a frame without a picture ??

[britt001]

hi everyone,
i desperately need some help
i've got an essay to do for yesterday ,and the question goes like that

to what extent is the turn of the screw a frame without a picture?

can anyone help me with it?? or just tell me what it means?? and what am i supposed to wrtite ??


thank you in advance
sarah

[Wilde woman]

I think the question is alluding to "The Turn of the Screw's" ambiguous ending. James sets up this great "frame"...young governess hired by a rich family, creepy house, creepy kids, lots of ghosts, whispers of secrets and then after going to all that trouble, he never resolves it. We never get any answers. At the end, we're just left hanging...we don't have the complete "picture". Why did Miles die? What does Peter Quint's ghost have to do with it? How does Miss Jessel fit in? Can the children really not see the ghosts?

Another way to look at it is to consider that we do have a picture, but that it's skewed. I think there are lots of hints that our narrator - the Governess - isn't completely right in the head. Is she simply imagining all the supernatural events? Are there really no ghosts? If she's an unreliable narrator, that throws the story she tells (or picture she paints) into question.

Since I think the ending is so important, he's a link with a brief discussion of it: http://www.shmoop.com/literary-devic...he-ending.html

Good luck!

[britt001]

thank you...it really helped