1. “I turned and saw that Flora, whom, ten minutes before, I had established in the schoolroom with a sheet of white paper, a pencil and a copy of nice “round O’s,” now presented herself to view at the open door.” ---Chapter 2, The Turn of the Screw

2.  The circle is a universal symbol with extensive meaning. It represents the notions of totality, wholeness, original perfection, the Self, the infinite, eternity, timelessness, all cyclic movement, God ('God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere' (Hermes Trismegistus)).  As the sun, it is masculine power; as the soul and as encircling waters, it is the feminine maternal principle. "It implies an idea of movement, and symbolizes the cycle of time, the perpetual motion of everything that moves, the planets' journey around the sun (the circle of the zodiac), the great rhythm of the universe.  The circle is also zero in our system of numbering, and symbolizes potential, or the embryo. It has a magical value as a protective agent,... and indicates the end of the process of individuation, of striving towards a psychic wholeness and self-realization" (Julien, 71).

3.  With the number ten, symbolizes heaven and perfection as well as eternity.  In Jung, the antithesis of the square (lowest state of man who has not achieved inner perfection), standing for the ultimate state of Oneness, with octagon in between.  Circle of Necessity: birth, growth, decline, death. Defense against chaos, formlessness.

4.  an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

5.  The Ouroboros often represents self- reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re- creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end.  It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished.

6.  The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.  Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego "dawn state", depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.

7. Discuss how the circle functions as a symbol in chapter 2 of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.