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.