The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a ghost story, but then we come to see that it might not be that at all. Henry is an author who enjoys toying with his reader’s mind by giving them a narrator who isn’t so reliable. He presents the young governess, in this story, as trustworthy and then contradicts what he says in the beginning. In the short story, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge it has the same plot as the Turn of the Screw, where in this case, Ambrose Bierce, the author, makes it seem like this civilian man, Peyton Farquhar, escapes from his death and is able to go back home. However, as the end approaches, Ambrose mentions how “A blinding white light blazes all about him” stating he is dying and then ends the sentence with “Peyton Farquhar…show more content… An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.) and we come to realize he never escaped from his death or that he was able to go home to his wife and daughter. Both themes revolve around how the mind can distort reality at a moment of vulnerability.
Throughout The Turn of the Screw, references made of the eye and vision highlight the idea of sight being not so reliable. When the governess encounters both Quint and Miss Jessel, vision is a big part of the encounters. She supposes her first encounter with Quint a “bewilderment of vision,” a phrase that suggests she imagined what she saw. The governess, Quint, and Miss Jessel lock eyes with each other several times in the novel. The governess shares powerful stares with both Quint and Miss Jessel and comes to believe she can tell what their intentions
