibility to his techniques, to give an added twist or two to a tale already fraught with delightfully chilling torque. Works Cited: James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels. Signet Classic, New York: 1962. Montgomery, Lucy Maude. Anne of Green Gables. Bantam, New York: 1981.

Childhood Memory And Attention As Predictors Of Academic...

Early Childhood Memory and Attention as Predictors of Academic Growth Trajectories Memory plays a very important role in our academic growth and improving our skills. The purpose of this paper is to review a study by Stipek Valentino (2015), which examines associations between attention and memory and academic skill development. Stipek Valentino (2015) used longitudinal data from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to measure how well attention and short-term and working memory in early childhood predict growth trajectories in both math and reading comprehension through adolescence and education attainment in young adulthood (Stipek Valentino, 2015). The study indicated that the relationship between working memory and attention in academic outcomes was observed to be strong and positive in early childhood but not significant during the later years (Stipek Valentino, 2015). The results of the study suggest that core cognitive capacities predict learning in the early elementary grades, but the relationship weakens by late elementary school. These findings suggest that while efforts to develop attention and memory may improve academic achievement in the early grades, during the later grades interventions that focus directly on learning the subject matter are more likely to improve academic achievement (Stipek Valentino, 2015). Implications of the Article The implications of this study are very important as achievement in school requires aShow MoreRelatedPoor Academic Performance7039 Words   |  29 PagesPOOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE   IN SCHOOL Guidelines for Parents and Teachers The initial step in intervention for children not doing well in school is to determine the cause. The school psychologist may be the best source of information, and the either the school or the parents can request an evaluation to determine the causes of a child’s learning problems. 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Reasoning Criminal Rational Choice Perspectives

Question: Discuss about the Reasoning Criminal for Rational Choice Perspectives. Answer: Introduction The aim of the following assignment is to answer 4 individual questions based on a given case scenario. In this context, it is to mention that the considered case study is about an avocado, custard apple and passion fruit farm that is recently going through some major issues, such as low production due to weather change and lack of skills among the workers, market rivalry and harvesting issues. Henceforth, prime concern of the following question would be to identify, evaluate current issues and available resources along with to suggest a convenient alternative of organizational strategy framework for the concerned organization. After considering the provided case scenario and the accompanying article, several issues regarding the current market for Avocado production have been noticed. Prior to identify and evaluate four significant among them, it is required to denote here that the avocado production of Western Australia is ready to flourish in the current year after temporary issue of supply chain due to weather and transport problems. However, for Glasshouse Avocados four key issues, which have the potentiality to suppress the production as well market growth of Glasshouse Avocados are The market rivalry Jack, the present owner of Glasshouse Avocado should consider the current market situation for Avocado production in Queensland. For sustaining the business as well as increasing competitive advantages, Jack should consider the matter that the Queensland food market is gradually being dominated by the overseas imports. On the other hand, Jack needs to keep in mind that organic farmers like him would find it hard to increase revenue margin as relatively new boutique operators are stably setting their foots by acquiring a premium price for their high quality products. Most significantly, Jack should be worried about the fact that the new technology of putting Avocados in a tube has been already adopted by the farmers of the North. Climate change and its effect Along with consolidated market condition, Jack needs to consider the negative impact of climate change. For example, Jack has already identified that the quality as well size of the avocados are being determined by the comparatively hotter and longer summer months. Henceforth, Jack should consider that currently climate fluctuations are critical for avocado harvesting and in coming future it may become a major issue. Lack of foreign market access In order to increase the revenue margin as well as the market growth for Avocado, Jack should highly consider that the farmers of Avocado still do not have the privilege to acquire market access protocols for several foreign countries. Therefore, instead of having the opportunity to make fruitful business oversees, farmers are currently suffering from lack of foreign market access protocols. On the other hand, Jack needs to keep in mind the fact that the west coast of Australia is suffering from having a relatively small domestic market. New technologies Jack has already identified that new technologies are winning the current market and the local farmers have started to adopt them. Jack should be concerned about the matter that presently in the premise of Avocado production, high pressure of processing facility is entering. Therefore, in future if Jack would not consider implementing new processing technologies, he may find it difficult to increase the production rate. Most importantly, Jack should be concerned about the matter that his labors have skill deficit. As it is evident from the above discussion, there are multiple issues that have emerged in the business management of Glasshouse Avocados. However, one of the most remrakble issues that need immediate attention is lack of technological innovation in the production process itself. Hence, this issue will be addressed with the help of the rational decision making process as shown below: The Problem: Any kind of business should seek the help of technological innovation if it intends to sustain itself in a highly competitive market. The Glasshouse Avocados is no longer an organization operating in a monopolistic market. In the era of globalization, different avocado producing organizations are operating in the market and are exporting their products to other regions of the world. With the advent of technological innovation, the organizations are utilizing different technological solutions for increasing the fertility of the soil, providing the best climatic condition to the fruits or for providing the extricating the pests or biological residues from the plant. However, Glasshouse Avocados may lag behind and suffer from low productivity owing to inability to embrace new technology. Decision Criterion: The factors that will be considered while making the decision should also be considered. First of all, in order to incorporate technological solutions, the organization will have to invest a huge amount of money. The money incurred will be spent for the implementation of the technologically advanced infrastructure as well as for the research and development studies. The financial expenditure is a big criterion. Next, greater human resource is needed for the implementation of these technological changes. Weightage of the Criteria: The weightage of both the criteria is moderately high as in both the cases the organization will have to invest an enormous amount of money, and yet the outcome is expected to surpass the expenditure involved. Alternative Courses of Action: The alternative choices or courses should also be considered: Offer the products at low cost so as to capture the attention of the buyers who would otherwise try to buy avocados of higher quality In case the safety and quality of the products can be ensured by implementing technological solutions, then the organization can merge with a more technologically advanced fruit producing organization and enjoy the technological benefits mutually Evaluation of each Alternative: As far as the first alternative is concerned, it can be an effective alternative that can help the organization sustain its business for a shorter span of time. On the other hand, the second alternative can be a more feasible solution in case the business organization is running short of money. Computation of the Optimal Decision: While computing the optimal decision, the expected outcome of both the aforementioned alternatives has been computed. Accordingly, it has been observed that the outcome of the first alternative is risk aversive as there is a sense of uncertainty regarding its relevance in the years to come. Hence, the second alternative of merging with another company seems to be a more viable option. Hence, the decision to merge with a technologically innovative organization is the optimal decision. Limits: As far as the limits of the rational decision making process is concerned, the major limitation is that the change in the organizational structure may not be positively accepted by the employees. Besides, the financial expenditure involved in merging with a reputed company is huge although the immediate outcome is still quite uncertain. Before merging with an organization, it may not be possible to collect the relevant information about the organization within a short while. With the help of VRIN (Valuable, rare, inimitable, non substitutable) analysis framework the possible resources available for Glasshouse could be analyzed. The VRIN framework helps in identifying possible resources as well as assists in securing the rare and inimitable resources for an organization (Osiyevskyy and Zargarzadeh 2014). In terms of valuable resources, Glasshouse possesses an impressive amount of land for harvest, which is helpful enough for competing with rival organizations. On the other hand, the possible rare resource available for Glasshouse is a convenient weather. It is because climate fluctuation has become a frequent circumstance and a suitable weather is necessary for acquiring high quality and high amount of corp. In terms of inimitable resources, Glasshouses harvesting land should be considered as per the fact that the size and quality of the land, which can be utilized for both townhouse building and fruit production is hard to imitate. In terms of non substitutable resources, Glasshouse should consider the new technical devices, which are essential for better production and packaging. It is non substitutable as no other resource can take place of the new technical tools for improving the standard of production and packaging. For establishing a concrete future for Glasshouse, Jack could consider the portfolio strategy belonging to the corporate level strategy framework. With the help of corporate level and specifically portfolio strategy Glasshouse can minimize the overall company portfolio of stock by the process of diversification. It is because the aim of corporate level strategy is to initially decide a particular business framework for success (Cornish and Clarke 2014). The basic idea of Portfolio strategy is to invest current resources in several premises. With the help of this strategy, Glasshouse can Utilize their land for harvesting crops as well as for developing some portions for townhouse living Instead of Avocado, passion fruit and custard apple, the organization can extend its production business for Kiwi The strategy would be appropriate for the organization as it would help the company to avoid risk of losing assets as well as can support to increase the revenue margin (Baumann et al. 2014). On the other hand, the strategy would successfully assist in diversifying the business and help in making a strong ground for future expansion of the company (Henkel et al. 2014). Most importantly, the strategy would support to improvise the current service of Avocado by adding more qualities into the production with the help of money acquired from the investment for townhouse living. Conclusion From the above assignment, it can be concluded that the considered organization Glasshouse Avocado is suffering from lack of employee skills, technologies and market rivalry, Therefore, according to the assignment, the organization should adopt the strategy to upgrade the existing production style by implementing new technologies and improvising the skills of the existing staffs by providing trainings. Moreover, the assignment has implied that to succeed in future, Glasshouse should adopt the Portfolio strategy. References Baumann, D.J., Fluke, J.D., Dalgleish, L. and Kern, H., 2014. The decision-making ecology.From evidence to outcomes in child welfare: An international reader, pp.24-40. Cornish, D.B. and Clarke, R.V. eds., 2014.The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending. Transaction Publishers. Ebert, R.J., Griffin, R.W., Starke, F.A. and Dracopoulos, G., 2014.Business essentials. Pearson Education Canada. Henkel, M., Bider, I. and Perjons, E., 2014, June. Capability-based business model transformation. InInternational Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering(pp. 88-99). Springer International Publishing. McWilliams, A., Williams, C., 2014. MGMT . Victoria Cengage Learning Mooty, S. and Kedia, B., 2014. RD Partnership Portfolio Strategies for Breakthrough Innovation: Developing Knowledge Exchange Capabilities. InOpen Innovation through Strategic Alliances(pp. 219-252). Palgrave Macmillan US. Osiyevskyy, O. and Zargarzadeh, M.A., 2014. Business model design and innovation in the process of expansion and growth of global enterprises. Renfree, A., Martin, L., Micklewright, D. and Gibson, A.S.C., 2014. Application of decision-making theory to the regulation of muscular work rate during self-paced competitive endurance activity.Sports Medicine,44(2), pp.147-158. Spiegel, D.V.D., Linke, B.S., Stauder, J. and Buchholz, S., 2015. Sustainability strategies of manufacturing companies on corporate, business and operational level.International Journal of Strategic Engineering Asset Management,2(3), pp.270-286.