Although many works of art illustrate the balance, or unity, of opposites, few works successfully embody the actual union of opposites, a concept equated with the essence of art by Coleridge, with the essence of physical and metaphysical laws by Hegel, and with the essence of the Selbst by Jung. The cumulative power of nuance and the search for an elusive secret – the characteristic technique and theme of much of Henry James’s work – are archetypally manifested in The Turn of the Screw (1898), a work in which the images, the actions, the intellectual preciosity of the governess, the theme, the hoped-for terror-reaction of the audience, and even the diction itself are harmoniously fitted to the deliberately calm and persevering manner in which James accumulates minute details with every inexorable turn of the screw, ultimately penetrating the secret of secrets, the coincidentia oppositorum. This essay may not beĪrchived, republished or redistributed without the permission of the Reproduction for sale or profit prohibited.
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