The Turn of the Screw
Alyssa, Caitlin, Kara, Kylie
Intro
Because these are the introductory chapters to the novel, there is a great deal of
foreshadowing taking place. Some of the foreshadowing is easily detectable as
such; however there are certain subtleties that are far less obvious unless one is
aware of later happenings in the story.
This passage also holds foreshadowing of the less blatant nature. One instance has been quoted above,
the lines beginning with “a trap—“ and ending with the governess alluding to the fact that she is indeed
“excitable.” This brand of foreshadowing plays to the question that readers often have at the end of this
novel: whether the governess is sane or not. There are multiple instances in these beginning chapters
when the governess refers to her own mental instabilities, but only in passing, brushing them off as if
they were normal in discrepancies. Rereading this section of the text, however, gives emphasis to these
understated moments of admitted mental stress and “excitability.”
Chapter 1 Summary
-C1: Through the viewpoint of the Governess, telling recollection of riding in a coach...riding to Bly: her
newfound place of employment
-C1: Meets Flora and Mrs. Grose and Flora right away "A little girl...a civil person who dropped me as
decent a curtsy as if [she] had been the mistress."
- C1: Getting acquainted with Mrs. Grose and is indirectly becoming acquainted with Flora.
-C1: Allusion to Miles, Flora gives the governess a tour of Bly, ambiguity of conversations. "No; it was a
big, ugly, antique but convenient house,embodying a few features of a building still older , half
replaced and half utilized in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of
passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was strangely at the helm!"
The most poignant example of this subtle foreshadowing is in chapter one, paragraph eight, during a
conversation the governess and Mrs. Grose are having about the “little gentleman” and the master of
the house. The governess says first that she came to the house to “be carried away,” which is an
example of more blatant foreshadowing, but continues to say that she is “rather easily carried away.”
This alludes to her possible unstable mental state, which comes more into question as the story gains
momentum.
As Mrs. Grose replies, "You are not the first, Miss." May imply that Mrs. Grose had a certain affection
for the Master that was similar to the governess's. This scenario may open a gate for Mrs. Grose to be
jealous of the governess.
Two Days Later...
C2: Governess receives letter from employer and another letter explaining Mile's ejection from his
school. "This, I recognize, is from the headmaster, and the headmaster's an awful bore. Read him
please; deal with him; but mind you don't report. Not a word."
C2: Governess and Mrs. Grose converse about Miles. Mrs. Grose paints him in a positive light, and
defends him but alludes a possibility for bad behavior. "See him, Miss, first THEN believe it."
C2: Governess: "Then you have known him."
Mrs. Grose: "Yes indeed, Miss, thank god!"
Governess: "You mean that a boy who never is --?"
Mrs. Grose: "Is no boy for me!"
Governess: "You like them with the spirit to be naughty? So do I!"
C2: The Next Day: Getting ready to pick up Miles. The governess randomly asks about her predecessor
and what happened to her. Mrs. Grose openly relays the information regarding the previous governess.
"But our young lady never came back, and at the very moment I was expecting her I heard from the
master that she was dead." ... "But of what?" ... "He never told me! but please Miss...I must get back to
my work." Mrs. Grose instantly seems flustered by the idea of the previous governess.
Taking into consideration that class is an important motif throughout the story, the maid is clearly of
lower class than the governess, or she is presented that way, she may not have the power to disagree
with the governess. Therefore all of the assumptions the governess is making are reinforced with the
confidence of the governess as Mrs. Gross unknowingly complies.
Oh, awkward.
C3: First encounter with Miles. "He was incredibly beautiful...everything but a sort of passion and
tenderness for him was swept away by his presence. What I then and there took him to my heart for
was something divine that I have never found to the same degree in any child--his indescribable little
air of knowing nothing in the world but love" weird obsession.
C3: Mrs. Grose and the governess speak of the letter again, and the governess decides not to say
anything to anyone.
C3: The governess is "speaking" to the reader: her interpretation of the situation at hand. "Oh, it was a
trap--not designed, but deep--to my imagination, to my delicacy, perhaps to my vanity; to whatever, in
me, was most excitable." No control, but excitable.
C3: fourteenth paragraph in chapter three, which directly follows a conversation that the governess has
with Mrs. Grose. In said paragraph, the governess breaks from the telling, or writing, of the immediate
story line to express her feelings towards this period of time in retrospect. She conveys to her reader
that she could not have known "They gave me such little trouble--they were of a gentleness so
extraordinary. I used to speculate--but even this with a dim connectedness--as to how the rough future
(for all futures are rough!) would handle them and might bruise them. Further, she explains that this
brief period of contentment and false security was “a trap—not deep but designed—to [her]
imagination, [her] delicacy, perhaps [her] vanity; to whatever in [her] was more excitable,” that it was
not a time of simple happiness, but rather “that hush in which something gathers or crouches…like the
spring of a beast.”
C3: The governess's first encounter with Quint. Gives reader sight into her strange vulnerability, "An
unknown man in a lonely place is a permitted object of fear to a young woman privately bred."
Confronting the naiveness of "women privately bred."
The ghosts seem to appear when the governess is attempting to understand who she is as a person, and
who she must be in order for the children to be fulfilled from her 'acts of valor,' so to speak.
“It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a
hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”
― Abraham Maslow
C4: The more you think you know, the less you actually do know. The governess's paranoia begins to
set-in. "Was there a 'secret' at Bly--a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept
in unsuspected confinement?" The governess already begins to create very rash scenarios.
C4: The governess begins turning the situation over more in depth. When speaking with Mrs. Grose
she explains "Some one had taken a liberty rather monstrous." Miles is then quickly brought into the
situation; "He was only too fine and fair for the little horrid unclean school--world, and he had paid a
price for it." The change in tone during the conversation is meant to juxtapose the rather disturbing
event with the governess with Miles's innocence. Which is ironic because he is later found to be
corrupt.
C4: The governess and Mrs. Grose are about to attend the church service. The governess then goes into
the dining room and sees Quint a second time peering through the window hauntingly. The governess
goes outside to check and reenacts Quints stance outside her window in order to understand what he
was trying to see. Mrs. Grose encounters the governess watching strangely through the window. The
governess relays to the reader: "I wondered why she should be scared..." Speculation as to why Mrs.
Grose would be scared?
-She has seen something similar
-She is scared of the governess and this is a way to make it apparent in a literal/physical sense. Which
may explain her natural dislike for the governess and why she feeds into her madness by not correcting
her or speaking against the governess. There is speculation on whether Mrs. Gross's lack of speaking is
intentional or not.
Sparks of Intuition...
C5: The governess contemplates the second sighting of Quint. Could he just be a projection of her
mind? Uh oh.
C5: Mrs. Grose begins to question the governess once again. The governess begins explaining her afterthe-fact interpretation of what actually happened in full detail. Mrs. Grose asks, "Nobody from the
village?" "No," replied the governess. The governess says she has checked and confirmed, but there is
no evidence or explanation of how she did so.
C5: The women talk of going to church and the governess decides that, "It won't be best for them..."
alluding to the children's safety. Keep in mind she has no idea who this man ghost is yet, nor has he
proved to be any sort of danger.
C5: The governess has a certain epiphany regarding Mrs. Gross that is made to be subtle but convey a
strong message. "A far-away faint glimmer of a consciousness more acute..." therefore the governess is
picking up on the fact that Mrs. Grose just may be smarter than she initially seems. The governess first
interpretation of someone that is not based on looks but looks are used to describe the inward quality
of Mrs. Grose. The governess may be alluding to what she sees in Mrs. Grose which is ultimately what
may bring her down by the ending.
Introduction
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James has a unique point of view; the novel is
a narrative within a narrative. The story is being told by an original member of
the primary audience to its telling. That telling was in itself second-hand,
relayed to said audience by a former pupil, Douglas, of a long-dead governess,
who penned the tale and submitted it to Douglas in a letter.
The narrator 's relationship with Douglas must be distinctive because the
narrator is genuinely interested in what Douglas has to say, otherwise he may
have left like some of the other ladies who "departed," despite that they had,
when asked whether they would stay, cried: "I will." Furthermore, when
Douglas was on his deathbed, he "committed to [him,]" the narrator, said
"manuscript," of letter, that had been originally given to him by the governess.
Douglas' relationship with the governess is also a special one. Douglas admits
that he "liked her extremely," despite her being ten years his senior. His
adoration of her is observed even by some his listeners; Mrs. Griffin comments
after Douglas has left the room: "Well, if I don't know who [the governess] was
in love with, I know who HE was."
The Ghosts C1-C5
Governess's description: First Quint sichting; "So I saw him as I see the letters I form on this page..."
"I have never made it, the whole feeling of the moment returns. It was as if, while I took in what I did
take in, all the rest of the scene had been stricken with death."
Quint's second sighting: "He was the same--he was the same, and seen, this time, as he had been seen
before, from the waist up, the window, though the dining-room was on the ground floor, not going
down to the terrace on which he stood...It was as if I had been looking at him for years and had
known him always...Something, however, happened this time that had not happened before; his stare
into my face, through the glass across the room, was as deep and hard as then, but it quitted me for a
moment during which I could still watch it, see it fix successively several other things.
Mrs. Grose: "And dressed?"
Governess: "In somebody's clothes. They're smart, but they're not his own."
Mrs. Grose: She broke into a breathless affirmative groan. "They're the master's."
Under analysis, Quint does not in fact seem real. It seems as though he is real toward the governess as
a projection of her mind. He specifically targets the governess and does not appear to anyone else as
Ms. Jessel later in the story does the same. Both may be projections of her mind that is meant to infer
that the governess is jealous of the connection that her predecessors had with the children and are
afraid that what they learned will "endanger" them or "corrupt " them. Ironically enough her concern
does not matter much considering the fact that the children's relationship with their previous mentors
can not be any more intense than they were.
Miss Jessel in relation to
Quint
-The consensus of the reading deemed the relationship between Miss Jessel and
Quint a mutual relationship, and the types of relationships they had with each
of the children were similar. Their 'forbidden love,' created by their differences
in social classes may have led to each of their reasons for leaving Bly.
Suppressing their feelings from each other may have resulted in them having
inappropriate feelings towards the children.
-Their separation as the governess perceives them, may be purposeful in the
sense that considering ghosts are meant to have "unfinished business," they are
separated in death as they were in life.
-If Quint and Miss Jessel are in fact projections of the governess's inward
emotion and anxiety, the forbidden romance meant to be between Miss Jessel
and Quint may allude to her strange infatuation with her employer.
Governess POV: Vouched for
by Douglass
"But it's not the first occurrence of its charming kind that I know to have been
concerned with a child."
"...is in old faded ink and the most beautiful hand. A woman's. She has been
dead these twenty years... She was the most agreeable woman I've ever known
in her position; she'd have been worthy of any whatever."
"...she struck me as awfully clever and nice... I liked her extremely and am glad
to this day to think she liked me too."
"Well, if I don't know who she was in love with, I know who he was."
-Although Douglas may have been in love with the Governess, the story she tells
seems legitimate, especially with her additions and opinions of her actions in
hindsight. Being able to admit some of her flaws in retrospect makes this seem
slightly less biased.
Governess' POV: Ingenue
-Ingenue: Character in literature, film, and a role type in the theatre;
generally a girl or young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome.
-Constantly refers to the children as lovely and angelic, sees
only the best in them and has no suspicions:
-"creature too charming" "the most beautiful child I had ever seen" "the radiant
image of my little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty" "with the deep
serenity indeed of one of Raphael's holy infants" "incredibly beautiful"
-Accepts the job with only slight hesitation - doesn't note
many red flags with the unusual situation.
-Acknowledges her innocence in C3:
"I was under a charm apparently that could smooth away the extent and the afar and difficult
connexions of such an effort. I was lifted aloft on a great wave of infatuation and pity. I found it simple,
in my ignorance, my confusions, anand perhaps my conceit, to assume that I could deal with a boy
whose education for the world was all on the point of beginning" (131).
Governess' POV: The Master
-Feelings towards the master:
-"He was handsome and bold and pleasant, off-hand and gay and kind. He struck her,
inevitably, as gallant and splendid, but what took her most of all and gave her the courage
she afterwards showed was that he put the whole thing to her as a favour, and obligation
he should gratefully incur."
-"The moral of which was of course the seduction exercised by the splendid young man.
She succumbed to it. . . She saw him only twice . . . but that's just the beauty of her
passion. . . She never saw him again."
-Refuses to involve himself:
-His main condition . . . That she should never trouble him - but never, never: neither
appeal nor complain nor write about anything; only meet all questions herself, receive all
moneys from his solicitor, take the whole thing over and let him alone. She promised to
do this . . ."
-Chooses not to contact the master, even when she believes the
children's souls are in danger. She believes she will be able to handle
the situation, possibly with an end goal of proving herself to and
pleasing the master, considering her interest in him.
Governess' POV: Mrs. Grose
-The reliability of Mrs. Grose is questionable throughout the novel. It is
unclear whether she is dumb, gullible, faithful (in the spirits), or loyal (to
the Governess).
-The Governess feels a sense of uneasiness towards her at the beginning:
-"I felt within half an hour that she was so glad - stout simple plain clean wholesome woman as to be positively on her guard against showing it too much. I wondered even then a little why
she should wish not to show it, and that, with reflexion, with suspicion, might of course have
made me uneasy."
-The Governess and Mrs. Grose speak of the last Governess:
-Governess, which Mrs. Grose says more than she should: "She had no sooner spoken indeed
than she caught herself up."
-Ends with Mrs. Grose hastily leaving the room
-Mrs. Grose seems like the kind of woman who wants to keep her head
down and keep out of any trouble or any means of causing it. She will not
contradict or go against anyone and seems eager to go along with what the
Governess does and says.
Governess' POV: Mental Stability
-At first, it seems as though there is no reason to doubt her sanity. She seems naive, yes,
but other than being a bit strangely infatuated with the children, things are going
smoothly for the most part.
-She admits, looking in retrospect, to her overlooking many aspects of her job, especially
the unusual ones, and even calls it a "trap" to her imagination, which could explain what
she sees soon after.
-In chapter three she first encounters who she thinks is a strange man, but turns out to be
the suspected ghost of Peter Quint. This is where her sanity falls under serious
questioning. She gives an incredibly detailed of the man she thinks she saw, not yet quite
suspecting that he is a ghost, only that he is a stranger on the grounds and she has no idea
what is going on regarding him.
-Only after her description to Mrs. Grose does an alarm go off, when she recognizes and
identifies him as the deceased Peter Quint. The Governess' sanity can still be considered
fairly intact since she had not assumed the man was dead, she had just been inquiring
about him.
-Since chapter 5 ends with this realization, there is no reaction to judge at this point
whether she will believe it or not. However, since we know she does, this may be more
cause for less sanity in her case, even though people may have been more prone to
believing in ghost stories in her time.
Governess' POV: Spiritual
Battle for Children's Souls
-The Governess sees herself in spiritual battle for souls of children, even
though this would normally be considered important or urgent, she is
convinced that she can handle this, and she does not yet need to contact
the master with this information.
-At the second sighting of Quint, the Governess realizes "It was not for
me he had come. He had come for some one else." This frightens her
significantly and sends her into a frenzy that leads her to try and go
after him and eventually share with Mrs. Grose.
-She talks about going to try and meet him, saying it was her duty as a
Governess.
-At this point, she has no articulated consipracies about the children
being possessed, but we see her boldness and willingness to defend the
children.
The Children
We believe that the children have been corrupted by the former governess and the former valet, Mrs.
Jessel and Peter Quint. The children, therefore, are not inherently evil, but have been irreversibly
affected by said people.
Therefore, we believe that the children have become corrupt prior to the new governess' installment.
They have not been corrupt by the governess at the time of the story's telling.
This makes the death of the older male child, Miles, very mysterious. James describes the nature of his
death as such: "his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped."If the reader believes the ghosts are real,
than this statement claims that, because Peter Quint is no longer living within Miles, that is, Miles'
heart is no longer "possessed" by the spirit of Peter Quint, all life has left his body.
If the reader believes, as we group members believe, that the ghosts are manifested memories,
embodied by the remembrances of the children, Miles' death becomes more complicated. One could
say that "his little heart" stopping is not even a literal death, but perhaps the death of his ties with
Peter Quint, the emotional severing of that previous portion of Miles' life, a time when his heart may
have been described as "little." In this scenario, James would be not describing Miles' death, but his
emotional maturing and a figurative death of his former self. This allows for the theory that Douglas is
actually Miles, such that Douglas could not be Miles if Miles had literally died.