In The Turn of the Screw, Peter Quint is the corrupting force. Peter Quint is real; therefore the beast is just a symbol. Quint’s appearance is different to what the governess has seen around. She immediately knows he is not a gentleman has he is not wearing a hat. Quint is seen as the stereotypical, dominant, male figure of evil who corrupts those around him. Quint seems to have an influence on Miles. He starts doing things just to prove to the governess that he can. An example of this is when he goes outside in the middle of the night. Flora and Miles were both in on the plan. When the governess asked why he did it he said it was so she would “think me-for a change- bad!” Miles is rebelling, but we don’t know whether this is because of Quint’s influence or juts because he is messing about. This is because of the narrative it is written in. We presume that Quint has corrupted Miles and Flora because they both start acting out of character. The governess believes that Flora was aware of the ghost of Miss Jessel when she appeared by the lake. “Two hours ago in the garden…Flora saw.”
Light and dark plays a big part in the books. Day and night is a main theme throughout both books. In Lord of the Flies, the parachutist arrives at night. “The darkness again and stars … a figure dropping swiftly from a parachute.” The significance of this coming at night is that the boys have less control over what they can do. Things are less visible at night and it makes things look a lot worse than they actually are. This shows evil has already started to corrupt the children. The children automatically think the parachutist is the beast. If the children were still at their most innocent, it wouldn’t have affected them in the way that it did. They would have been more likely to check out what was on the mountain before jumping to conclusions. They would have at least waited until morning to see what was up there.
Another thing related with light and dark which plays a big part in both in both the books is fire and flames. In Lord of the Flies, the boys spent a lot of time making and keeping a fire alight on top of the mountain. This is because Ralph thinks that the smoke is their way to be saved. “ ‘So we must make smoke on the top of the mountain. We must make fire.’ “ Here, Ralph is taking charge. He is trying to get the boys saved. But later on in the same chapter, the fire burns a whole side of the mountain. This shows the dual power of fire. It could save them, but it could also kill. Later on in the book, after the group split, the fire is used as a more tribal thing. The boys turned to savagery. The even stole piggy’s glasses so they could keep the fire going after the split. This is where you can really see how much evil has corrupted the boy’s innocence by the way they act. When they first arrived on the island they were very diplomatic and would have at least tried to talk to solve their problem. By the end of the book, they have to creep around to get what they want.
In Turn of the Screw, candles are used a lot because of the time period the book is set in. One night, the nurse goes into Miles’ room. We see a lapse of innocence of miles. “ ‘ Why, the candles’ out!’ I then cried. ‘It was I who blew it out dear.’ “ Miles says he is trying to show the nurse what he is capable of doing. However, some people may say it is just Miles covering up for the ghost or starting to be corrupted. Miles talks to her as if he is older. He sounds quite rude. Again, here is a time when Miles is covering for the ghost by trying to show to nurse he is in control.
Another theme in the books is nature and surroundings. In Turn of the Screw, the house and surrounding gardens are always where the ghosts appear. The first time we see Peter Quint, he is on top of a tower on the house. Also, the first time we see Miss Jessel is across the lake. “There was an alien object in view – a figure whose presence I instantly and passionately questioned.” We don’t know if Flora can also see the figure, but the nurse points out that “all spontaneous sounds from her had dropped.” This then leads us to believe that the nurse thinks Flora can see the ghost. But we aren’t completely sure whether she is actually being corrupted at this point, as we don’t know for sure what she can see, if anything. Leon Edel said that “ her ‘Turn of the Screw’ of pain resides in her belief that evil has come in to the lives of the innocent.” This would make us think that the nurse was convinced that the children could see the ghosts, even though she has no real proof.
In Lord of the Flies, nature is one of the main themes. The island is partially covered in creepers. The littluns think this is where the beast or beastie is coming from. “ ‘ He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees…’” The older boys try to explain there is no beast, but the littluns won’t believe them. It is quite ironic that later on in the book they are all scared of the beast. The beast is the evil on the island, so the first mention of the beast would be where they first started to lose their innocence. This is right at the beginning of the book, soon after they all first met up.
In conclusion, the corruption of innocence plays a big role by showing how quickly the children were corrupted. And how the force of evil is corrupting the innocent children, showing the power of it. However we don’t know whether it is the beast and ghosts or just what is going on in the people's minds. William Golding once said, “The only enemy of man is inside him.”
