Sexual Repression in Metamorphosis and The Turn of the Screw

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about literature is that an author has unlimited possibilities in the ways they express their ideas. From Romanticism through Modernism, Post Modernism, and Naturalism and beyond, they choose the way that most appropriately conveys the idea. The author as artist has boundless options. By using different techniques he can touch the soul of the reader as much or as little he chooses. Literature is an art form that is not diminished by the use of techniques that on the surface may seem light hearted, such as the use of the weird, the ghost story or the absurd. It enhances rather than detracts from the author’s purpose. Consider the use of the uncanny to be the authors’ equivalent of Modern Art.

Henry James in “The Turn of the Screw” and Kafka in “ The Metamorphosis” both had ideas to express. Sexual repression as tied to social isolation; loneliness and desperation are resonant in both works. Sexual repression is not only the absence of actual intercourse, but also the absence of a sense of intimacy and human interaction tied in with the idea. The governess, for example, apparently does have a sexual encounter with the master, but this alone does not eliminate her desperation, her inner loneliness. It also addresses the issue of the lack of fulfillment in an inborn human desire, the sex drive. While their characters have their other needs met: food and shelter, the needs that make them human, sexuality and emotional connectivity are neglected.