In the turn of the screw, Henry James never identifies who is to blame for the chaos at Bly. The interpretation bought about by the Victorian society is that the master is to blame. By neglecting his responsibility to provide a stabilizing environment at Bly, he allowed everything to breakdown into chaos: class structures are violated, governesses are impregnated, children are sexually corrupted, ghosts walk the halls at night, house keepers entertain sexual desires for governesses and the young male heir’s possible homosexual desires become clear. Not forgetting the valet starts walking around in the masters clothing. The master would be to blame in this situation because he knows the governess is inexperienced. It is also very clear that the uncle wants nothing to do with the children and leaves the governess to deal with all their affairs. This puts a lot of pressure on the governess.
Another thing I noticed regarding the governess is that she has no one to talk to. She has no one to confide in and express her feeling because at Bly the governess’s status was above those surrounding her. Although she spoke to Mrs Grose about some things, she was still restricted again because of her status being higher than that of Mrs. Grose. With taking, all of this on board it is not surprising she had difficulties coping.
The governess has come across to be sexually repressed, as she has no one to fulfil her sexual desires. The governess experiences her first ghost sighting while she fantasises that the master will visit and praise her good work. She imagines her work at Bly gives the master ‘pleasure’. The governess is infatuated with the master and obviously cannot have him. The governesses job is to look after the children, but other issues seem to arise which take over her role to protect the children. This obviously is not going to protect the children in the way they need.
Henry James’s “Turn of the Screw” is a gothic narrative written in the Victorian era. James writes “The Turn of the Screw” as a gothic fiction as the gothic genre targeted ghosts, fear and tension. His novel contains all of these conventions, which makes the novel gothic. “Rooks” are seen as being ‘evil and ‘scary’ creatures, in James novel he gives a description of a particular setting, in this setting he includes “rooks”, this paints a picture of an haunted, fearful place. This creates immense tension and so he uses this to his advantage and writes ‘clustered tree tops over which rooks circled and cawed’. This vocabulary helps to add to the atmosphere of intense tension.
I think that both gothic fiction and the character of the governess are highly charged with sexual tension. This indicates again that the gothic genre also targets sexual topics. Locking away the manuscript for years serves a metaphor for the way in which Victorian society “locked away” not only sexual topics but children were also “locked away” in the sense that they had little freedom in such a small village as Bly, within the metaphors of a gothic fiction.
Therefore, I think that “The Turn of the Screw” has been written as a gothic fiction because James intended to create fear and tension. Although his novel creates fear and tension, I also think he was relating his novel to the Victorian society. The Victorian society and gothic fiction are linked as they come from the same backgrounds, when discussing sexual topics, fear and tension. So again, henry James used this to his advantage in writing the novel ambiguously.
The language used in “The Turn of the Screw” illustrates ambiguity, which creates tension throughout this novel. It was the governess who gave Douglas a manuscript of her experiences. Douglas read the story aloud at the gathering in the introduction. The narrator of the introduction transcribes the story years later. The narrative alone and the introduction are in the first person perspective. The identity if the “I” in the narrative remains ambiguous. It is also debatable whether the ghosts actually exist because the governess is not necessarily a reliable narrator.
From the beginning of “The Turn of the Screw”, a sense of mystery fills the novels language. Ambiguity characterises the words and actions of nearly every character, including the narrator of the introduction, and no ones reliability is more uncertain than that of the governess.
Henry James has chosen to tell the story from the governesses troubled perspective. During the first conversation she has with Mrs Grose, the governess writes, after the housekeeper suggests that Miles will carry her away, “well, that, I think, is what I came for-to be carried away. I’m afraid however”, I remember feeling the impulse to add, “I’m rather easily carried away”[p.8]. Here she reveals several important aspects of her character; the most significant of which is that she tends to act impulsively. The fact that she is ‘easily carried away’ could suggest that she is not strong enough to do the job, leaving the children not benefiting from anything. The way I see this is that the children need protection from the governess and her unbalanced behaviour. The children are vulnerable creatures who can easily be corrupted by the governess, as she is the one who teaches them what is right or wrong.
In chapter 2, Henry James tells another one of the governesses weakness. After speaking with Mrs Grose about Miles and his exclusion from school, she finds herself watching for “further occasion to approach my college” and writes, “I began to fancy she rather sought to avoid me”[p.11]. This shows the governess is paranoid. Here again the governess is mentally not fit enough to do the job as she is living in self-doubt.
She describes one encounter with Miss Jessel as follows, “ I saw a person whom, without my previous experience, I should have taken at the first blush for some housemaid… then it was with the very act of it’s announcing itself – that her identity flared up in a change of posture” [p.57, 58]. The governess sees her as a ghost without any real justification for her assumption.
While searching for Flora with Mrs Grose, the governess thinks she sees Mrs Jessel and suddenly grows excited, she writes, “I remember, strangely, as the first feeling now produced in me, my trill of joy at having brought on a proof. She was there, and I was justified; she was there, and I was neither cruel nor mad” [p. 70]. In response to her excitement, Mrs Grose only asks, “ where on earth do you see anything?” with this you can see the governess is clearly mad as Mrs Grose cannot see anything.
Although Henry James never clearly stated the exact nature of her sighting, he makes an effort to portray the governess as an unbalanced and unreliable narrator. Henry James paints a picture of a woman living in hallucinations and self-doubt. If the governess is living in self doubt then she needs to sort herself out and by doing this she cannot protect the children, as she cannot cope with her own issues.
I also noticed how in the beginning of chapter 2, the governess talks of her “second sleepless night” [p10]. Towards the end of chapter 19, she also speaks of her lack of sleep. This could indicate that she is breaking down, or she has never really been physically fit for the job of a governess, as she was only a child herself.
Henry James uses a lot of images and metaphorical language in his novel. This paints a true picture of what things were like and how things took place within Bly, etc. For example: when the governess fantasises the master will come and praise her good work, she sees a ghost on a tower. The tower is a phallic metaphor. The fact that she saw a man on a tower, relates to male sexual powers. Therefor the governess seems to express her sexual desires only through a metaphor. This builds tension, as readers want to know what will happen next, but then that’s what Henry James’s novel is all about, creating tension and expressing ambiguity.
Henry creates images, which creates ambiguity, for example, when Flora inserts the stick into the wood, this can be seen as a clear association to intercourse or quite simply she is playing. This creates images as you are tying to figure and picture what she really might be doing. If Flora knew what she was doing it then becomes more ambiguous because you do not know who corrupted her, the governess or the ghosts. So I go onto believing the ghosts do not exist and that the governess is mentally unstable and not protecting the children in anyway. Throughout this novel, Henry James uses images and metaphorical language, this is purposefully done, as he wanted to create ambiguity.
To conclude I believe the ghosts are a part of the governesses imagination. She comes across to be sexually repressed and mentally unstable. If the governess saw Peter Quint, I think it slowly turned her insane, or made her get carried away, and end with her believing she saw Miss Jessel. Either way I do not believe there was a ghost of Miss Jessel or Peter Quint. With the governess, I have found that she likes to create things or over imagine, for example, when she sees Miles looking up she instantly is convinced he is not looking at her, but just above her and at a person and that person is Quint. Could the governess be 100% sure that Miles was looking above her and not at her?
As I think the governess is mentally unstable, the next step I see her taking is protecting her sexuality and safety. The governess produces an “image” which is the female ghost of Miss Jessel. This allows Peter Quint and Miss Jessel to be sexually involved and the governess protecting herself.
This leaves me to say, that the ghosts are a part of the governesses imagination. I think this because I do not find the governess a reliable narrator. If anything the children need protecting from it is from the governess and her unstability. I think this is what brought about her unbalanced behaviour.
