Reflections of a Governess Notes
Reflections of a Governess: Image and Distortion in The Turn of the Screw
The Governess's Role and Perspective
The governess views her experiences through a simplistic moral lens, perceiving Miles and Flora as threatened by evil and herself as their savior.
However, she unwittingly creates the specters of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel and becomes the intruding force at Bly.
Her rigid morality dictates that salvation requires confession, leading her to manipulate the children into acknowledging sin.
She believes Quint and Miss Jessel aim to possess the children and, ironically, fulfills their supposed mission.
The tragedy lies in her success in making the children aware of evil but failure in saving their souls.
Identification of the Governess with the Ghosts
James subtly equates the governess with the ghosts, with visitations mirroring her behavior.
Initially, she sees Quint's appearance as a romanticized creation, but her control wanes as she suspects the ghosts embody her impulses.
Like James's other characters, she becomes less certain of reality as she examines her experiences, leading to unreliable reporting.
She associates herself with romantic figures like Jane Eyre, viewing her adventures as shaped by her imagination.
Shaping Reality and the Spectacle
The governess's mind shapes the incidents, possibly fabricating them to fulfill her desire for romance.
She describes Quint as "as definite as a picture in a frame,"
The exchange of looks between Quint and the governess suggests a similarity in behavior.
She loses control and steps into the frame, mirroring the apparition's role, with Mrs. Grose reacting as a startled inmate.
Manipulation and Control
The governess draws Mrs. Grose into her vision of evil, initiating her into her "vision of evil by acting out the appearance of that evil."
Mrs. Grose identifies Quint based on hints from the governess, recognizing him as a servant and surrogate master.
The governess fabricates details to reinforce her preconceived notions about Quint's role.
Motivation and Fears
The governess identifies the ghosts with the previous servant to explain her fears about Miles and justify her possessive protection.
She sees Quint after learning of Miles's dismissal and imagines an idealized future for the children.
She assumes Miles was "an injury to the others"
She envisions the ghosts luring the children into the adult world, away from her influence.
Her ambivalent attitude toward the children is expressed by her calling them "blameless and foredoomed."
Externalization of Fears
The governess cannot prevent her conviction that maturity brings inevitable corruption from expressing itself in the form of embodiments of corrupted humanity.
Miss Jessel's appearance provides her with "proofs… from the moment I really took hold"
She fixates on Flora instead of the "alien object."
Mrs. Grose reacts to the governess as if she were the ghost, mirroring Flora's position.
The governess ascribes her purposes to Miss Jessel, describing her gaze as a desire "to get hold of" Flora.
Mrs. Grose "stared at mine as if they might really have resembled them"
Spectral Appearances and Confrontations
The initial spectral appearances confirm the identity of the ghosts with the governess.
Encountering Quint on the stairs, she sees her mirror image, leading to a soul-searching exchange.
She wonders "if even I were in life"
The private nature of these encounters leads to her reluctance to discuss them with Mrs. Grose.
The governess suppresses the fact that the demons have appeared inside the house which she knows because she doesn't want Mrs. Grose to know that they are representations of herself not the children.
Tightening Control and Dramatic Tension
The governess exercises control over the children's activities and forces Mrs. Grose to agree not to appeal to the uncle.
Her peace is shattered when Miles seeks to escape her control, reminding her of Quint's visitation.
She sinks "at the foot of the staircase-suddenly collapsing there on the lowest step"
She imagines herself as reprehensible as her corrupted predecessor.
Reasserting Moral Goodness
The governess faces the dark embodiment of her fears to repudiate any resemblance between herself and the former governess.
She reasserts her claim to absolute moral goodness, seeing Miss Jessel as evil personified.
She shrieks throughout the house, proclaiming that the other woman is "terrible, miserable"
She substitutes for the horrible vision the conviction that she must stay.
She banishes the former governess, dispelling any suggestion that the ghosts are mirror images of herself.
Manipulating Miles and the Letter
The governess aims to implicate Miles in evil, forcing him to acknowledge it and "save" him.
Miles asks her "To let me alone"
She states she has begun "a letter to your uncle"
She launches her campaign with a late-night visit to Miles's bedroom, seeking a confession and a wicked act.
She leaves the letter exposed, tempting Miles to take it, believing it will lead to his salvation.
She takes "it upon herself to play the devil and tempt Miles, so that she can then act the angel and rescue him"
Miles blows out the candle to save himself from her attempt at possession.
The governess causes the haunting herself not a ghost.
The True Identity of the Apparition
Flora identifies the governess as the apparition, reversing roles.
Flora turns upon the accuser herself "an expression of hard, still gravity, an expression absolutely new and unprecedented and that appeared to read and accuse and judge me"
Roles reverse as Flora's stare converts her into the "very presence that could make me quail"
The violent change she has caused in Flora is signaled by the child's vile language.
The governess no longer cares that the acknowledgement of evil was to be only a means toward the end of salvation.
The Warped Moral Vision
The governess embodies a dread vision of sin without redemption, cruelly acting out the parts of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint.
She conjures up Quint by questioning Miles about the letter, likened to a "sentinel before a prison"
Here she sees herself as a "gaoler with an eye to possible surprises and escapes"
She refers to the room outside the window as the place where she had her "flash of something it would scarce have done to call light"
She is successful as she forces her companions to new knowledge and insight.
The Final Confrontation with Miles
After banishing Quint, she forces Miles to identify his actions at school, bringing Quint back again.
Miles interprets her frenzy as "some sequel to what we had done to Flora"
The ambiguity of the pronoun "we", suggests her role in the deaths and possessions.
Miles is only acquainted with the demons through the events precipitated by the governess that have forced the dead servants upon the consciousness of those at Bly.
Miles's cry, "Peter Quint-you devil!" is addressed to the governess, the two roles assumed for Miles by his mentor.
Miles is dispossessed of everything by the governess, whose recognition comes at the moment of her most intense possessiveness.
Her gesture of grasping appropriation is repeated at the end, saying: "I have you … but he has lost you for ever!"
Doubts and Uncertainties
The final pages reveal the governess's doubts about her righteousness, highlighting the ironies of the story.
Miles tells her that his reprehensible action at school was to tell something to "those he liked"
She fears she is like Quint on the stairs - a mirror of herself.
She and the children are corrupted by existence in a world without moral absolutes.
She fails to act upon the bond between herself and Miles, preferring the simplistic view that she alone is innocent.
She preserves her ideal of Miles untouched, retaining an image of him perpetually young.
Conclusion
The governess's incapacity to distinguish growth from corruption makes her the agent of evil.
She attempts to shield the children from the future by making them confront their past.
James created a harrowing tale of self-deception, where the governess refuses to recognize her drives and needs.
The Appaller Appalled
The Turn of the Screw explores the theme of the "appaller appalled," where an individual faces the dark side of their personality.
The story is the first of many stories centering around the idea of the appaller appalled, the individual faced with the dark side of his own personality and forced to come to terms with it.
Other works by James, such as "The Jolly Corner" and The Sense of the Past, explore this theme.
The story's power lies in the exploration of the consequences of the governess's failure to confront herself.
James's readers are horrified and perplexed by the portrait of a woman who peers into the blackness of her soul and withdraws her gaze.