The Unreliable Narrator In “The Turn Of The Screw” And “Billy Budd”
American literature is filled with stories from narrators of doubtful credibility. This makes it difficult for readers to decide what to believe and force them to think for the themselves. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Billy Budd the Sailor by Herman Melville both show how the unreliable storyteller can be used and understood. The analysis shows that the unreliable narration isn’t just for American fiction. However, it has many appealing qualities that can be applied to novels.
The credibility of James’ novel is immediately apparent from the first lines. The text is told from the perspective of an unknown first person narrator. The reader doesn’t get any information other than that the storyteller was present at a Christmas party. Because the first scene has no information about the narrator, it raises many questions. The story of James revolves around tale-telling, ghost stories and other entertainment. It is unclear if Douglass’ story will be told as an entertaining story or as a recount of real events. An unknown narrator makes the story seem less credible than it was before. The novel’s beginning raises many questions. Therefore, it is crucial that the description of the manuscript and story surrounding it be convincing. Before the reader can believe the story, they must have a clear understanding of what the manuscript looks like. James allows Douglass to tell the story’s back-story. Douglass noted that Douglass’ manuscript is “in faded, beautiful ink” …. It was a woman’s. She was dead for twenty years. She sent me these pages before she passed away” (James 24,). This selection was chosen to reestablish Douglass’ credibility and the integrity of his novel. This section informs the reader Douglass is the owner of a physical copy and the fact that the story was written by another person. James establishes Douglass’ credibility by including a detailed description of the manuscript. Douglass refuses to recount the story from memory, which leaves no doubt about its origins.
Douglass’ description of the manuscript and his presentation of it attest to its authenticity, but the novel’s structure is complicated by Chapter 1. Douglass starts the novel in the first-person, but readers of The Turn of the Screw will encounter multiple layers between the material and themselves. The reader is presented with an unidentified narrator’s account, which is more than just a chronological account of events. He reads a diary written by a woman. It almost feels like the reader is in fifth-person. Again, this can cause credibility problems. Instead of reading the novel and developing an opinion, readers are asked for their interpretations using the story of one woman.
The Governess narrates the novel in first-person, making it easier to read. The novel’s credibility issues are not eliminated by this simplification. Readers can only rely on the first-person account by Governess of events at the Bly estate. Her credibility is also questioned in the early chapters. Flora, Flora’s little girl, is met by the Governess and taken on a tour to the house. On the tour, the Governess described the house as “a castle in romance inhabited with a rosy priestess”, but then it was described as “a big old ugly house but convenient,” which contained a few elements of an older, more displaced and less-used building (James 32-3). The first image depicts a glorified view of the estate. The second shows a stark reality. This scene warns that the Governess can seem to seamlessly slip between fantasy reality.
As the story progresses the Governess believes she is seeing ghosts in the estate. Chapter III ends with her recounting how she saw a man without a hat inside the house. Although she mentions this encounter as her first encounter with the ghost, it is not clear what the Governess saw. Chapter VI is presumably a few weeks later and the Governess has to wait until then to tell Mrs. Grose about her encounter. This is a strange conversation between the two women. The Governess offers many more details than she did about the encounter in this conversation. The only constant detail is that there was no hat on the man, but the conversation seems to have been influenced by Mrs. Grose’s questions. One time, Mrs. Grose asked about the handsomeness or ghost. The Governess replied that she saw the way to help her. ‘Remarkably!'” (James 48). When this one line is viewed in conjunction with the rest, it shows how the Governess took Mrs. Grose’s description of her. The descriptions of Mrs. Grose by the Governess are heavily influenced by the powers and suggestion.
The reliability and trustworthiness of the Governess are further tested in her interactions with children she is hired to monitor. Chapter XIV contains a conversation between Miles Governess and herself that appears to be a match in terms of intelligence. The Governess confesses that she felt she might be able to keep her wits around me at one point during the conversation (James 85). This passage suggests that Governess can lose her sanity at will as well as keep it. Simple discussions about child behavior have questioned the Governess’ mental health, and she is not afraid to admit it. The case against Governess’ reliability appears to be increasing, and ghosts are increasingly appearing to be figments in her imagination.
The apparitions are often seen by the Governess alone, making it difficult to know the truth. James creates a mystery surrounding the novel by using the Governess’ questionable narration and the distance he has established between the reader’s material. James uses a unreliable narration to destabilize the narrative and force the reader’s to make judgements about it. The Turn of the Screw gives readers the ability to make their own decisions about what they believe.
Herman Melville published Billy Budd: Sailor in 1924. This was twenty-six more years after James’ novel. The narrator seems to be a combination of first-person narration and third-person narration. The story’s anonymous author seems to report only the events as they happen, but gives insight into thoughts and emotions of the characters. The narrator reported that Billy Budd’s impressions in Chapter One revealed that the Lieutenant who came to take Billy saw his farewell salute “a covert act on the recruit’s part” (Melville 49). The same scene also shows that the narrator says that Billy was not trying to satirize the situation. This first exchange is a demonstration of what might appear to be an all-knowing narrator. This scene shows the ability of the narrator to communicate the inner thoughts to two characters. A trait usually reserved to the omniscient.
Soon, self-awareness is a result of the omniscience displayed by this narrator. At the end Chapter Two, the Narrator addresses his audience directly. “The story in Which [Billy Budd] Is the Main Figure is not a Romance” (Melville53). The narrator has reached a different plane by speaking about the genre of his story. The reader must admit that even though the story isn’t a romance, it still has to be classified as a story. The narrator admits to his audience that his story must adhere to certain conventions by suggesting a genre. The story develops into a melodrama where goodness and evil are pitted against one another.
The narration juxtaposes Billy Budd’s pure goodness with John Claggart’s pure evil. The narrator doesn’t directly criticize Claggart but his initial description is of Claggart’s character is very flattering. Chapter Eight is where Claggart is introduced by the narrator. His complexion “seemed abnormal in blood and constitution” (Melville 64). Claggart’s background is described in detail. Although Claggart is not directly mentioned by the narration, the sense that Claggart was a master-at-arms and the fact that his constitution seems flawed biases readers to Claggart. The story is told by an apparently impartial narrator, which makes it difficult for the reader to question his motives.
The story continues with Claggart’s plotting against Billy as the narration progresses. These plots lead to an encounter between the two of them in Captain Vere’s Cabin. Both the narrative of what happened in Captain Vere’s cabin and the events that followed create an interesting problem. The chapter in Chapter Nineteen is where the narrator describes Claggart’s death. He states that Claggart was killed by Billy because his right arm was shot out of a cannon discharged at night. (Melville 99). This scene was witnessed by only Claggart, Captain Vere and Billy. Captain Vere, Billy and Claggart are no longer witnesses to the murder. The narrator reports on the events. This wouldn’t have been a problem except for the scene in Chapter Twenty Two. This chapter sees Captain Vere and Billy alone again. However, the narrator mentions that “Beyond communication of the sentence” the interview at this point was not known (Melville, 114). While the narrator can report on Claggart’s murder where only Captain Vere was present, it is difficult to provide details about the communication. This has serious implications for reliability. Either Claggart’s killing is a speculative report or the Chapter Twenty-Two scene has been left out by the narrator. As Billy Budd, Sailor nears its end, the narrator loses credibility.
The novel’s chapter twenty-nine provides a brief newspaper article about the events. Melville 130. The narrator admits that the article was written “in good faith for the most part” (Melville 130). The article then reports a story that is completely different from the one told by the novel’s author. It is believed to be the only remaining account. The final chapter is contradictory to the 28 chapters preceding it and forces the reader make decisions about the text.
James’ unreliable narratives required readers to make choices throughout his novel. However, Melville’s twist in the final chapter forces the reader only to make one decision. Both narrations are based on the reader’s choice. Authors force their readers to make a decision about whether they are willing to accept the fiction presented by a questionable narrator. Unreliable narration encourages greater engagement and allows the reader to interpret the text more freely than traditional narratives. It appeals strongly to Americans’ sense of individuality. Melville and James use it with skill.
Works citées
James, Henry. The Changing of the Bolt. Bedford St. Martin’s, Boston, MA. 2004.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd is a Sailor. The University of Chicago Press, located in Chicago, Illinois. 1962.
