In the following excerpt, Pecora places The Turn of the Screw within its literary and cultural context.

In the following essay, originally published in 1934, Wilson presents a psychoanalytical interpretation of The Turn of the Screw in which he regards the ghosts of the story as illusions seen only by the governess.

In the following essay, McWhirter examines The Turn of the Screw within the context of James's life and oeuvre.

In the following essay, Whelan explores the governess's profound moral and spiritual crisis, maintaining that the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel mirror the evil tendencies within the children and the governess.

In the following essay, Petry claims that with The Turn of the Screw James wrote a parody of the popular novel Jane Eyre, portraying his own narrator (the unnamed governess) as an almost exact parody of Brontë's famous female protagonist.

In the following essay, Miall offers a reading of The Turn of the Screw based on Sigmund Freud's “The Uncanny.”

In the following essay, Schrero contends that The Turn of the Screw should be analyzed in terms of various cultural beliefs and traditions common to the Victorian era—particularly the interactions between children, parents, servants, and governesses.

In the following essay, Scott explains the importance of children's games, pranks, and activities in The Turn of the Screw.

In the following essay, Lydenberg perceives the governess as an ironic savior who causes the breakdown of Flora and the death of Miles.

In the following essay, Beidler examines James's extratextual comments on The Turn of the Screw in order to gain insight on the story.

In the following essay, Renner attributes the governess's detailed description of Peter Quint to nineteenth-century beliefs about the symptomatology of female sexual hysteria.

In the following essay, Cohen finds parallels between James's novella and Sigmund Freud's Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria.

In the following essay, Mahbobah addresses recent feminist perspectives on The Turn of the Screw.

In the following essay, Mansell analyzes James's utilization of language in The Turn of the Screw.

In the following essay, Bell maintains that “it is not the ghost of the two dead household servants that the governess seeks to validate, but something more undenotable, an evil in the children and in the world which the ghosts can be said simply to represent.”

In the following essay, Aswell argues that The Turn of the Screw is a non-supernatural tale revolving around the narrator's inability to confront and acknowledge her dark side.

In the following essay, Heller utilizes the device of the implied reader to explore the ambiguity of the ending of James's novella and explores the roles of meaning and ideology in the narrative.

In the following essay, Murphy explores “some of the strategies James employs to prevent a consistent reading of the text.”

In the following essay, Cook and Corrigan investigate how the narrative structure functions in the novella, concluding that it allows for multiple interpretations of the story.

In the following essay, Heilman disputes the Freudian interpretation of The Turn of the Screw and instead perceives the story as a Christian allegory.

In the following essay, Williams analyzes the frame of the story, contending that it evokes “a heightened story-world.”

In the following essay, Aldrich supports the hallucination theory of James's novella and proposes that Mrs. Grose encourages the governess's visions.

In the following essay, Cranfill and Clark examine James's portrayal of the social power structure in the late nineteenth century.

In the following essay, Fleming perceives “both the governess's reactions and the ghosts, whether real or imagined, as related halves of a particular world-view or perceptual paradigm—one that informs not only this novella but much of James' entire fictional universe as well.”

In the following excerpt, Hughes provides an overview of nineteenth-century fiction featuring the character of the governess, beginning with Jane Austen's 1816 novel Emma, and ending with James' 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw.

In the following essay, McMaster discusses the significance of James's ironic use of image and perception in his novella.

In the following essay, Levy investigates the relationship between James's play Guy Domville and his novella The Turn of the Screw.