Art in the 19th and early 20th century

Literature in English 4th Year: Art in the 19th and early 20th century


 I’ve decided to focus on Modernism and Impressionism. It's a brief summary of what we dealt with in our art class.

As Felluga stated, Modernism was a movement in which wild experimentation was made in all the artistic fields.

The Impressionist started to experiment with different subject matters and different techniques. Their characteristic subject matters were landscapes, nature and scenes of modern life. The technique was based on more visible brushstrokes. This happened because they started to paint outdoors and they played with the sunlight, so they had to paint quickly in order get the same effect of light.

We can see in the painting A CORNER OF THE MEADOW AT ERAGNY by Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

Another characteristic of this movements, that differenciated it from the Victorian painters, is that the impressionists left aside black and different greys and started to use complementary colours. This was a crucial scientifical dicovery which has changed the way artists paint. That's why the painting are so colourful.

I want to share with you the The Guide to Impressionism from the National Gallery.  It's a great to understand the causes of the movement.

Criticism acknowledging the work's insoluble ambiguity. By Brenda Murphy

A number of critics tried to explain the origin of ingrained and insoluble ambiguity and the effects of such ambiguity on the reader.

Brenda Murphy:

According to Brenda Murphy, controversies can never be resolved and there is n answer to the questions to the text raises.

For example, we cannot determine whether the author intended to write a ghost story or a story of mental illness. The critic will try to understand the author’s meaning in the context of an extrinsic genre, having already lost the possibility of grasping in the author’s actual intrinsic genre.

Murphy then turns to James’s statements about the story, which seem not to be sincere because his intentions are not clear neither related to what he has said about his own work.

Some other critics as Salomon and Aswel have ignored the author’s statements in the preface and established quite disparate interpretations, believing that the real meaning of the story was only in James’s conscious and imagination.

Nevertheless, Murphy considers impossible the fact of determining an unconscious purpose or intention unless it s made conscious. For her it is important to interpret words and actions, much as we interpret a text. But again the hermeneutic circle reappears. In deciding what element it is important to be considered, we are influenced by our own preconceptions so for Murphy, failure becomes inevitable, because the problem of the hermeneutic circle is a fact of what is perceived and what is communicated.

Furthermore, Murphy cites Hirsch’s critic that the author’s intended meaning enfolds analogous and unforeseeable implications, which of course are not known to its originator.

Sheppard

Sheppard

Elizabeth A. Sheppard analyzed “The Turn of the Screw” in order to understand what the author’s intention was and some of the elements of the plot, i.e. if the ghosts were real or the governess suffered from “mental illness”. Sheppard based her analysis on biographical research and on what Henry James read or did not read before writing the novella.

ü  She affirms that T.T.S. is based on the book called “The Proceedings” of the Society for Psychical Research”, an organization that believes in psychic and paranormal events and abilities. She explains that James could have never read or known about the existence of “Freud or Breuer’s Studies in Hysteria,” unless the philosopher and psychologist William James (Henry James’s brother) or Frederic Myers had influenced Henry to read them.

ü  She believes that after the death of his sister Alice who suffered from hysteria, James should not have continued reading about scientific treatises on hysteria.

ü  James might have been more interested in “The Proceedings” (1883) or “The Phantasms of the living” (1886) rather than in psychiatric material to write the novella. In TTS there are many details that are connected with these two books.

ü  She says that the “ghost are not mere hallucinations” that the governess experienced. Sheppard interprets this as “evidence against Freudian non-apparitionist readings.”

ü  Narrative frame: at the beginning of the story, we can notice the intention of the book about haunted children and not about the problems that the governess had. This can be seen with the recommendation that Douglas made about the governess, or with the expulsion of Miles from the school or with the bad language of Flora.

ü  Sheppard insists that the governess did not express “repressed sexuality” because of her love for her employer. Also, Sheppard points out that the first time the governess saw Quint was not because of this repressed sexuality but because she was daydreaming about her employer and it was not him who appeared to her.

ü  From the point of view of the Society for Psychical Research, the novella can be interpreted as a ghost story in which some kind of force is seen after death. “Quint and Miss Jessel died some months before” and clearly the governess was having a kind of connection with them. As regards Miles and Flora, they might have not seen anything or they could have been lying.

ü  Another interpretation could be “thought- transference or telepathy between living persons” In the story, Miles and Flora could have been obsessed with the people dead and the governess could have received these images of the deceased telepathically.

ü  The governess tried to protect the children from the evil ghosts.

ü  Sheppard affirms that Miles died and was damned because the governess performed an exorcism on him.

ü  NAMES:

      - Peter Quint: This name reminds Sheppard about the stage-manager of “A Midsummer   Night’s dream”. Also, Quint’s physical appearance helps Sheppard make a comparison with George Bernard Shaw. According to her, there was a strong dislike between James and Shaw. Quint did not wear a hat and was not dressed in an appropriate way. These characteristics “are reminiscent of Shaw’s carelessness”, which was something that James hated. James was a very elegant person.

           - Jessel: is a Jewish name which can be reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Jessica or the judge of the case of Annie Besant.

          - Miles and Flora: Latin names that represent the ideal male and female.

          - The Governess: she has no name. This is an authentic characteristic of Victorian times.

To conclude, I don’t really know if Sheppard believes in ghosts but she examined The Turn of the Screw from an apparitionist point of view. She refutes psychiatric material such as Freudian arguments.

I am a firm believer in ghosts and apparitions. I had some personal experiences and I know many cases of this subject. Imagine that I cannot believe that the governess suffered from mental illness.

Five Senses Poem

My Joy

On Monday I see through your eyes.

On Tuesday I touch your little fingers.

On Wednesday I hear your soft sigh in my loving chest.

On Thursday I taste your chubby cheeks.

On Friday I smell the happiness in the air.

The Turn of the Screw according to Albert F. Stone

Albert F. Stone, Jr. suggests that the reading of The Turn of the Screw should be understood as a mixture of Freudian and Marxist insights.
As a result of the Victorian social structure presented in the book, Stone maintains that it would be inevitable to victimize Flora and Miles. One of the instances belonging to this social system is the indifference of the uncle which was a main characteristic of upper class families. Another instance is the reliance to a vulnerable governess, who belongs to a middle class and is incapable of being tolerant of good and evil in all people. As a consequence of these psychological realities, which are socially engendered, the children are considered to be victimized.
Like Bontly and Spilka, he also defends the position of acknowledging the apparitions as real in the tale’s imaginary world. The governess sees the root of evil only in the ghosts, but it is everywhere, even in the world beyond Bly.
Stone, like Firebaugh, considers the governess not a savior but a “sexual aggressor”, preventing Miles from leaving Bly and seeing the world. This interpretation, Stone recalls, can be seen in the final scene, where Quint is described as ‘a sentinel before a prison’. Miles has not been repressed by the ghosts, but by the inexperienced and ignorant governess. What is more, Stone explains she is similar to Oedipus for her “dreadful boldness of mind” which “urges to uncover every secret”. In her attempt to know and control everything, Flora is forced to physical and emotional prostration and Miles to death. Furthermore, it is probable that the governess wants evil to be focused on Flora and Miles.
All in all, Stone’s article is a clear example of social psychological criticism. His analysis describes the psychological results of an unjust social structure such as the Victorian society.
But Stone believes the story cannot be reduced to this dimension, and he emphasizes the important effect on the reader. So he also offers a sociologically based reader-response criticism. In today’s reality the ghostly effect is not as effective as in that period, though it is essential for the confidences and words that are not spoken in the story providing not only a ghostly effect but also mystery and horror.

Taking into account Stone’s analysis of the book, I find it quite accurate and logical according not only to the social period but also to the psychological connection as a consequence of the social reality. Yet I personally believe that the sociologically reader-response criticism proposed by Stone is the most suitable because of the ambiguity used throughout the book.

Heilman

Heilman's interpretation of “The Turn of the Screw” is from an apparitionist point of view. He expresses that James constructed the work as a result of the cultural environment, which can also be seen in other works from the same period.
Heilman compares “The Pledge” of Duerrenmatt with James’ novel and he cites several similarities between the novellas:

- “Ghosts are real, evil entities”
- Grown-ups persuade children to do what they want.
- Children and evils have secret and expected encounters.

- In both novellas, not all the children accept the "threatening evil".
- The killer and Quint are alike because they have the same social status.
- In the novellas, the ghost and the killer want to hurt mentally and physically. The killer does not like women and he wants to hurt them and Quint and Miss Jessel want the children to “share their own infernal torments”.
- In both, there are symbolic interpretations. The author’s have chosen “fertility images” to introduce “images of death or decay", such as the garden.
- The apparitions are true but the main characters are thought to be mad. Heilman does not agree with this and he expresses that they are normal. They behave like this because of the difficulties they are undergoing.


What Heilman does not contemplate is the fact that Durrenmatt might have used James' novel as an example to construct his novella and that's why there are so many coincidences between them.

In conclusion, I find this analysis suitable and I agree with many of the points raised by Heilman. I believe that the ghosts are real and that the governess does not suffer from psychological problems.

Allen

Allen’s interpretation of TTS:

Allen’s criticism about “The Turn of the Screw” seems to be one that manifests atavism. It goes back in time claiming that the phantoms present in the story are real, disregarding all the critics who have turned their thoughts into the apparitionist or non-apparitionist theory or the ones who have just believed in the story’s ambiguity.

Under a traditional formalist reading of the plot, Allen points out that what James intended to write was a “ghost” story and the main evidence of this is the text itself.

The narrative structure (mainly the three-narrator frame) used in this novella gives credibility to the governess’s words. The rationales behind this idea are:

· “Douglas’s good recommendation of the governess”.

· “The respect that Douglas accords to the manuscript”.

· “The fact that Douglas does not divulge the governess’s name and that Douglas, in turn, is given authority by the 1^st person narrator – the anonymous guest”.

Allen stands out about the latter: “Although the `I' of the narrative frame is of course a fictional character, this is only so because of the fictional situation; that is, he (the real James) wrote the governess's story. The `I' is the `real' James in fictional garb: he supplies the title within the frame, is perceptive, etc., and is an uninvolved observer. His judgements and perceptions are accepted by the reader as the real James's judgements and perceptions, though his knowledge is limited, and he can thus be legitimately designated the implied James …”

Finally, in other words, the anonymous guest is of great importance since it should be regarded as “the author’s persona”. Consequently, it evokes the authority of the author. 

To conclude, as a formalist critic, Allen provides us with a traditional interpretation of the plot. It is a text centred analysis that focus is on words. Therefore, he does not even consider other theories in his analysis. Allen’s interpretation is simple and straight forward. However, it is essential for reading and interpreting this kind of complex literary work since first the reader needs to understand the work as it is and then he/she will be able to start reading and analysing the text between the lines.

CARGILL'S CRITICISM

Cargill states that the main motive for the writing of TTS is Henry's aquaintance with Freud's cases, particularly with Miss Lucy R.'s case.
Miss Lucy was an English governess from Glasgow who went to work to the house of a wealthy Vienna businessman, who was a widower, as governess to take care of his two children.
She started to be treated by Freud as she suffered from "a persistent purulent rhinitis". Freud, after some sessions, found out that her affection was psychosomatic and was related to previous episodes witihin her employer's house. During a period of time, apart from having rhinitis, she smelled burned pastry. It was found out that this was because, in one occasion, she was trying to prevent the children from reading a letter from her mother. That letter was an answer to a previous letter in which Miss Lucy revealed her love for her employer to her mother. After Freud explained to her the origins of her health problem, this ended up.
To sum up, Cargill finds many similarities between TTS and Miss Lucy's case: both governesses were very young and inexpirienced, both had rich employers, both fell in love with their employers at a first interview and both feared to express their feelings publicly. Cargill also suggests that, as Douglas conversations with the governess may have appeased her mind, Miss Lucy's sessions with Freud led her illness to an end.
I find Cargill's position suitable because the similar points between Miss Lucy and the governess in TTS does not seem to be just coincidences. In other words, he clearly justifies his idea through the similarities he states.

WEST

Muriel West considered “The turn of the Screw” as a self-referential and self-contained, as she is a structuralist.  She didn’t take into account the external factors but the text itself.

She wrote A Stormy Night With The Turn of the Screw. It is a book which combines fiction with literary criticism and, in order to do this, she emulates the structure of “The Turn of the Screw”. “A stormy Night” is based in an anonymous manuscript edited by someone called H.K.Y. and told by a narrator who obtained it in a package of old books who bought at an auction.

In the book, the editor, H.K.Y., made comments that affected the reader’s perceptions. For example, we can appreciate the way in which events are presented. At first we can’t understand them, so it is easy to get confused and to consider them unnatural, but then we can find a natural and logical cause.

It’s pretty suitable the way the Turn of the Screw is analyzed by West. As a structuralist, we can see that she didn’t influence our perceptions, she didn’t tell us if we should followed a non-apparition or an apparition perspective but she took the most intriguing part of this book, its structure, its ambiguity. This ambiguity is key of the success of this novella.

Nardin's criticism-

Jane Nardin is a critic whose criticism about The Turn of the Screw took place mainly in 1970. She held a non- apparitionist view and sought to relate many events of the story as well as some of the characters' personality traits to Victorian moralism. She stated that the protagonist's feelings about her employer were based on a repressed and unrequited love, stemming from the cruel pressures of Victorian values of the time. Nardin states adult characters had good intentions but they were submitted to mental deterioration as time went by, corrupting Miles and Flora's innocence through the instillment of Victorian values. I agree with that point, since both children were quite liable to be influenced by certain beliefs that Mrs. Grose, among others, held.


Nardin also mentions sexual repression as a constitutive element of the story, adding that Victorian values and prescriptions frustrated the carnal desire of love. Miles and Flora's love for Quint and Jessel was also repressed, as they, their surrogate parents, were socially inferior to the children. I agree that the desire of showing love was somehow constrained by social differences in the children's case, due to the aforementioned instillment of Victorian values. Nardin also reminds us the governess is aware that the master sees her only as a servant.


By only wishing to marry beneath her, a lady proved she lacked the innocence and purity of mind which Victorianism expected of her. Miss Jessel intention's to marry Quint would have been seen as thoroughly inappropriate, showing lack of 'purity and innocence of mind' as the man was socially beneath her.


The critic's sociologist approach was based on Freudian and Marxist arguments, suggesting society as an element of corruption in The Turn of the Screw" (132).


As a conclusion, I can say Nardin's view is very persuading. The fact of considering the social flamework of the time is a sensible way of analysing a literary piece, and this critic didn't overlook the social element as a factor that influenced the characters' thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

HEILMAN- TTS Critical Interpretation

Heilman develops his essay from an apparitionist standpoint. He claims that the reader is to trust the story as it is narrated, that is, the governess's assumptions about the ghosts and their alliance with the children are to be considered real facts. He thinks that the story revolves about the conflict between good and evil, more precisely about "the struggle of evil to possess the human soul".

He thus concludes that the novella can be interpreted in terms of symbolic representations of religious matters. To support this view, he mainly focuses on the patterns of language used throughout   (motif, symbol, image and archetype) and draws some comparisons between the story and religious elements. These are some of the examples he provides: he compares Bly to the Garden of Eden, Miles and Flora to Adam and Eve, Peter Quint to the serpent in the Garden of Eden (he is described with characteristics of a snake), the last scene is taken as representing the Catholic sacrament of confession, the governess is shown as a savior, etc. 

Though I personally find this interpretation amazing in that Heilman's examples and justifications may perfectly work, I do not quite agree with him because I think that even though the governess seems a reliable character at the beginning of the story she loses all credibility by the end, so I'm more inclined to believe that she suffers from psychological problems and that the ghosts are only part of her own imagination.