Prologue Summary

Friends gathered around a fire in a country house outside London on Christmas Eve entertain themselves by telling ghost stories. When a man named Griffin tells of a little boy who experiences a ghostly visitation, his friend Douglas notes, a few nights later, that the age of the child "gives the effect another turn of the screw" and proposes a ghost story unsurpassed for "dreadfulness" about two children. The manuscript of this true story has been kept in a locked drawer for twenty years, since the death of its writer. The story, which the writer and now Douglas have kept secret for forty years, Douglas's younger sister's governess, with whom he became friends when he was a university student at home on holiday.

The narrator quickly guesses that the reason the governess kept the story secret was that she was in love, and Douglas refuses to say more until the governess's manuscript arrives by post in three days. All the members of the group, eager to hear the answers to their questions about the story, pledge to stay at the country house, including a group of ladies who have planned to leave before three days time. When Douglas has bid the group a hasty good-night in the midst of their inquiries, one woman notes that regardless of whom the governess loved, Douglas was clearly in love with the governess.

The narrator notes that his narrative comes from an exact transcript, created when Douglas later gave him the governess's manuscript before his own death. On the fourth night at the country house, Douglas prepares to read his story to a reduced group, its small size increasing the thrill even further. (The ladies have indeed departed despite their earlier protestations.) He prefaces his actual reading with background information about the governess, the youngest daughter of a poor country parson from Hampshire, who at age twenty answered an advertisement placed by a gentleman seeking a governess for his orphaned niece and nephew.

The inexperienced young woman, who had never left Hampshire before, met with the gentleman on London's fashionable Harley Street. She was immediately impressed by his wealth, good looks, and bold manner, and, the narrator suggests, ultimately accepted the position because he made it appear as if he was doing her a favor by offering her the opportunity. The children lived at his lonely country house, Bly, in Essex, where little girl was currently looked after by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, and to which the little boy, who, though very young, had been sent away to school, would soon be coming home for the holidays. The death of their previous governess, which the gentleman notes caused "great awkwardness," had necessitated this arrangement.

Here, one listener demands of Douglas the cause of the governess's death, while another wonders if the position required danger to life. Douglas again tells his friends they shall soon hear the answers and instead speaks of how governess's youth and naïveté allowed her "seduction" by the gentleman - that her love for him, combined with the generous salary he offered, led her to accept the position at the time of a second interview. The beauty of this love, Douglas says, is that she only saw the gentleman twice. The man had a single condition which had frightened off all previous applicants. He made the governess promise that she would never contact or trouble him, instead dealing with all problems herself and getting money from his solicitor. Having agreed to his conditions, the governess never saw the gentleman again. Not until the next evening does Douglas begin reading the story.

Prologue Analysis

To a far greater degree than most other books, The Turn of the Screw faces an interpretive crisis. Is it simply a ghost story, as Douglas intimates, or is the governess, from whom we will hear the rest of the tale, a madwoman and an unreliable narrator? James, in addition to being a novelist, was also a literary critic and the question of interpretation was one with which he was familiar.

The majority of the novel purports to be the manuscript written by the governess and is thus written in the first-person from her limited point-of-view. In speaking of the manuscript in the framing section, rather than simply beginning with the governess's narrative, James emphasizes that it represents the perspective of a single person. This opening framing section notably sets itself apart from the story. As told from an objective authorial perspective, in which the unnamed narrator himself speaks about his own transcription of the manuscript into the book his reader holds in his/her hands, it seems at first glance to provide the reader with trustworthy background information necessary for the story.

However, it is important to note that all the information provided about the governess comes not from the narrator but solely from Douglas, a man whom the characters themselves note was clearly in love with the governess. We hear from Douglas - rather than see for ourselves - that the governess was a young innocent whose employer took advantage of her inexperience. Douglas's words, unsurprisingly condemnatory of a man loved by this woman, shape the reader's assumptions as s/he begins the governess's narrative and demand s/he question the reliability of the story's narrators. Because of Douglas's emotional connection to the governess, we cannot be wholly certain about her innocence nor about the gentleman's conniving.

If we do accept Douglas's retelling of the governess's encounter with her employer, however, her tenuous position with regards to both gender and class becomes apparent. Her profession places her between two worlds. She seeks to align herself with the upper class world of her employer, who sees her, unlike the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, as the appropriate companion for his young wards. At the same time, she eschews identification with the servants, whom the employer enumerates alongside buildings and livestock - "a cook, a housemaid, a dairywoman, an old pony, an old groom, and an old gardener." The governess's desire to align herself with the upper class, however, are threatened by her employer's dismissal of the previous governess's death as a hindrance rather than a tragedy and by her need to accept the job because of a salary which "much exceeded her modest measure."

This opening section also reveals the origin of the book's title. Telling a ghost story in which a child is visited by a ghostly apparition, Griffin gives the already frightening tale one "turn of the screw." By telling a story about two children who encounter ghosts, Douglas says that he seeks to give the screw two turns. On this objective level, then, it seems that James intends his book as a ghost story. Douglas recalls that when he met the governess, he was a student at Trinity College - a college which, as James himself knew, was the center for psychical research in late nineteenth century Britain. At the same time, we must separate James's intention from that of Douglas, for whom the explanation of ghosts rather than madness renders the governess innocent, and remember that a biased character, rather than an objective author, frames these events.

Chapter I

Summary:

The governess recalls the doubts and unease she felt after accepting the position from the gentleman in Harley Street. These doubts plagued her during the long coach ride to the country. There, she is met by a large horse drawn carriage which brings her to Bly. As she approaches the house, the beautiful summer day begins allay her doubts, and she is pleasantly surprised when she arrives at the house - impressed by its size, open windows with maids peering out, its lawns and flowers, crows flying overhead, so different than her own small house.

She is met at the door by a woman who curtsies "as if I had been the mistress or a distinguished visitor" and a little girl. The splendor of the house and its inhabitants make the governess believe her employer to be even more of a gentleman for underplaying his description of the place when hiring her. Immediately, she is thrust into an introduction to her young pupil that does not allow her to rest until the next day.

The little girl Flora, the governess immediately decides, is the most beautiful and charming child she has ever seen - yet another thing her employer had not mentioned to her. She can barely sleep that night because of her excitement at of all the surprises. She has been given one of the best and largest bedrooms in the house. It has full-length mirrors, and for the first time in her life, she can see herself from head to foot. Immediately, the governess assumes that Mrs. Grose - with whom she had earlier worried about getting along - is incredibly glad to see her, though she does not show it. Wondering why she guards against showing these feelings, the governess feels a bit uneasy.

She is not uneasy, however, about Flora, whose angelic beauty keeps her awake, wandering around her bedroom, looking out at the dawn. She hears birds sing outside, but thinks also that she has heard a few unnatural sounds coming from inside the house, what sounds like the far-away cry of a child and a footstep outside her door. Though she easily dismissed them at the time as fancies, in her present "gloom" the worrisome memory comes back to her.

Instead, she focuses her thoughts on Flora, who after that night will sleep in her room with her. She and Mrs. Grose had during the previous day discussed Flora's timidity and decided to allow her one last night in Mrs. Grose's room. Over dinner, with Flora present, they could only discuss her and her brother "obscure and roundabout allusions." Mrs. Grose assures her that Miles is just as "remarkable" looking as his sister and that she will be carried away by the "little gentleman."

When the governess says that she has already been carried away "in London," Mrs. Grose wants to know if it was "in Harley Street?" The governess confirms it, and Mrs. Grose tells her she's not the first, and she won't be the last. They proceed to talk about Miles, who is not coming home tomorrow, as the governess had anticipated, but on Friday, on the same coach the governess came on. The governess suggests that she and Flora meet him at the coach, and the governess takes Mrs. Grose's agreement to mean that they will agree on every matter.

The next day, the governess feels "a slight oppression" as she takes in her new circumstances, which both scare her and make her proud. Unable to concentrate enough to give lessons, she decides to get to know Flora by allowing the child to show her the grounds - including empty rooms, crooked staircases, and a tall tower that makes the governess dizzy. Within half an hour, they are "tremendous friends." Looking back, the governess says that to her older eyes, Bly would look ugly, empty, and far less important. At the time, she imagined it as a fairy tale, but now she sees it as a drifting ship with a few passengers, with her "strangely at the helm."

Analysis

The material lens through which the governess judges her surroundings is readily apparent in this chapter. Her melancholy is only offset by her recognition of the size and appearance of Bly - to which her own "scant home" compares unfavorably. She is especially pleased by the ability this position gives her to transcend her station - as demonstrated by her happiness in seeing the two maids peeking out of the house as she arrives and her thrill at Mrs. Grose's curtsy. This chapter reverses the dynamic of the previous in which the governess had inhabited a lower class - and therefore held less power - than the gentleman.

In transcending her class, the governess usurps a position not rightfully hers - "the mistress." Taking the position of Flora's governess allows her to assume the role of mother. She is doing far more than giving lessons to Flora; she is functioning as her guardian, even having the child sleep in her room. Though she may not contact the gentleman, in acting the role of mistress of Bly and mother of Flora, the governess assumes the role of his wife by proxy.

The governess also, unthinkingly, usurps Mrs. Grose's position. She gives thought to Flora's feelings but notably not to Mrs. Grose's when deciding that the child will sleep in her room. Moving Flora's bed from Mrs. Grose's room to her own allows the governess to take the mother (and mistress) role that Mrs. Grose had previously inhabited.

Some critics argue that Mrs. Grose was literally the gentleman in Harley Street's mistress - that Flora and Miles are not his niece and nephew at all but his illegitimate children with his housekeeper. Mrs. Grose's facial expression - which the governess when writing her manuscript can still remember - when the governess speaks of being swept away in London, as well as her immediate guess that the governess is talking about Harley Street and her comment that "Miss, you're not the first" suggests that perhaps she herself has been swept away by the gentleman - physically or at least emotionally.

In this chapter, as well, we already see the thread of assumptions and veiled communication which characterize the novel. Mrs. Grose never says that she is glad to have the governess there, and in fact, the governess explicitly notes that she does not show any happiness. However, without any statements or evidence to support her conviction, the governess decides that Mrs. Grose must be happy. Likewise, she takes Mrs. Grose's assent to her suggestion that they meet Miles at the coach as an unspoken "pledge" that they should always agree - forgetting or ignoring that this woman, a servant who curtsied to her upon her arrival, may not have the freedom to disagree with her.

Interestingly, the governess's observations of and assumptions about Flora are all based upon physical appearance. Time and again, she calls her beautiful, describes her blond curls and blue eyes, and compares her to an angel, "indeed one of Raphael's holy infants." In part, this emphasis on Flora's seeming angelic nature makes her later corruption all the more disturbing, but at the same time, it demonstrates the fallibility of the governess's judgment, all of which is based upon appearance. Though she says that the child spoke incessantly on their tour of the grounds, she does not transcribe that dialogue, nor does she include her as a participant in her dinner time conversation with Mrs. Grose. In fact, her presence at the table is responsible for the ambiguity of the conversation. Mrs. Grose's assertions that Miles, like Flora, is "remarkable" and that he will carry the governess away have no definite positive meaning.

Despite the governess's positive attitude through much of the chapter, there remain elements which foreshadow the coming events. Her apprehension and doubts during the coach ride turn out to be well-founded. The crows which circle over Bly upon her arrival do not bode well for the visit. Crows are carrion-eaters, eaters of dead and decaying flesh, and are a symbol of death. Similarly, the child's cry and footstep the governess believes she has heard inspire a fear that is later fully realized. They might be the marks of ghosts or these sounds might be the onset of the governess's paranoia. In noting these instances of warnings or foreshadowing, it is important to remember that the governess is writing her manuscript from a position of hindsight, in which small things that meant nothing at the time have taken on greater meaning in light of the "gloom" which followed.

The governess concludes the chapter by announcing "I was strangely at the helm!" In creating this metaphor of herself as captain and Bly as a ship, which will later recur, she declares herself responsible not only for the care of the children but suggests that she is the force behind the events which are to occur at Bly. She is also at the helm of the book, reminding the reader that they are not seeing a transparent reality but rather her interpretation and retelling of the events.

Chapter II

Summary:

The next day, the governess receives a letter from her employer. He has enclosed a still-sealed envelope from the head master of Miles's school along with a note ordering the governess to deal with it but not to report back to him. Though the governess struggles with the letter's thick seal, she does not read it right away. Rather, she leaves the letter to read in her room just before going to bed. Its contents, which she does not immediately disclose to the reader, give her another sleepless night.

On the following morning, she cannot bear her anxiety any longer and tells Mrs. Grose that Miles has been dismissed - permanently - from his school. When the governess offers the letter to Mrs. Grose when she wonders for the reason for the boy's dismissal, the housekeeper reveals that she cannot read. The governess then tells her that the letter lacks particulars but that she assumes they must mean that Miles is "an injury to others." This infuriates Mrs. Grose, who expresses her disbelief - disbelief that the governess professes to share, all the while feeling a burning curiosity to meet Miles. Mrs. Grose protests that the governess might as well believe such cruel things of Flora, who has left her penmanship exercises in the schoolroom and appeared in the doorway. The governess hugs and kisses Flora, feeling guilty for having suspected Miles.

That evening, the governess again approaches Mrs. Grose, who she thinks is trying to avoid her, on the staircase. She asks if Mrs. Grose had meant that Miles had never been bad, and Mrs. Grose unabashedly replies that she prefers a boy with the spirit to be naughty. When the governess worries about boys with the spirit to corrupt, Mrs. Grose laughs at her, wondering if she thinks Miles will corrupt her.

The next day, before meeting Miles, the governess asks Mrs. Grose about the children's former governess. She is told that the woman was young and pretty - as "he" seemed to like. She says she was referring to the master, but the governess suspects otherwise. Saying she won't tell tales, Mrs. Grose gives little information about the woman, except that she went off, seemingly on a well-earned holiday, without appearing to be ill. Only later did the master tell her that the woman had died, though he never said of what.

Analysis:

Though Mrs. Grose assures her otherwise, the governess here receives the first suggestion that Miles might be "bad." Again the ambiguity of the language the women use plays a part here. Mrs. Grose is shocked at the suggestion he might have done anything to warrant his dismissal from school, but at the same time, she expresses her joy that Miles can be a "bad boy" if he so desires. The problems of communication are magnified - the governess receives no specific account of the reason for Miles's dismissal, nor does Mrs. Grose enumerate what Miles's past naughtiness has entailed.

Psychoanalytic criticism suggests that the governess fits the model of the sexual hysteric that was well-known at the turn of the century. (James himself was familiar with hysteria, both through Breuer and Freud's Studien über Hysterie and through the illness of his sister Alice.) At the time, sexual hysteria was seen as a psychosexual disorder affecting primarily well-bred, intelligent women, as caused by the conflict between natural sexual desires and the repression of Victorian social ideals. As the daughter of a country clergyman, living a confined life without the possibility of expressing these feelings to a man to whom she consciously feels attraction. Such a state, psychologists of James's day believed, was characterized by a paradoxical combination of sexual frigidity and intense sexual preoccupations.

Here, the governess assumes that the head master's letter "can have but one meaning" - that Miles is "an injury to others." Those who read the governess as a sexual hysteric might well interpret her worries over Miles's ability to "contaminate" or "corrupt" - whether founded in truth or not - as particularly sexual fears. Faced with this unstated reason for Miles's dismissal, some critics in fact argue that Miles may have been engaging in homosexual behavior with his classmates, incited by what they will interpret later in the story as caused by Peter Quint's "corruption" of young Miles.

Unable to express her feelings directly to her employer - or even to contact him at all - the governess transfers her anxiety over him to her relationship with the children. Oddly, she and Mrs. Grose emphasize the master's preference for pretty, young employees when these employees are women he has chosen never to see again. Thus, the master uses the suggestion of sexual attraction to ensure his governesses' compliance. The governess's fear that Miles will corrupt her results from her association of Miles with his uncle - a man who, as Douglas says in the prologue, "seduced" her into accepting the job. Likewise, her desire to see the children as beautiful and good is a product of her worship of her employer.

The absent master has a great deal of presence in this section, especially in the discussion of the former governess. This governess's current assertion that "he seems to like us young and pretty" strengthens the parallel between herself and her predecessor. That connection becomes problematic when Mrs. Grose alludes to the reason for the other woman's death. The woman who went off, not apparently ill, and died, without a disclosed reason, may well have been pregnant and killed herself, as Mrs. Grose's later words will suggest even more strongly. As with Miles's story, the lack of explanation here allows the governess to fill in the gaps with her greatest fears.

Some critics argue that Mrs. Grose deliberately drives the governess mad because she resents the young woman's usurpation of her role. In this case, her changing reactions - first abhorring the thought of Miles's wrongdoing, then proclaiming his naughtiness, then laughing in the governess's face for her fears - create new anxieties within the governess's mind. Certainly, her seeming avoidance of the governess is noteworthy, suggesting that either she does resent the woman's presence or the governess is paranoid.

Even before Miles has entered the story, the governess has begun to have doubts. The uncertain reason for his dismissal, the undisclosed "he" of Mrs. Grose's slip of the tongue, and the unknown cause of the previous governess's death all foreshadow greater evil to come - whether it be from the governess's mind or from ghosts concealed by these secrets.

Chapter III

Summary:

The governess begins the chapter by noting that Mrs. Grose's "snub," refusing to tell her any details regarding the previous governess's death, did not impede their continued friendship. After bringing home Miles, she says, she was more than ready to agree with the housekeeper that the charges against the child were ridiculous.

The governess meets Miles at the coach stop and instantly perceives him to be innocent and beautiful, unlike all other children she has known, seeming to have known "nothing in the world but love." When they arrive back at Bly, she expresses to Mrs. Grose her outrage and disbelief over the contents of the letter and professes her intention neither to reply to the letter nor to write the children's uncle nor mention the letter to Miles himself. Mrs. Grose agrees to support the governess in this decision, and the two kiss and embrace "like sisters."

Looking back, the governess says, she is amazed at her naïve belief that she could handle the situation. Though she remembers intending to resume Miles's studies that summer, she instead spent weeks enjoying herself and her charges. The children give her little trouble, and though she speculates on the pain the future could bring them, she can only imagine their lives to be like fairy tales.

During those long summer days, after the children have been put to bed and before the sun goes down, the governess has her "own hour," when she walks around the grounds of the country estate. She is happy because she knows she is giving pleasure to her employer by keeping worries about the children from bothering him and thinks herself to be a "remarkable young woman" for doing as he has asked.

One evening, the governess indulges in a frequent fantasy that a handsome someone - presumably her employer - would appear in the path and smile his approval. This night, as she comes into view of the house, she is surprised to see him standing up on one of the two large towers of the house, as if her fantasy had become reality.

Suddenly, she is shocked to see that the man is someone else entirely and as a woman alone, she is terrified to see a strange man staring down at her. Looking back on that experience, as she writes, the governess says that she still remembers it in great detail. Standing in the path, she looks up at him, all the sounds of nature seeming to have stopped, goes through every possibility of who he might be, and discards them all. He wears no hat and stares right at her, finally turning to cross to the other side of the tower.

Analysis:

This chapter is the site of the first significant critical controversy over the nature of the book. Who is the man in the tower? At this time, the governess does not even know - and that lack of knowledge is the reason for her fear. Many possibilities have been argued, the most common being that he is either the ghost of Peter Quint, of whom we shall hear presently, or the governess's hallucination. Another critic has suggested that perhaps Miles has dressed up in Quint's clothing and appeared on the tower as a sort of prank on the governess.

If we choose to see the man on the tower as a ghost, then his appearance to the governess marks an important turning point in the story. The governess herself makes a point of stating that he could not have been anyone she knew. At the very least, he is a stranger, and his appearance marks the introduction of an unknown and potentially threatening element into the idyllic life at Bly. The governess herself notes that "an unknown man in a lonely place is a permitted object of fear to a young woman privately bred." Once again, Victorian morality leads her to perceive a particularly sexual threat.

The nature of this threat is especially relevant to those critics who have described The Turn of the Screw as an allegory depicting the struggle between Good and Evil. In this reading, Bly is a sort of Paradise. The weeks of happiness, innocence, and beauty with the children, which the governess describes at the start of this chapter, are a sort of prelapserian Eden, whose inhabitants have known "nothing in the world but love." The vision of the man in the tower represents the introduction of Evil into this world. This curate's daughter, who might well recognize the sexual implications of the snake in the story of Adam and Eve, similarly sees the threat to her own Paradise as particularly sexual in nature.

The sexual connotations of the governess's encounter with the man in the tower are central to psychoanalytic readings of this text. If the governess is a sexual hysteric, then this man is actually a hallucination caused by a "hysterical fit." Notably, the governess is imagining a handsome man, to whom she feels sexually attracted, when she first glimpses the figure in the tower. Indeed, she herself notes that it seems as if, at first, her fantasy of seeing her employer smiling approvingly at her has transformed into reality.

Only at second glance does the man transform into a frightening stranger. While the governess may simply have been mistaken at first, the timing of his appearance, coupled with her imaginings, is suspect. Some psychoanalytic critics argue that her fear of male sexuality, as a repressed parson's daughter in Victorian England, is responsible for her transformation of the man from a sexually desirable figure to a sexually threatening one. Certainly, his appearance, standing "very erect" on a rather phallic tower, supports the psychoanalytic readings.

It is important to take note of the governess's description of the figure as she sees him in this instance, as compared to how she will later describe him to Mrs. Grose. Here, she gives little in the way of physical particulars - only mentions that he had an air of familiarity demonstrated by his lack of a hat and his staring at her. Later, she will give a far more detailed description - leading some readers to believe she must be prevaricating and others to insist that on the certainty of the figure's identity.

Here, too, we must also note the significance of her interaction with Mrs. Grose. After telling the housekeeper that she intends to do nothing in response to the head master's letter and receiving the woman's support, she finishes Mrs. Grose's sentence, "Would you mind, Miss, if I used the freedom -" to cement what she sees as their friendship. "To kiss me? No!" the governess replies and grasps the other woman in her embrace, though neither she nor the reader has received any affirmative evidence that it was Mrs. Grose's intention to kiss her. If Mrs. Grose is really hostile toward the governess, here is important evidence of the governess's blindness to the housekeper's feelings, demonstrated by her repeated talk of their friendship and sisterhood even while Mrs. Grose disagrees with and "snubs" her. Another less common reading of this kiss between the two women is critic Helen Killoran's proposal that all the characters in the novel are in fact bisexual.

On a more basic level, the governess's decision to ignore the letter from Miles's head master has profound plot implications. In choosing not to pursue the reason for the boy's dismissal with either the head master or Miles himself, the governess allows the continuance of a mystery that will later allow her to suspect Miles of wrongdoing and corruption. Her decision not to contact the boy's uncle is likewise a mistake - one born, as she notes in this chapter, of her desire to see herself as competent and to make herself happy by doing as the uncle had asked of her, rather than of any true ability to address the problem. Already she, who had previously seen herself as "at the helm" of the household, is in fact loosing power, despite her cherished illusion of control. Hired as a governess, she cannot even convince her ten-year-old charge to begin his lessons but instead allows him to "teach" her about enjoying the summer.

Chapter IV

Summary:

Deeply shaken by the figure she has seen in the tower, the governess loses all sense of time, wandering in circles for three miles. By the time she returns home, it is already dark, and Mrs. Grose's surprise at her agitated appearance convince her that the housekeeper had nothing to do with the figure she had seen. So glad to see this comforting sight is she that the governess spares the woman her the story of her encounter, instead offering a vague excuse for her lateness and heading to her room.

In the following days, she considers the encounter whenever she has free time - not yet nervous but afraid of becoming nervous. Her senses suddenly heightened, she observes the servants, wondering if they have played a prank, and decides they have not. Ultimately, she decides that the man must have been a traveler who boldly and inappropriately trespassed on the tower for the view it provided.

Rather than focus on her worries, the governess immerses herself in life with her charming pupils, making constant discoveries about them. Miles is so good and innocent she decides the head master must have been vindictive and mistaken. The children are angelic, and Miles never speaks of school. The governess knowingly ignores the issue and concentrates on her charges.

One Sunday, the rain prevents them from going to church in the morning, and so the governess and Mrs. Grose plan to go to the evening service after putting the children to bed. Realizing she has left her gloves in the dining room, the governess goes there to retrieve them and is stopped short by the figure of a man - the same man she had seen earlier in the tower - standing outside and staring in the window. When he moves his eyes off her and looks elsewhere in the room, she realizes he is there looking for someone other than her.

Realizing this, she runs out of the house to look for him outside, but he has already vanished. She waits for an uncertain amount of time for him to reappear and cannot see him hiding behind any trees or bushes. Finally, she goes back to the window, where she shocks Mrs. Grose, who has just entered the dining room, just as the man had surprised her, and wonders why the housekeeper is scared.

Analysis:

The governess's second sighting of the strange man is just as problematic as the first. That it appears to be the same man could be evidence that the governess's first impression, of seeing a handsome man on the tower, was simply a mistake, and that this is a particular stranger who exists in a reality outside her fantasies. Clearly, his second appearance proves wrong her suspicion that he is just a traveler passing through the area.

In both cases, the governess reacts in a similar manner - by wandering about, losing complete track of time. This may, of course, be a reaction to an intense shock, such as one might have in seeing a ghost. But notably, the governess does not yet think this man is a ghost. Even after the first encounter, when she guesses the man might be a traveler, she describes her reaction as "the shock I had suffered." This description of agitated wanderings, lost time, and intense shock all offer proof to the assertion that the governess has experienced a hysterical fit and hallucination.

Certainly, the governess's manner begins to change after the first shock. She describes how her senses are sharpened, which may be a result of necessary watchfulness or could be the beginnings of an intense paranoia. She is not acting completely rationally, as she herself notes, in her dealings with the pupils. Though she refuses to ask Miles about his school, she becomes increasingly convinced, based solely on lack of evidence and on Miles's own odd reticence in mentioning school, that the headmaster was vindictive and wrong.

The governess's continued comparisons of the children to angels and her observance of their gentleness plays into the allegory of a contest between good and evil. Whether or not there are ghosts, the governess clearly believes the children are good and innocent and already, she sees it as her duty to protect them from evil. If the children represent Adam and Eve and Bly represents Eden, the governess therefore has assumed the role of God - suggesting her role will be to protect the children but also to punish them for transgression.

At the beginning of the chapter, the governess alludes to famous novels in the Gothic tradition, Ann Radcliffe's 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho and Charlotte Brontë's 1847 Jane Eyre. In part, this illustrates the literary tradition that influences James's writing. Additionally, it demonstrates the governess's desire - shown earlier in her many references to fairy tales - to see herself as a literary heroine, like Jane Eyre. This is especially significant since the governess is in fact writing her own story and is therefore able to portray herself as heroine, protector and defender of her charges. It relates, too, to her active imagination - responsible first for imagining her employer appearing to her and now for her musings about who the man she saw could have been. If the ghosts are not real - or even if they are simply benevolent - the governess's desire to see herself as heroine drives her to see the spirits as real threats to Miles and Flora which she can then vanquish.

The governess's continuous brooding on the figure after their first encounter may therefore be responsible for the figure she sees in the window - prossibly a product of her imagination. One critic has suggested that the windows would be too blurry on a rainy day for the governess to have seen the figure so clearly as she purports. Certainly, it is odd that she says she saw him no more distinctly than she had upon his appearance in the tower - when he was too far away from her for her to shout to him and be heard. Likewise, the governess's "certitude" that he had not come for her but for someone else results only from what she perceives is his glance away from her and around the room. She calls that realization a "flash of knowledge," yet she has no true evidence to support it.

The interactions between the governess and Mrs. Grose in this chapter are similarly puzzling. The governess is reassured when Mrs. Grose appears to have no idea why she is so upset after returning from seeing the man on the tower because it means the housekeeper is ignorant of the origin of the figure on the tower. And yet, when Mrs. Grose expresses fear when she sees the governess standing outside the window, she suspects that Mrs. Grose must know something she does not. Though she has pushed Mrs. Grose for answers to questions she cannot know - such as Miles's dismissal from school - in the past, here she cannot bring herself to ask what seems a simple and pragmatic question about the man in the tower - when the housekeeper, quite possibly, could know if he were a workman or visitor at the house.

Chapter V

Summary:

Mrs. Grose rushes outside the house, where she meets the governess, who is now pale with shock, and demands to know what is wrong with her. No longer desiring to protect Mrs. Grose from her knowledge, the governess tells her that through that same window, she saw something much worse and more frightening - a man looking in. Prompted by Mrs. Grose's questions, she says she does not know who he is nor where he has gone but that she has seen him before in the tower.

The housekeeper demands to know if the man was a stranger and if so why she had not been told. The governess affirms her suspicions and suggests that now that Mrs. Grose has guessed - which Mrs. Grose interjects she has not - she'll tell her. She tells her she has seen the man in the tower and in the spot in which they stand.

Responding to Mrs. Grose's questions, she says that no, he was not a gentleman, nor was he from the town - rather, "he's a horror." At that Mrs. Grose suggests leaving for church, but the governess says that she cannot leave the children at this time because she is afraid of the man she saw. Mrs. Grose, upon learning that she saw the man in the tower at the same time of day, suggests that it was nearly dark, but the governess insists she saw him clearly. She tries to send the housekeeper off to church, but instead, Mrs. Grose asks if she fears for the children. Though she says she was afraid, she ran out after him because she has her "duty" to protect the children.

The governess then describes the man to Mrs. Grose. "He's like nobody" with curly red hair, a pale long face, red whiskers, arched eyebrows, small sharp eyes, a large mouth with thin lips - like an actor and not a gentleman. He is handsome but dressed in someone else's clothes, without a hat. At this, Mrs. Grose exclaims in recognition: It is Peter Quint, the master's valet, who was at Bly with the master the previous year. He never wore a hat, and while he was there the master's waistcoats were missing. He remained on, in charge, after the master left. And, Mrs. Grose concludes, Quint is dead.

Analysis

This chapter is the most problematic for those who wish to argue that the governess is mad. Mrs. Grose's immediate recognition of Peter Quint from the governess's description seems to offer affirmative evidence that the governess has seen a ghost. The detailed description seems to preclude the possibility of misrecognition and explains the man's ability to appear suddenly, without barriers to entrance or exit. This is the first time the governess considers the possibility of a ghost, and it is clear that she has not consciously considered it previously. Mrs. Grose's revelation that Quint is dead comes as a great shock to both narrator and reader.

Critics who favor reading the governess as mad and the ghost as figments of her imagination offer various suggestions for circumnavigating this textual obstacle. On suggestion is that the governess had heard a description of or story about Quint while in town sometime and offered it up knowing that Mrs. Grose would confirm it. Others argue that Mrs. Grose, resenting the governess's intrusion into Bly and deliberately attempting to drive her mad, would have identified any man she described as the dead valet.

The specifics of the man's appearance, however, also have another possible origin - in the study of human physiognomy in the nineteenth century. In other words, the man the governess describes fits the stereotype of the sexually frightening man popularized by pseudo-science and literature of her day. In her sexual hysteria, she imagines precisely the image that would represent her greatest fears - an image that in its specificity seems to accord with Quint's appearance.

According to the pseudo-science of physiognomy, the man's "straight good features" and handsome appearance suggest he is a cad. More importantly, red hair, especially curly red hair, has existed as a sign of evil all the way back to the Bible, to depictions of a red-haired Satan in human form, and to the belief that Judas was a redhead. Red hair was also associated in the nineteenth century with lechery. The sharp, small eyes illustrate the man's sexuality and wickedness, and his arched eyebrows show him to be proud. The shape of his mouth shows him to be cruel.

James himself was aware of theories of physiognomy, and while the governess herself had most likely not read scientific treatises on the subject, she has already proved herself to be familiar with the literature of her day. One such character is Fagin, in Dicken's Oliver Twist, which had appeared serialized in the months before the governess accepted her position at Bly. Likewise, this sort of physiognomic cliché of a villain proliferates in the Gothic fiction with which she was familiar.

Thus, James simultaneously draws upon a rich tradition of villains defined by their appearance - a tradition which includes The Canterbury Tales ΠWife of Bath and Gulliver's Travels' Yahoos - but uses the existence of that tradition within the story. The governess, unable to acknowledge her sexual desire for her employer, projects the image of a stereotypical sexual threatening male - a man who just happens to wear clothing similar to employer. The governess's initial description, "He's like nobody," demonstrates his air of unreality and suggests that he is possibly a hallucination - or a ghost.

The governess has already mentioned her well-founded fear at seeing a strange man on the property. That he "only peeps," as Mrs. Grose observes, should come as a relief to her. However, his peeping represents a threat to her control and authority. The governess has assumed a subjective position as head of the household at Bly. By constructing her with his gaze, both from the tower and through the window, Quint threatens to undermine the governess's subjectivity.

James's familiarity with spirit phenomena also play a part. Mrs. Grose and the governess's exchange about how the man got in - or out - of the tower echoes the statement given to the Society for Psychical Research (of which James's father and brother were members) about a woman, alone in a house with two children, who reports seeing two ghosts, a man and a woman, and who, when discussing the incident with another woman, wonders how the man got in - or more importantly, how he got out.

Chapter VI

Summary:

The governess is so shocked that she must lie down for an hour. After that, she and Mrs. Grose don't go to church but rather have their own "service" of tears, prayers and promises to each other in the schoolroom. Though Mrs. Grose has not seen anything, she does not question the governess's sanity but defers to her judgment. They decide to "bear things together," and the governess is certain she can protect Miles and Flora.

As they go over the sighting, the governess expresses her sudden certainty that Quint was looking for Miles and that Quint wants to appear to the children. She recalls being sure she would see the ghost again but is willing even to sacrifice herself to protect the children. She tells Mrs. Grose she finds it strange that the children have never at all mentioned Quint. Mrs. Grose says that Flora does not know that he is dead, but Miles, whom the governess promises not ask, was "great friends" with Quint. Quint liked to play with Miles and was, in the words of Mrs. Grose "much to free" with him and with "every one." The governess considers the household servants but cannot think of any stories she has heard. There are no frightening legends attached to Bly.

Just at midnight, as Mrs. Grose is about to leave, the governess demands to know if Quint was "definitely and admittedly bad." Mrs. Grose reveals that the master did not know that he was, and because he did not like complaints, she never told him. Quint, who was supposedly staying at the country house for his health, was given complete control over its inhabitants - including the children, which leads Mrs. Grose to break into tears.

In the following days, the governess worries that there is something Mrs. Grose has not told her and thinks about Quint's death. He had been found dead on the road to the village, and is believed, after an inquest, to have died by accident after slipping down an icy hill while drunk. There is also much gossip about his secrets and vices.

The governess is able to find happiness thinking about her heroism in protecting the children. Determined to keep them from seeing anything she has, she engages in a watchfulness over them "that might well, had it continued too long, have turned into something like madness." She is saved from that, she says, by encountering proof.

One afternoon, she leaves Miles reading in the house, and goes with Flora to the lake on the property. As she sews and Flora plays, she becomes aware, without looking, that there is another person present across the lake. She prepares her reaction - hoping the person is the postman or a messenger - while staring at her sewing and then looks over at Flora, worried that she will see. Suddenly turning her back to the water, Flora attempts to stick a piece of wood into a hole in another flat piece to make a boat with a mast. The governess stares at her intent efforts for several minutes before looking up across the lake.

Analysis:

With her need to lie down after Mrs. Grose's news, the governess illustrates the state of her mental deterioration. The hour she takes to do so also functions as a power play in the power struggle between her and Mrs. Grose. The housekeeper must wait until the governess feels better to discuss the revelation of the ghost with her.

The class dynamics at play in the relationship between these two women provide insight into Mrs. Grose's behavior. The governess speaks of Mrs. Grose's "deference," despite talk which might lead others to question her sanity. As a servant speaking to the person who has been put in charge of the household, Mrs. Grose is not able to politely confront or contradict the governess. Indeed, she could not even bring herself to act against Quint, who is lower in class than the governess, despite what she seems to feel was despicable behavior.

Quint's class, too, plays a part in the governess's aborrence of him. Quint was a valet - a servant. His usurpation of the master's power, though done with permission, offends her class-conscious Victorian sensibilities. That valet Quint spent time with Miles seems to upset her even more than the realization that Quint is now a ghost. In part, this reaction may proceed from a subconscious recognition of her commonality with Quint. In her imaginings about her master, she too has hoped to transcend the class into which she was born. Likewise, her exultation in her rich physical surroundings at Bly and her power in the household are eerily similar to that for which she condemns in Quint.

Much has been made of Mrs. Grose's statement that Quint was "much too free." We will see that, in part, she refers to Miss Jessel, the former governess, with whom he had an affair. But Mrs. Grose also speaks specifically of Quint being too free with Miles. She may simply mean that Miles association with this uncouth servant was detrimental to his development as a little gentleman. Or, some might argue, she means free in the same - sexual - sense.

The contrast between the inclinations of Mrs. Grose and the governess becomes readily apparent in this chapter. Mrs. Grose protests that she could not act against Quint's influence because the children had been placed in his charge, rather than hers, and that she preferred not to complain to the master because he was "terribly short with anything of that kind." In other words, she is ineffective because of the inconvenience action would have caused her. The governess, in contrast, seeks a more active role than is traditionally available to her as a woman. Her desire to protect the children on her own is born of a self-congratulatory impulse and the belief that by keeping worries from her employer, she will gain his love.

The sexual preoccupations of the governess become noticeable in a psychoanalytic reading of the scene on the beach. She has no true evidence that anyone else is present and before she looks to see if her "knowledge" that third person is present is correct, she looks at Flora. The little girl is attempting to jam a long thin "mast" into a hole in another piece of wood to make a boat. Some critics read this as evidence of Flora's sexual confusion as she approaches puberty. She attempts to take an active masculine role with the phallic mast but her attempts are unsuccessful as a result of Victorian gender roles and her imperfect role model in the governess - a woman who seeks power but in doing so must deny her sexuality. Even if one does not accept that Freudian reading, it is significant that the governess observes the child engage in this play - which may be innocent and unknowing but which the governess may, consciously or subconsciously, interpret as sexual and threatening to the innocence of her charge - before looking up to see just who (if anyone) watches from across the lake.

Chapter VII

Summary:

The incident over, the governess rushes to find Mrs. Grose, telling her that the children "know." She says that Flora saw the specter at the lake and said nothing. Across the lake, a woman appeared and simply stood there. She was no one the governess has ever seen, but she says, someone Flora and Mrs. Grose have seen - Miss Jessel.

Mrs. Grose remains bewildered throughout the exchange, not understanding the source of the governess's certainty. Nevertheless, the governess remains adamant in insisting that Flora knows about Miss Jessel and that if asked about seeing her she will lie. Now, the governess's greatest fear is not seeing the ghost but rather "of not seeing her" because that will mean Flora is interacting with the ghost without her knowledge.

The housekeeper, who has already suggested that Flora has kept her sighting of Miss Jessel a secret to spare the governess the fright, now wonders if the child likes the ghost - that her lack of fear is simply proof of her innocence. The governess agrees but says that Flora's innocence is "proof of - God knows what! For the woman's a horror of horrors."

At that, Mrs. Grose wonders how the governess knows this about Miss Jessel. The governess explains it is from the gaze of intention which the ghost fixed on Flora and from her wicked appearance. She was dressed in a shabby black dress but was very beautiful, though infamous. Mrs. Grose confirms that Miss Jessel was "infamous" - together with Quint. At the governess's insistence, the housekeeper implies that despite the difference in their rank, Miss Jessel and Quint had a sexual relationship and subtly implies that Miss Jessel left because she was pregnant. Unaware of the details of the former governess's death, the housekeeper has imagined dreadful possibilities.

Hearing this news, the governess feels defeated. She bursts into tears and Mrs. Grose attempts to comfort her. She has not protected the children, she realizes. They are already "lost."

Analysis:

Interestingly, we do not get a direct description of Miss Jessel's appearance at the lake but only hear about it - unclearly - in the governess's spoken account to Mrs. Grose. Equally important, we are not give a direct description of Flora seeing the ghost. When the last chapter concluded, Flora had turned her back to the lake and the governess had not yet lifted her eyes to see the figure she "knew" was across the lake. Because of this, the governess's certainty that Flora knows is suspect - and not surprisingly, this is the cause of much confusion for Mrs. Grose.

This incident represents a significant turning point in the governess's perception of the children. Until now, they have been described as "angels," but by the end of this chapter, she is certain that they are damned. This change demonstrates the instability of perception in The Turn of the Screw. The children, in fact, have not acted at all differently in the previous chapter than earlier in the book. Miles was in the house and not even present during the appearance of Miss Jessel, and Flora did not definitively react to her presence. The governess's certainty that the two children know of the ghosts is, oddly, based on their inaction, their lack of reaction. She sees no possibility of getting affirmative evidence - Flora would only deny seeing the ghost if asked.

The governess's certainty in this chapter is especially troubling if we see the ghosts as her hallucinations. The children have no defense to her assumptions here. Anything they might say will be assumed to be a lie. Even if the ghosts are real, the governess here gives no consideration to the possibility - though she has previously spoken of her receptivity to seeing the ghosts and Mrs. Grose's inability to see them - that Flora truly could not see Miss Jessel or to Mrs. Grose's suggestion that the ghost was benevolent.

Likewise, the governess's certainty that the woman she saw was Miss Jessel is based on assumption. Here, she does not even bother to physically describe the figure, as she did Quint, before identifying her. She is certain that the woman was Miss Jessel, a woman she never met, largely because of her "infamous" appearance. The governess's ability to describe Miss Jessel is much more easily explained than her description of Quint. What physical description she does give is vague and cannot be confirmed or denied by Mrs. Grose. Furthermore, the governess knows that the master prefers to hire pretty women, so it is only logical that Miss Jessel be "handsome." Since Miss Jessel is dead, it is somewhat fitting that she is clothed in mourning attire. The governess's suspicion that Miss Jessel was infamous may easily be a conclusion drawn from knowledge of the former governess's quick departure and unexplained death.

Here, Miss Jessel's evil has an unmistakable sexual element. Mrs. Grose's statements imply that she left because she was pregnant. The cause of her death is uncertain but seen as deserving - "she paid for it." She may have died in childbirth or during a botched abortion. Her appearance by the lake might also suggest she drowned herself. It is most likely these possibilities that Mrs. Grose refers to when she speaks of the dreadful possibilities she imagines. The governess's assertion that she imagines still more dreadful things is significant for its use of the word imagine. The governess's imagination, more than any knowledge, is responsible for the beliefs she holds at the end of this chapter.

Victorian culture only provided three possible roles for women - mother, whore, and lunatic. The governess has previously sought to inhabit the role of mother, but her sublimated sexual desires are magnified by her counterpart, Miss Jessel's actions consign her to the role of whore. Though Mrs. Grose seems to feel sympathy for Miss Jessel's punishment, calling her "poor woman," the governess does not. The dreadful things that Mrs. Grose imagines are the agonies Miss Jessel must have experienced unwed, pregnant, and finally dying. In contrast, the governess offers no sympathy for Miss Jessel. Her "dreadful" imaginings are not what Miss Jessel has suffered but what she has done.

To admit sympathy for Miss Jessel would be to admit their similarity and to therefore risk the label of whore. The many commonalities between the governess and her predecessor extend beyond their profession. Notably, both exhibit desire for men outside their station. Rather than feel sympathy for Miss Jessel, however, the governess is disgusted by Miss Jessel's affair with a man of the servant class. The transgression which occurred during their lives more so than their appearance as ghosts makes them evil in the eyes of the governess.

Miss Jessel, in a psychoanalytic reading of the text, may then exist as a symbolic representation of the desires the governess cannot herself admit or express. This hallucination has been borne of the governess's dangerous indulgence in sexual fantasies about her employer. Miss Jessel must therefore be abhorred as evil by a governess seeking to repress her own similar sexual urges. Significantly, she appears after the governess has been brooding on the sexually predatory Quint and at the very moment she intently watches Flora play with the mast and driftwood. Also important in a Freudian reading is the male ghost's appearance in a tower and the female's on a lake.

Even if the ghosts are real, the governess's conclusion at the end of the chapter, that the ghosts are evil and the souls of the children are lost, is unwarranted. James himself called the ghosts "fairies of the legendary order," and some critics suggest - as Mrs. Grose does here - that the ghosts are actually benevolent entities. Beyond her assumptions based on their earthly sexual activities, the governess has no reason to believe that the ghosts are evil.

Chapter VIII

Summary:

Determined to remain rational about her suspicions, the governess talks with Mrs. Grose in her room late at night. She wonders how, if she made it up, she could have given such detailed descriptions of the two ghosts such that Mrs. Grose was able to identify them. Though Mrs. Grose wants to forget the subject entirely, the governess professes her belief that she will get used to the danger.

Upon seeing her pupils the next day, however, she finds it hard to believe that they could be at all evil. Their beautiful, innocent appearance and manner forces her to replay the moment at the lake over in her mind and the reasons for her certainty that Flora saw the ghosts and tried to conceal it from her. Thus suspicious of the children, she sees their increased babbling and playing as means of quelling her worries.

Saying that she does not really believe her previous horrible assumptions, the governess subtly elicits more details from Mrs. Grose. She wonders why Mrs. Grose spoke of Miles being bad when he has been a little angel while she has known him. Mrs. Grose explains that while Quint was there, he and Miles were "perpetually together." Worried, she finally spoke out of her station to Miss Jessel to protest and was told to mind her own business.

The governess then begins to badger the housekeeper for clarification. Her many questions bring Mrs. Grose to reveal that she reminded Miles himself that he was a little gentleman and Quint a "base menial." She also recalls Miles lying about times he had spent with Quint and his denial of knowing anything about Quint and Miss Jessel's relationship. The governess is certain that Miles knew the truth.

Launching into the subject of the headmaster's letter, the governess wonders if Miles seems to be an angel now how he was "a fiend at school" - and suggests Mrs. Grose should have suspected when she told her of the letter. She deduces that Miles called Mrs. Grose a "base menial" but that she forgave him. Trying to allay Mrs. Grose's suspicions that she is returning to her worries about the children, the governess tells her that Miles's bad acts are less than she had worried and that until further evidence arises, she does not accuse the children of anything.

Analysis:

The governess's contradictory thoughts and actions in this chapter reveal her discomfort with ambiguity. She must know if the children are all good or all bad. Looking at Flora's beautiful blue eyes, she is unable to imagine that the children might know about the ghosts and be good. For her, it is all or nothing. Her approach to questioning Mrs. Grose - telling her that she does not believe her previous suspicions were true while at the same time obsessing over and asking for evidence to support them - demonstrates her knowledge that to reveal her true thoughts would alienate the other woman.

The conversations between the governess and Mrs. Grose in this chapter may support a view of an antagonistic relationship between the two of them. James's very punctuation - such as dashes at the end of sentence, when the governess interrupts the housekeeper and finishes her sentences - prevent any definitive interpretation of any one speaker's intended meaning. Again, it is the very lack of evidence - the fact that Miles never mentioned Quint's relationship with Miss Jessel - that leads the governess to believe that he did know about it. Once again, she finds affirmation of the children's evilness in their denials.

The conflict between the governess and what she perceives as Miles's badness is at heart an issue of class. When asked what Miles did that warranted being called bad, Mrs. Grose describes how he spent many hours with Quint, though "she liked to see young gentleman not forget their station." Miles refusal to obey her flouts the distinctions of class and reminds the housekeeper of her own position as a "base menial" - the words of the governess, who is also consorting with a servant below her station. Some critics suggest that Miles refusal to adhere to Victorian notions of class may have been what got him thrown out of school.

Clearly, class transgression is the most obvious element that makes the hours Miles spent "quite as if Quint were his tutor" abhorrent to the governess. Additionally, this chapter is one others have used to suggest Miles's corruption was actually an inappropriate homosexual relationship with Quint in the hours they were together. Just what Miles learned from Quint in their hours together is unclear but is nonetheless the source of what, the governess suspects, led to his dismissal from school.

The reminder that Mrs. Grose is a "base menial" also reminds the reader of the class divide which separates her from the governess. The governess, who herself refrains from speaking about their class difference during the conversation does not explicitly recognize that Mrs. Grose, too, cannot speak completely freely to a woman of another rank. Here, especially, where Mrs. Grose seems unbelieving of the governess's previous assertions, her lack of strong objection - and her mention of the difficulty she had contradicting Miss Jessel - illustrates her reticence to speak against her superior. Though the housekeeper does not here object, it should be noted that the governess's assertion that she gave such detailed descriptions of Quint and Miss Jessel as to receive affirmative identification is not completely true. Though Mrs. Grose identified Quint from the description, the governess herself identified the second ghost as Miss Jessel - even in the face of Mrs. Groses's initial skepticism.

Chapter IX

Summary:

The governess resigns herself to wait as the days pass, keeping her fears from her pupils. She worries that they will notice the extra attention she shows them and wonders if perhaps their increased affection for her covers deeper secrets, just as hers for them does. They are very fond of her and dedicated to their lessons. Often, they will act out stories and surprise her by reciting poems they have memorized.

She continues to avoid the subject of Miles's schooling and continues his lessons herself. Still, she finds it unbelievable that the Miles she knows was kicked out of school. At Bly, Miles and Flora demonstrate their musical talent, and Miles is especially adept at playing the piano by ear. The children's tenderness toward each other is remarkable.

There is a library at Bly full of eighteenth-century novels. The governess has borrowed Fielding's Amelia and sits in her room reading it by candlelight one night, as Flora sleeps in her little curtained bed. As she reads, the governess has the sense she had on her first night there that something is going on in the house. She takes her candle, locks the door behind her and goes into the hall to investigate.

As she reaches the top of the stairs, her candle suddenly blows out. In the moonlight coming through a window, she can see Quint standing on a landing half-way up the stairs. She is terrified, and they stare at each other for an interminable period of time, saying nothing. Finally, Quint turns his back and moves off down the staircase.

Analysis

As the governess describes the events of the schoolroom, we can begin to see that she herself is doing that of which she accuses Quint and Miss Jessel - controlling the children. Here, she finds the closeness between Flora and Miles, and their signals to occupy the governess while the other prepares a surprise for her, to be touching. Likewise, she is proud of Miles's cleverness. When those same abilities allow the children to keep secrets from her, the governess will see the children in a wholly different light.

The relationship between Miles and Flora is only acceptable so long as the governess can see them as a "little boy" and "little girl." Psychoanalytic critics argue that the governess's extreme watchfulness over her charges forces her to recognize that, as children entering puberty, they will one day become sexually mature adults with desires for adult men and women beyond each other. This reading argues that the governess's actions all result from her attempts to stifle their sexual development - as symbolically represented by the adult, sexual ghosts.

Certainly, if the ghosts are real, the governess's insistence on staying in the house and protecting the children has the potential to be harmful to the children. One must wonder why, if she worries about Miles's secret interactions with the ghost of Quint, she refrains from finding him a new boarding school.

This chapter also offers more support for the argument that the Quint whom the governess has described to Mrs. Grose is actually a physiognomic stereotype of the sexually predatory male. The book Amelia which the governess is reading just before Quint appears to her on the stairs contains a character with red hair, a red beard, and a long pale face - a man with secrets, vices, and a criminal past. Though he later in the novel repents, the governess has not yet finished the book when this sighting occurs. Amelia also contains stories of young women ruined by attractive men - including Mrs. Bennet, the daughter of a clergyman, whose story, if the governess had begun the book before her first encounter with Quint, may have reminded her of her own infatuation with the gentleman in Harley Street and incited a hysterical hallucination.

The class differences which so upset the governess in learning of Quint and Miss Jessel's rank-transgressing affair are made physically apparent in her encounter with Quint's ghost on the stairs, which symbolize the class hierarchy of upstairs/downstairs Victorian society. Quint appears below her, halfway up the stairs, and at her appearance, does not come any higher. The man, who she calls a "low wretch," referring both to his class and physical position, finally turns and goes down the stairs. In this symbolic instance, the governess has thwarted Quint's ambitions to rise above his lower class background.

The context of this encounter is significant, whether the governess is crazy or the ghosts are real. The late night and Gothic novel may well be playing tricks on the governess's mind. She could be sleep-walking or even dreaming. On the other hand, the noises the governess heard on the first night in the house recur here - the foreshadowing has been justified, the source of the stir in the house revealed to be ghosts. Nonetheless, this incident, like the others, occurs at a time and place at which no one can confirm or deny the ghost's presence.

Given her class-consciousness, however, the "something undefinably astir in the house" which the governess senses may in fact - at least in the opening scene - be the servants who live there but are little-mentioned. The appearance of Quint - a ghost and a servant - demonstrates the governess's Victorian attitudes towards servants, who in many ways do not count to her as human, just as the ghost Quint is not truly human.

Chapter X

Summary:

The governess returns to her room and sees that though its curtains are closed, Flora's bed is empty. She gives into her terror and tears at the bed sheets. Finally, she sees movement behind the curtain covering the window, and Flora emerges from behind it.

Before the governess can confront the child, Flora calls her naughty and demands to know where she was. Flora herself explains that knowing the governess was gone, she went to the window to look for her but saw no one out there. At that moment, the governess grasps the child tightly and is tempted to demand a confession from her. Instead, she asks why Flora closed the bed curtain, and the girl says she did not want to frighten her if she returned.

In the nights after that, the governess sits up late and often walks around the halls. One night, she comes to the stairs and sees a woman sitting below, her back to the governess, holding her head in her hands as if she is upset. The woman then vanishes.

On the eleventh night since she last saw Quint, the governess goes to bed on time but wakes up suddenly at one o'clock. The candle she had left burning has been blown out, she thinks by Flora. Once again, Flora is hiding behind the curtain, looking out the window, and she does not notice as the governess leaves the room.

Out in the hall, the governess searches for a room from which to look out and see what Flora sees. She is tempted to go into Miles's room, look out his window, and shock him into telling her the truth, but she decides not to, since he "might be innocent." Also, the ghost she believes is outside is concerned with Flora, not Miles.

Instead, the governess finally decides to enter a large empty room on the first floor. She quietly opens the window. The moon makes the grounds outside quite visible, and on the ground, she sees a figure looking up at a window above her. She feels sick to realize that the figure is Miles.

Analysis:

The control that the governess seeks over the children is manifested physically in this chapter. Previously, we have seen her desire to hug the children in order to allay her fears that they are "lost." Here, when Flora offers her reasons for looking out the window, the governess "gripped the little girl with a spasm that, wonderfully, she submitted to without a cry or a sign of fright." The joy the governess takes in the child's submission and this sign of her desire to possess the child is a physical counterpart to her need to control the children's actions and thoughts.

Though she reminds herself that the children "might be innocent," her suspicions have come dangerously close to controlling her behavior and launching her into demands which, if her fears are unfounded, could irreparably harm the children. In this chapter, she is "tempted" to force confessions from both Flora and Miles. The need to question Flora about the "truth" of her trip to the window comes after Flora has just explained her reasons and explicitly said that no one is outside. Her desire to shock Miles into a confession comes not when she has any evidence of his activity but when she hears silence in his room. One must wonder, then, if the governess were to interrogate the children and be met with denials, if their statements would mean anything to her.

The difference in the governess's encounters with the two ghosts on the stairs are significant. Though Miss Jessel, like Quint, appears below the governess on the stairway - thus suggesting her belief that the other woman is "lower" than her in class or morality - the governess reacts far differently to the female ghost than to the male. When confronted by Quint, she stares at him defiantly until he turns and leaves. She is threatened by his power, as represented by his gaze on her, and combats it by assuming for herself the masculine power of the gaze.

Miss Jessel, however, is not even aware of the governess's presence. Here, the governess holds all the power because she sees Miss Jessel and Miss Jessel does not see her. This is a reversal of the scene at the lake during which the governess was afraid to raise her eyes to see the figure she felt was looking at her. As such, Miss Jessel's appearance does not frighten the governess as does Quint's. Even after seeing the Miss Jessel on the stairs, the governess continues counting nights from Quint's last appearance, not from the most recent ghost sighting. Such importance placed on the male ghost may lend credence to the argument that the governess's is a particularly sexual fear - that she sees a handsome man as more threatening than a woman.

The image of Miss Jessel that the governess sees is far from threatening and - to the reader - might almost appear sympathetic. This appearance is more like an echo of a past spirit, repeating incidents from life, than a conscious, active ghost. Sitting on the stairs crying, Miss Jessel seems to be reliving an incident from her troubled life at Bly. Her disappearance, as the governess stands there looking at her, makes her more ephemeral, more like a memory or a vision, than Quint. Her actions, sitting and crying on the stairs do not earn the governess's disgust, as had Mrs. Grose's story of her sexual exploits, and in fact parallel quite strongly the governess's own frequent tears. Similarly interesting is the governess's ability to separate the authority of the two ghosts. She need not worry about Miles, she believes, because Miss Jessel only haunts Flora. In focusing on the gendered relationships between the children and ghosts, the governess reveals her sexual preoccupations and fails to predict what she will find out on the lawn.

Throughout the book, it seems as if real life is more frightening to people than spirits. The governess is less frightened by the fact that she is seeing dead people than by the behavior those people engaged in during their lives. Likewise, she is more shocked to see Miles - a living person who resides in the house - to be standing out on the lawn than she would have been to see Miss Jessel. Her surprise, it seems, is what "sickens" her - for she had until that moment believed that Miles was asleep in his room. Here, her ability to know her pupils every thought and move is proved wrong.

Chapter XI

Summary:

The next day, the governess talks to Mrs. Grose. She is comforted by the housekeeper's calm attitude but believes that it is a result of a lack of imagination. Only if the children were physically injured would Mrs. Grose worry. The two women stand watching the children - whom the governess has decided to always keep in sight - playing on the lawn.

The governess reflect on the previous night. In order not to disturb the other people in the house, she had walked down to the lawn to meet Miles. He came straight to her and she walked with him in silence back to his room. She wonders how he will explain things to her, thinking first that he has finally been caught in a situation he cannot excuse or explain. As she thinks, she realizes that she is caught too - she cannot bring up the subject of ghosts without seeming monstrous.

The two reach Miles room, where the bed is still made and the window is open. The governess is overcome and sinks down on the bed, realizing that Miles is too clever for her. She does not know how to confront him and actually admires him throughout this encounter.

Finally, she asks Miles to tell her the truth about why he was outside and what he was doing there. He first asks if she will understand, if he is to tell her, and she quickly assents, eager to hear the truth. Finally, he says that he wanted her to do just as she is doing - "think me - for a change - bad!" Miles explains that he sat up and read till midnight, in order to be extra bad. He had arranged with Flora that she should look outside, so as to wake up the governess and get her to see him out there. The governess realizes she's fallen into the children's trap.

All she can do is tell him she is worried he caught a cold outside at night. He hugs her, saying he had to in order to be "bad enough," and the governess reflects that he was able to use his goodness to play this joke on her.

Analysis:

Much of the governess's nighttime encounter with Miles and her later thoughts on the incident will stem from the words the two use. The governess and Mrs. Grose have already created confusion in calling Miles "bad" - a word that, for the governess, means evil and for Mrs. Grose, means naughty. When Miles says, "When I'm bad I am bad!" he may simply be bragging about his naughtiness, as he purports to be doing, or he may be implicitly confessing what the governess already suspects - that, corrupted by Quint, he has become evil.

The terror of the chapter stems from the governess's inability to act. Feeling that she is "caught" by Miles, she cannot explicitly confront the child with her suspicions. Her continuing doubts that her fears may be unfounded and her awareness of what others will think - "who would ever absolve me, who would consent that I should go unhung, ifŠI were the first to introduce into our perfect discourse an element so dire?" - prevent her from eliciting any confirmation or denial of her suspicions from Miles. She proceeds, assuming she is right and that Miles understands what she means when she asks for his reasons for going outside, but in doing so, she ignores her own doubts. If her doubts are right - if Miles is innocent - then any "confession" this conversation has elicited is essentially meaningless. All Miles has confessed to is a joke, not evil.

The governess focuses in this chapter on mental capacity. First, she says, the housekeeper is not smart enough to worry about the children unless she can visibly see physical injury to them. In doing so, she sets herself above Mrs. Grose - using her power as narrator of the story and "reader" of the children to suggest her greater mental acuity. Others' inability to perceive that the children are haunted does not prove her wrong; rather it proves her smarter and more perceptive than the average person. Such a belief is born of hubris and may result in the governess's failure to see the truth and her eventual failure. A reading of The Turn of the Screw in which Mrs. Grose has deliberately attempted to make the governess goes mad exposes this dangerous pride even further; the governess may have overestimated herself and underestimated her adversary.

However, if the governess is correct and Mrs. Grose is simply amiable and lacking in imagination, we must discount her as a source of support for the governess's claims. She accepts what the governess tells her about the children, but she is not able to see the evidence which the governess purports to see for herself. Her "belief" in the governess's suspicions may only be a result of her agreeable nature. Likewise, the force with which the governess shares her suspicions with Mrs. Grose may be enough to convince the less imaginative woman that the governess's suspicions are true. Certainly, the use of the word "imaginative" is significant. She uses it to signify intellect, but perhaps it is better to be less "imaginative." Perhaps the more imaginative governess has imagined everything.

Similarly, the governess may have overestimated the children. Miles is only ten and Flora eight. She recognizes the great planning that had to go into this "joke" - planning which Miles has been proud to share with her. However, she also believes that Miles is more clever than her. He has designed the incident so that she cannot confront him about the truth behind it. Such cleverness in a ten-year-old boy is frightening, for it implies that he must have had help, presumably in the form of Quint. But the governess's assumption about this cleverness is dangerous; because of its very basis in her inability to question Miles, she can never confirm her suspicions.

Chapter XII

Summary:

Back on the lawn, the governess and Mrs. Grose continue their conversation. The governess emphasizes the last comment Miles made to her before she left his room: "Think, you know, what I might do!" Rather than take that as proof of his goodness, the governess believes he is referring to the far worse things he did at school.

Mrs. Grose can barely believe the governess, but the governess insists that anyone who had seen the children in the past nights would understand. She sees the fact that they have never mentioned Quint and Miss Jessel and that Miles has not mentioned his school as proof of their plan. Though Miles appears to be reading a story to Flora out on the lawn, the governess says, they are really talking of the ghosts. She says that she may appear crazy and that anyone else who had seen the things she has would be driven crazy, but she is actually more lucid.

A worried Mrs. Grose wants to know what her lucidity has shown her, and the governess explains that the children's beauty and goodness is all a "fraud." They have been living a secret life and belong to Quint and Miss Jessel. Mrs. Grose admits that in life they were "rascals," but wants to know what they can do now that they are dead. The governess proclaims that they can destroy the children - that right now they are watching and tempting but that the children will ultimately go to them and be killed - unless the governess and Mrs. Grose can stop them.

Mrs. Grose suggests that the uncle stop the ghosts, that the governess write to him. The governess angrily retorts that she cannot bother the man by writing that his house is haunted and the children are mad. Mrs. Grose admits he does not like to be worried, and the governess says that his desire not to be bothered kept Quint and Miss Jessel in power for so long, but that she will not deceive him as they did. Nonetheless, Mrs. Grose is adamant that the uncle come - until the governess threatens her, telling her that if she contacts the master, then the governess will leave both of them immediately.

Analysis:

Once more, Mrs. Grose's agreeable nature allows the governess a great deal of power at Bly. Still bolstering her own importance by emphasizing her perception, the governess embarks on a series of shocking observations that frighten and surprise the housekeeper. Whether or not the ghosts are real, the governess has little proof of their intentions and still less proof of the children's knowledge of them. Once again, she takes a lack of evidence - here, the fact that Miles and Flora have never mentioned Quint or Miss Jessel - as undeniable proof that the children have already been corrupted by them. The ghosts, when she has encountered them, have done nothing but watch and have never given her any reason to believe that they want to kill the children.

Here, then, the governess's assertion of her own lucidity is suspect. Mrs. Grose and the ghost both function as foils for her, revealing her own malicious influence. "I go on, I know, as if I were crazy; and it's a wonder I'm not. What I've seen would have made you so," she says to Mrs. Grose, "but it has only made me more lucid, made me get hold of still other things." When those "other things" are groundless, wild observations, one must wonder if the governess is not in fact crazy.

Likewise, the governess says of the children, "They're not mine - they're not ours. They're his and they're hers." Once again, we have more proof of the governess's desire to possess the children than we do of Quint and Miss Jessel's. The governess has hugged them so hard they have wanted to cry out. She has wanted to know their every thought. Quint and Miss Jessel, even if they are ghosts, seem to be, as Mrs. Grose suggests, impotent - watching and not acting.

The governess also compares herself to the ghosts when denying Mrs. Grose's suggestion of eliciting their employer's involvement. His desire not to be bothered allowed Quint and Miss Jessel to "take him in" for so long. "As I'm not a fiend, at any rate," the governess says, "I shouldn't take him in." Her extreme desire to keep the situation at Bly from the master - which leads her even to threaten a worried Mrs. Grose - suggests that maybe she, and not the ghosts, is the true fiend. Surely, the man's request not to be bothered has limits, such as a poisoned house and mad children. The governess's desire not to contact him seems to be an illogical extension of her previous desire to "pleasure" her employer by fulfilling the obligations of her job. What better way has she to prove her worth than by protecting his niece and nephew from ghosts - real or imagined - bent on stealing their souls. Conscious or not, the governess's decision not to contact her employer will prove to have negative consequences - especially when she finds she is unable to protect the children as she wants to do.

Chapter XIII

Summary:

For a month, the governess lives in the awkward state of suspecting her pupils and saying nothing. In all this, the governess's perceptions are sharper than ever. She is sure that it is not her imagination but that Flora and Miles are aware of her knowledge. Conversations take sharp turns whenever they approach the subject of the dead or life after death. The children seem to know that she wants to bring up the subject of Quint and Miss Jessel but cannot bring herself to do so. Instead, all talk centers around the governess's family, neighbors, and even pets, but none touches upon the children's past. The children's constant questions about her life make her feel most suspicious of their intentions.

Summer has turned to autumn since she saw Miss Jessel on the stairs, and she has not encountered either ghost since then. Even though there have been many instances in which she expected to see them, due to weather similar to the first night she saw Quint, she has not seen them at all. She in fact wishes she could see them and know the worst and wonders if she has lost her ability to see the ghosts. This especially frightens her because she believes the children continue to see the ghosts even when she cannot.

There are times that she is with the children when she is certain the ghosts are also present, though invisible to her. She wants to confront the children but their actions in these instances are all the more friendly and sweet. She practices her confrontations when alone in her room but even there cannot bring herself to speak Quint and Miss Jessel's names. It is as if there is a code of manners that cannot be violated, even when there is a hush in the schoolroom that makes her certain the ghosts are present.

Her greatest fear is that the children see much worse things than she has seen - and whenever that thought occurs, there seems to be a ritual by which she and the children deny it, by kissing and mentioning writing to their uncle in Harley Street. Wondering when the uncle will visit is a frequent occurrence and the governess allows the children to write letters to him that she does not send. She sees his failure to write or visit not as selfish but as evidence of his trust in her.

At this point, she says, she does not yet hate the children and she wonders if nothing else had occurred, would she have gotten frustrated and finally confronted them?

Analysis

The element of the unsaid pervades this chapter. The content of the children's interactions with the governess has not changed. They still play the piano, recite poems, and ask her to tell stories, but now, when they do these things, she suspects that they do so only to steer her away from other topics. "The element of the unnamed and untouched became, between us," she says, "was greater than any other." What is unclear, however, is if this subject is unmentionable only by the governess or if there is, as she believes, a "tacit arrangement" between herself and the children not to mention death or the ghosts or the children's past with Quint and Miss Jessel. She cannot bring herself to speak the ghosts' names even when alone in her room. This suggests the enormous symbolic power the ghosts have come to hold in her mind. Whether or not they exist, they control her interactions with the children.

The governess's focus upon Quint and Miss Jessel as unnamable suggests that for her, they represent deeper unspeakable fears - fears that find representation in her conscious mind in the figure of this deviant couple. In Victorian England, sex was very much an unspeakable subject - one that the governess could not even think of, much less mention, directly. Miss Jessel and Quint, as sexual beings, represent her fears of sexuality and moral ruin.

Here, the governess is insistent that her belief in her pupils' unseen communion with the ghosts is not her "mere infernal imagination." Nonetheless, her belief in the children's relationship with the ghosts increases from chapter to chapter. In the last chapter, as they walked on the lawn, she simply believed that the children spoke of the ghosts and encountered them when she was not present. Now, she believes that the ghosts are present even while she is talking and playing with the children. Again, her proof does not proceed from any evidence of the children's awareness of the ghosts but from a complete lack of evidence - from the children's continued failure to mention the Quint and Miss Jessel. She calls the moments during which the ghosts are present "hushes" but states that these moments actually occurred when the children were more active and playful.

In this chapter, the governess refers to her watchfulness of the children and her understanding of their relationship with the ghosts as "the strange steps of my obsession." Whether or not the ghosts are real, the governess's behavior has clearly become obsessive and unhealthy. Rather than take the passage of time since she last saw Miss Jessel as an indication that the ghosts are gone, she devotes more energy to drawing conclusions about the children's behavior. "It was essentially in the scared state that I drew my actual conclusions," she says, and the fear which she builds up in herself through her continuous worrying about the ghosts may lead her to make false conclusions.

Again, the subject of the uncle in Harley Street seems to be at the root of the governess's actions. The children's letters - written as "exercises" which the children know will never be sent - function as examples of the unspoken. The governess says that she still has copies of those letters in her possession, and the reader must wonder about the alternate narrative they provide. For the governess, the unsaid is paramount. She sees the uncle's failure to write to the children and lack of communication with her as flattery "for the way in which a man pays his highest tribute to a woman is apt to be but by the more festal celebration of one of the sacred laws of his comfort." This may simply be a Victorian belief celebrating the woman's place in the domestic sphere, or it may illustrate the governess's delusions about her employer's love for her - believing his self absorption somehow flatters her.

Chapter XIV

Summary:

On the way to church one Sunday morning, the governess walks with Miles while Flora walks with Mrs. Grose. The governess wonders why the children are so obedient when she keeps them with her at all times - especially Miles, who dressed up like a little gentleman, seems independent and is just about to begin what the governess calls a "revolution."

Miles suddenly asks the governess when he will go back to school. Though he speaks charmingly, the governess stops short and feels helpless to respond. Miles says that he is a fellow and cannot always be with a lady, even if she is perfect. He says he has been good except for the one night he snuck outside. The governess takes the opportunity to ask him again why he did it, and he says that it was to show her that he could but that he won't do it again. He asks again when he is going back to school.

Hoping to put him off until they get into the church, where he cannot ask any more questions, the governess tries to find out why Miles wants to go back to school if he is happy at Bly, and he finally tells her that he wants to see more life and wants his own sort. When the governess suggests that Flora is his own sort, he is offended by the comparison to a "baby girl," which upsets the governess.

Miles then asks about his uncle's opinion on his schooling, and the governess lets it slip that the uncle doesn't care. Miles wonders if he can be made to come visit and says he will be the one to make him do so.

Analysis:

The governess's past observations of Miles's silence on the question of school foreshadowed its significance, and in this chapter, it is brought to a head. The governess's lack of action on this matter, separate from the question of ghosts, must make the reader question her responsibility in performing her job. In truth, she has only followed part of her employer's stipulations. She has not bothered him but neither has she dealt with the problem herself, instead choosing to ignore Miles's dismissal from school. Miles's question about going back to school suggests he may not be aware that his dismissal is permanent and may therefore provide evidence of why he has not mentioned it until this point.

This chapter provides evidence of the governess's - rather than the ghosts' - desire to possess the children. Logically, Miles should be in school. His uncle had enrolled him at school and clearly intends for him to be there. If there are ghosts at Bly, Miles would be safer away from them at school. The governess has had months in which to find him a new school. And yet, she asks him why he wants to return when in fact he has no reason not to expect to return to school after a summer holiday.

The governess's reactions to Miles's reasons for wanting to return illustrate her personal reasons for keeping him at Bly. She is distraught when Miles implies he would be just as happy at school as he is with her at Bly and is confused when he says he wants more of his own sort. To the governess, Miles is a special little angel, matched only by his equally angelic sister. Miles seems to simply refer to wanting to be with other little boys, but the governess's desire to believe that her pupils are special - which thus makes her special - does not allow her to see the obvious.

The subject of the uncle, brought up in the previous chapter and here as well, remains an important one in influencing the actions which occur in the remainder of the book. The governess herself says that with Miles's "revolution," "the curtain rose on the last act of my dreadful drama, and catastrophe was precipitated." Miles's announcement, at the end of the chapter, that he will do something to make his uncle come is the significant decision that will push the catastrophe forward. The governess, though she desires the uncle's approval and had previously imagined him visiting Bly, paradoxically seems terrified that he will actually come - first at Mrs. Grose's suggestion and now at Miles's. Looking at her fear from a psychoanalytic perspective, we must remember that her romantic imaginings about the uncle precipitated her sexual hysteria and that her fears of his tangible presence are intertwined with her fears of Quint as a representation of male sexuality. More so than Miles's desire to see his uncle, the governess's reaction to the boy's decision will be the deciding factor in the coming catastrophe.

Chapter XV

Summary:

The governess does not follow Miles into the church but instead sits on a gravestone outside, considering the meaning of his words. By the time she has thought it out, it is too late to go into church without everyone noticing. She realizes that Miles has sensed that she is very afraid of something and believes that he will use that knowledge to gain himself freedom. She is afraid of dealing with his dismissal from school and even though she knows a visit from the uncle should be desired, she does not want to face the pain of such an encounter.

She knows that Miles has every right to demand a return to school, and her newfound awareness that he is consciously planning something keeps her outside pacing around the church because she is too afraid to sit in silence next to him for an hour. The idea of getting away dawns on her. She realizes that the house is nearly empty, with all the servants in church, but that even if she disappeared just until dinner, the children would confront her for her reasons.

Nonetheless, she rushes home, deciding to leave. She is overcome, worrying about arranging transportation, and she sinks down onto the stairs until she suddenly remembers that she saw Miss Jessel sitting in that very place. The governess rushes up to the schoolroom to collect her belongings. There, she sees a woman sitting at the table, with her head on her hand, who she first thinks is a servant. When the woman does not look up after she has entered the room, she realizes that it is Miss Jessel. Miss Jessel stands up and stares at the governess, who yells, "You terrible miserable woman!" The ghost then vanishes. The governess recalls feeling as if she, and not the ghost, is the intruder and knows that she must stay.

Analysis:

This chapter marks the governess's first ghostly encounter in several months. The circumstances surrounding the governess's sighting of Miss Jessel in the schoolroom suggest that the instances in which she sees the ghosts have less to do with any sixth sense - which she feared earlier she had lost - and more to do with her emotional state. As with previous encounters, this one takes place when the governess is emotionally distraught. She has finally discussed the unspeakable subject of school with Miles, and now, she must face a confrontation with the uncle or must leave. On top of all this, her encounter with Miss Jessel in the schoolroom is immediately preceded by her sudden memory of seeing the ghost on the stairs.

The governess's realization on the stairs emphasizes the many parallels that can be drawn between the governess and Miss Jessel in this chapter. These parallels suggests that Miss Jessel is, perhaps, a projection of the governess's fears about herself. She may recognize herself - particularly her own sexual desires - in Miss Jessel and fear that she will reach the same ruinous consequences. These parallels are emphasized when the governess sits in the same pose of emotional defeat on the staircase as Miss Jessel had previously. Her recognition of this similarity shocks and frightens her, leading us to realize her conscious fear of becoming like her predecessor. Likewise, she notes in the schoolroom that it is she, and not Miss Jessel, who is the intruder - that Miss Jessel seems to feel she has the same right to sit at the table as she. This recognition of their commonality, more than any observance of Miss Jessel's wickedness, may be what spurns her outcry, "You terrible miserable woman!" In condemning Miss Jessel, she is also condemning the part of her that she recognizes is like her predecessor and is thus attempting to deny their connection.

The causes surrounding the governess's decision to leave and then to remain are likewise illuminating. Interestingly, an earthly argument with Miles makes her want to leave while seeing a ghost leads her to decide to stay. Miss Jessel, of course, left her position as governess after she was "ruined" by Quint. The governess's decision to stay seems to be a rejection of her similarity to Miss Jessel by not running off like the previous governess did.

The governess's apparent reason for leaving, however, is even more troubling. She becomes so upset after Miles announces that he will make his uncle come that she cannot even enter the church. We might take her seeming inability to enter a church (just as she skipped church upon seeing Quint earlier) as evidence that the governess - and not the ghosts - is the true evil party here and that her reaction to Miles's announcement will be the thing that will truly corrupt the children. Though she has previous expressed her willingness to stay with the children no matter how great the danger and has also imagined the uncle visiting, here the prospect of "the ugliness and pain" of dealing with the boy's dismissal from school - particularly the prospect of speaking to the uncle about it - is so great as to make her want to run away. Though she at first suggests getting away only until dinner, her worries about hiring a conveyance suggest she is planning a more permanent exit. Despite her previous protestations of strength, this first straightforward confrontation with Miles seems to have precipitated the beginnings of a breakdown.

Chapter XVI

Summary:

When Mrs. Grose and the children return from church, none of them mention the governess's absence, and immediately, the governess suspects the children of "bribing" Mrs. Grose into doing so. Before tea, she visits Mrs. Grose's room, where the housekeeper tells her that the children asked her not to ask why she had left because she would like it better. The governess tells Mrs. Grose that she went for a walk - to meet some "friends."

The governess informs Mrs. Grose that she in fact did not like their silence and then tells her that it is "all out" between her and Miles. Though Mrs. Grose asks, what "all" means, the governess interrupts her to say that she saw Miss Jessel and that the two had "a talk." She found her in the schoolroom, and she says that Miss Jessel said that she suffers the torments of the damned and that she wants to share them with Flora. Mrs. Grose is terrified.

The governess says all that doesn't matter, though, because she will send for her employer. Mrs. Grose begs her to do so, and the governess says that she will, even though Miles tries using her fear of doing so against her. The employer will not be able to reproach her for not sending Miles to school because she will show him the letter from the old school master.

What's more, she now believes that Miles was expelled for "wickedness" - since he is clearly perfect in all other respects. She believes it is the uncle's fault for leaving the children for Quint and Miss Jessel, but Mrs. Grose tries to take the blame on herself. Mrs. Grose tries to take charge of sending for the uncle, by having the town bailiff write to him for her, but the governess scoffs at having a stranger tell their incredible story and says instead that she will write.

Analysis:

The governess's account of her encounter with Miss Jessel plays a pivotal role in the argument that she is mad or deceptive. In her description of the encounter in the previous chapter, Miss Jessel said nothing and disappeared as soon as the governess spoke to her. Here, she describes a mutual exchange in which Miss Jessel speaks of the torments of hell and argues her intent to draw Flora into damnation with her. If the governess is a hysteric, it is possible that the encounter has expanded in significance during the hours when she waited for Mrs. Grose and the children's return. Notably, the intentions she attributes to Miss Jessel are the ones she already suspected.

One reading of the governess's retelling of the encounter hinges upon her statement, when asked by Mrs. Grose if Miss Jessel spoke, that "It came to that." In other words, she may be giving the housekeeper the gist of what she intuited from a silent Miss Jessel. Such a reading supposes that the governess is incredibly sensitive and intuitive to meaning - that she could tell from Miss Jessel's weary countenance that she suffered hell's torments and from her gaze could read her intention of damning Flora, just as she and no one else can recognize the ghosts' presence even when they are not visible.

All these things, of course, can also be used as arguments that the governess is delusional - that she imagines her greatest fears into reality. Certainly, her report of Miss Jessel's words coincides with her deep fear of sexuality borne of Victorian morality. Miss Jessel, who it appears was engaged in a sexual relationship with Quint and found herself pregnant, suffers the torments of hell. What worse punishment could a curate's daughter imagine for the unspeakable act of sex? Her fear that Miss Jessel plans to take Flora with her ties to her deep-seated desire to deny Flora's passage into puberty and sexual subjectivity.

Interestingly, it is this encounter with Miss Jessel, who the governess believes is only concerned with Flora, that leads to her certitude that Miles was expelled for "wickedness." This marks a significant shift from her previous reading of Miles as an angel. It is noteworthy, too, that the governess reaches this conclusion not after observing Miles in contact with a ghost but after what she perceives is his opposition to her control over the household.

The governess's decision to contact the uncle is a sharp turn from her previous fear of dealing with him. This may partially explain Mrs. Grose's desire to take the communication into her own hands. The governess's reaction to Mrs. Grose's suggestion to have the bailiff write the letter for her "had a sarcastic force [the governess] had not fully intended" and makes the housekeeper break into tears. In this too, the governess desires control.

Chapter XVII

Summary:

Sitting in her room as a storm rages outside that night, the governess sits in her room trying to a begin a letter to employer. With nothing yet written, she goes and listens outside Miles's door to see if he is awake. He calls for her to come in, saying he could hear her out in the hallway.

Inside the room, Miles tells the governess that he lies awake and thinks - about her, he says, when she asks, about the way she is raising him "and all the rest." The governess tells him that if he wishes, he can go back to school, but that it will be another school. She mentions that he has not once spoken about his school or anyone there since coming home, and when Miles expresses surprise that he has not mentioned it, she believes that the hand of Peter Quint is involved.

The governess says that she thought he was happy, living only in the present at Bly, but he says he wants to get away. He likes Bly but he wants his uncle to come down and settle everything with the governess. The governess asks what he will have to tell his uncle that he has kept from her, since the uncle cannot send him back to his old school. Miles insists he wants a new school.

The governess is struck by Miles's "unnatural childish tragedy" and hugs and kisses him, asking if there is anything he wants to tell her. He repeats that he wants her to let him alone, and she is afraid that means abandoning him. She tells him she has begun a letter to his uncle and asks the boy what happened "before." He asks in reply "what happened?" and she is brought to her knees, proclaiming that she wants to help save him. Suddenly, a chill hits the room, though the window remains closed, the candle goes out, and Miles shrieks. He then says that he blew the candle out.

Analysis

Again, the governess's unnatural desire to possess and control the children herself becomes evident. Despite Miles's pleas to be "let alone," the governess cannot control her need to hug and kiss him. Her proclamation that she would die for him and wants to save him is described as "seiz[ing] once more the chance of possessing him." Her actions, listening outside his door at night, have a decidedly obsessive bent, and indeed, she even calls her need to do so part of her "endless obsession."

The governess believes that the children's actions are controlled by the ghosts, but throughout this chapter, she describes her own actions as if they were not under her control. She is "impelled" to listen at Miles's door. She is "overwhelmed" and "let[s] [her]self go" when she embraces him. And even though she knows "even now [she] should go to far" by saying she wants to save him, she speaks the words anyway. The blast of cold air comes into the room not in response to any of Miles's words or actions but instead after the governess knowingly crosses a line and speaks the unspeakable.

This conversation, like many others, is couched in ambiguous terms. If the governess is mistaken about just what Miles knows, her error may be the result of one particular assumption she states here. "It was extraordinary how my absolute conviction of his secret precocityŠmade him, in spite of the faint breath of his inward trouble, appear as accessible as an older person, forced me to treat him as an intelligent equal." Bereft of adult companionship - for she has already expressed her disdain for Mrs. Groses's intellect and her servant status - and particularly male adult companionship, the governess has made Miles into a substitute for his uncle. If the governess is simply projecting her need for adult contact onto Miles, then his confusion when asked about what happened "before" and his failure to speak of school may not be deliberate obfuscation but simply may be the inability of a ten-year-old boy to understand the governess's questions.

In this case, Miles desire to be "let alone" and to leave Bly, even though he likes it, has a logical, earthly explanation. He is afraid of the governess and her unpredictable behavior. He certainly appears sincere in his desire to bring his uncle to Bly, as he emphasizes by urging the governess to finish her letter, and any actions the governess sees as "wicked" on his part may simply be the only way a little boy knows how to attract the attention of a neglectful guardian. Some critics suggest that James wrote this novel in order to criticize Victorian modes of parenting - in which rich parents often left the entire upbringing of their children to servants. Through the uncle's neglect of his charges, the governess's irresponsible behavior, and the inevitable outcome, James offers a worst-case scenario which demands greater parental involvement.

Chapter XVIII

Summary:

The next day, the governess tells Mrs. Grose that she has written, even though she has not yet actually mailed the letter. She has spent the morning teaching the children, who performed brilliantly at their lessons. She finds Miles to be extraordinary, and she wishes for proof of his wrongdoing at school.

After the noontime meal, he the governess if he can play the piano for her, and she takes this request to mean that he does not really want to leave her and go away to school but just argued to prove the point. The governess is so distracted by his piano playing that she loses all track of time. When he finishes, she suddenly wonders where Flora has been.

Looking for Flora, the governess first goes to Mrs. Grose's room, but the child is not there with the housekeeper. This is the first time the governess has let Flora out of her sight in a long time, and the two women question the maids as to Flora's whereabouts.

Mrs. Grose wants next to search other rooms in the house, but the governess expresses her certainty that Flora is outside. Mrs. Grose points out that she didn't take a hat, and the governess says that Miss Jessel never wore one. She believes Flora is with Miss Jessel and that Miles is with Quint in the schoolroom. Miles's piano-playing was part of a plan to distract the governess while Flora goes to Miss Jessel and giving Miles a chance to see Quint while the governess searches for Flora.

The governess decides that she will go look for Flora, saying she doesn't mind anymore leaving Miles with Flint. She leaves the letter on the table for the servant Luke to take to be mailed. When Mrs. Grose wants to get a coat and hat before going out into the damp weather, the governess tells her to stay and check the schoolroom instead. Afraid of being left with Miles and Quint, the housekeeper agrees to go with the governess after Flora.

Analysis:

The governess's ambivalence towards Miles is in full force in this chapter. She switches instantaneously from seeing him as good to seeing him as evil. His excellence in the schoolroom and his talent at the piano lead her to imagine a reconciliation, while her discovery that he is tricked her make her conclude not that he is simply naughty or mischievous but that he is evil. Indeed, the governess's changing intentions toward Miles - in the last chapter to possess and save him, and in this chapter, to abandon him to Quint when she believes he has betrayed her - suggest that she is indeed a neurotic.

Some critics suggest that the governess's torment stems from her need to view the children as all good or all evil. This is why she cannot imagine a lesser "naughty" act that might have gotten Miles expelled from school but instead assumes he must have done something "wicked." This mindset is explained, in part, by our knowledge that she is the sheltered daughter of a country parson and was therefore raised in a home of extreme Victorian religious morality in which all sin, no matter how small, might have been considered dangerous or evil.

Much of the governess's fear stems, of course, from her belief that the ghosts seek to make the children emulate them and their wicked behavior. It is interesting to note, then, that the act of emulation that leads her to believe Flora is with Miss Jessel is not an act of evil at all - at most it is an act of foolishness. Flora has left the house without a hat and from that, the governess has "made up [her] mind" that she is with the ghost. We must note, also, that the governess continues her unintentional habit of emulating Miss Jessel - as she did by sitting on the stairs - by leaving the house, herself, without wearing a hat.

The attitude of extreme calm the governess describes taking in this chapter suggests the extreme mental effects her situation has taken upon her psyche. Similarly, her strange cheerfulness in suggesting that Miles in the schoolroom with Quint shows she is nearing her breaking point.

The governess's actions concerning the letter must make the reader wonder if she ever planned to send it. She makes Mrs. Grose believe the letter has already been sent when it has not, and she then nearly convinces herself that Miles's piano playing means their situation has been resolved. Only when Mrs. Grose finally mentions the letter again does the governess leaves this important letter on the table for a servant to mail, rather than take care of it herself.

Chapter XIX

Summary:

The governess and housekeeper go straight to the lake, and the governess tells Mrs. Grose that she believes the child is in the place where she pretended not to see Miss Jessel. She believes that the children talk of the ghosts when they are alone and say terrible things.

When they reach the lake, Flora is nowhere to be seen, and the boat is gone. Mrs. Grose wonders how the child could have taken it alone, but the governess reminds her that she has Miss Jessel with her and that at such times she's as clever as an "old, old woman." They spot the boat across the lake and walk around the banks to the spot.

The women spot Flora, who picks a withered fern and holds it out to them. Mrs. Grose breaks the silence by rushing over and embracing the child. Flora continues to stare at the governess and finally drops the fern. The governess takes this to mean that "pretexts were useless now."

Mrs. Grose finally stands, holding Flora's hand, and Flora looks at the bare-headed governess and asks where her things are. The governess asks the same of her and Flora responds by asking where Miles is. Finally, the governess can control herself no longer and asks, "Where, my pet, is Miss Jessel?"

Analysis:

There is rising evidence of the governess's madness in this chapter. Once again, she invents communications that are never spoken. In the last chapter, she (mis)interpreted Miles's piano playing, saying it was "quite tantamount to his saying outright" several sentences culminating in his desire not to leave her. In this chapter, just from watching Flora drop her fern, "she and I had virtually said to each other...that pretexts were useless now." Making these assumptions about looks and intentions is dangerous - especially if Flora is unaware, as she must be, of the governess's thoughts.

Likewise, the governess's obsession finally comes into dangerous contact with the children when she can no longer control herself and asks the child about Miss Jessel. Previously, she has always considered the possibility that the children are not haunted and has refrained from mentioning the ghosts. Her mention of Miss Jessel shows her certainty, but her description of her mind before making the statement sounds as if she is describing a mental breakdown. "These three words from her" - asking where Miles was - "were in a flash like the glitter of a drawn blade the jostle of the cup that my hand for weeks and weeks had held high and full to the brim and that now, even before speaking, I felt overflow in a deluge."

It is important to recognize the governess's mental state here, as she is about to see Miss Jessel yet again. In every instance in which she has seen the dead governess before, she has been suffering extreme emotional turmoil. Her confrontation, here, of Flora and her expectation, from the moment she left the house, of finding her with Miss Jessel have paved the way for such a moment.

Chapter XX

Summary:

Flora looks shocked at the governess's words. Mrs. Grose suddenly gives a cry, and the governess turns to see Miss Jessel standing on the opposite bank of the lake. She feels a thrill to know that she finally has proof. She points across the lake, and Mrs. Grose looks there, but Flora's eyes remain fixed on the governess in an expression of accusation. The governess is certain Flora can also see Miss Jessel, and she sees this co