Next comes the first sighting of Peter Quint. The governess says she remembers ‘two distinct gasps of emotion’, which is rather melodramatic – melodrama, as I have already mentioned, was common in Gothic novels, and adds to the tense atmosphere necessary for a ghost story. She then mentions that ‘it was as if … the scene had been stricken with death’, and that ‘the rooks stopped cawing’. The idea of an aura of death around the presence of a ghost is a common one, even further reinforcing the view that James intended the book to be a ghost story. The second sighting of Quint comes relatively soon after the first, and the governess is adamant that it is the same person that appeared to her atop the tower – suggesting, perhaps, that she is being haunted. She then proceeds to place herself in the position of Quint, at which point Mrs Grose enters, with the words ‘you’re as white as a sheet.’ This phrase is traditionally used in ghost stories by the first character to meet the protagonist after they have witnessed a ghost, and it would therefore be appropriate for Mrs Grose to use such a phrase if the book was a ghost story. More significant than this, however, is the fact that Mrs Grose instantly recognises Quint from the description of the apparition given by the governess, and the confirmation given by Mrs Grose that Quint is indeed dead; this is one of the most important points for those that choose to argue that The Turn of the Screw was written as a ghost story, for it is difficult (yet not impossible, as I will show later) to explain how the governess is able to provide an accurate description of a man, and later on a woman, both of whom she has never previously met.
Sigmund Freud, an eminent and influential 19th century psychologist, believed (and caused much of the educated Victorian public to believe) that many mental illnesses had at their root the notion of sexual hysteria – the mind’s unconscious repressed sexual desires manifesting themselves as madness or neurosis. It is the opinion of many that the governess is not being haunted by ghosts, but that the apparitions the governess believes she has seen are in fact hallucinations brought on by subconscious sexual repression – in the following paragraphs, I will argue from this perspective.
During the introduction, Douglas describes the governess’s impressions of the master as ‘handsome and bold and pleasant, off-hand and gay and kind.’ This strongly implies that the governess began to fall in love with her employer – or at the very least have sexual desires towards him. However, in Victorian culture, it would have been considered improper for a woman to show, or even feel these emotions – and it is the repression of these feelings that results in the governess becoming neurotic.
The first occasion on which the governess sees Quint is significant to this argument – directly before she sees him at the top of the tower she is thinking that ‘it would be charming as a charming story suddenly to meet someone … [who] would stand before me and smile and approve’. The phrase ‘charming as a charming story’ suggests that the governess is blurring fantasy with reality – a common symptom of madness. Also, the simple fact that she is fantasising about meeting a handsome man before she notices Quint suggests that Quint is merely a hallucination brought on by her madness, although the hallucination becomes threatening as a result of her own unconscious sexual desires.were largel Moreover, much of the language used by the governess to describe Quint has sexual connotations – the strongest of these possibly being the description of his position on the tower – “he was in one of the angles … very erect…”. Critics who believe the governess is descending into madness often argue that the tower on which Quint stands is a phallic image - and this argument is backed up by the governess’s use of the word ‘erect’.
After the first appearance of Quint, the governess begins to show further signs of madness – she says that ‘agitation had held me and driven me’ to pace the gardens for several hours. She also says that ‘the shock I had suffered must have sharpened my senses’ and that she ‘felt sure, at the end of three days and as the result of mere closer attention, that I had not been practised upon by the servants nor made the object of any ‘game’.’ This suggests that the governess is becoming so paranoid as to have to observe the servants for three days to reassure herself that they are not playing tricks on her. She also begins to lock herself frequently in her room to tell herself that ‘some unscrupulous traveller … had made his way in unobserved’ in order to explain the sighting of Quint, which is also suggestive of madness.
When the governess first sees Miss Jessel, there is no evidence to warrant the governess’s assumption that the children can see the ‘ghosts’ – the governess ‘waited for … what some sudden innocent sign either of interest or alarm would tell [her]’, although ‘nothing came’. Another example of this is in chapter twenty – neither Mrs Grose nor Flora can see Miss Jessel; Mrs Grose rather emphatically confirms that she cannot see Miss Jessel by exclaiming ‘What a dreadful turn, to be sure, Miss! Where on earth do you see anything?’ This is strong evidence to refute the governess’s conviction that others can see the ghosts.
The first sighting of Miss Jessel is also another example of the governess’s inability to distinguish fantasy from reality: she explains to us that the lake by which she and Flora were sitting was, for Flora, the Sea of Azof; however, when she sees Miss Jessel, the governess says that she ‘became aware that on the other side of the Sea of Azof we had an interested spectator’, which suggests that the governess herself had been influenced by the fantasy she created for Flora.
House staff in Victorian times were largely uneducated, which meant they were often illiterate and would, therefore, be unable to access the world of literature to which the middle- and upper-classes were exposed to, causing their vocabularies to be far smaller than those of people of a higher social status. The imbalance of education and social standing between the governess and Mrs Grose is part of another way in which critics try to explain the book – they argue that miscommunication and ambiguity of language between the characters leads to a series of massive misunderstandings.
Throughout the book, the governess makes assumptions about Mrs Grose’s emotions. Within half an hour of meeting Mrs Grose for the first time, she assumes that Mrs Grose is ‘so glad to see [her] as to be positively on her guard against showing it’ because of the lack of any strong emotions from Mrs Grose. She then assumes that a ‘pledge’ has been made between her and Mrs Grose to ‘be quite at one’ about every issue raised, simply because Mrs Grose has agreed that taking Flora to meet Miles would be a good idea. However, as with most similar circumstances in the book, it is more than likely that Mrs Grose is simply showing deference towards the governess. This ‘pledge’ that the governess decides has been made goes some way to explain why the governess always thinks Mrs Grose believes that she has seen the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel until Mrs Grose actively repudiates her claim in chapter twenty.
The difference in the level of education between Mrs Grose and the governess lends itself to miscommunication. The first example of this is when she questions Mrs Grose about Miles’s behaviour. The governess asks Mrs Grose if she has ever known him to be ‘bad’ – as the governess was brought up in a vicarage by a clergyman, the word ‘bad’ is likely to have a different meaning to her, possibly one closer to ‘wicked’, or ‘evil’, than it does for Mrs Grose, for whom ‘bad’ would mean ‘mischievous’. To add to this, Mrs Grose never gives any examples of Miles’s misbehaviour, leaving the governess to believe Miles has the ‘spirit’ to be wicked.
The governess also often finds herself having to substitute words with different connotations for words that Mrs Grose has not understood – one of the most poignant examples of this is in chapter eighteen, as the governess is about to start looking for Flora:
“…he found the most divine little way to keep me quiet while she went off.”
“‘Divine’?” Mrs Grose bewilderingly echoed.
“Infernal, then!” I almost cheerfully rejoined.
This shows the full extent to which the governess substitutes words – she has gone from one word to its exact opposite in an attempt to make Mrs Grose understand her.
Many of the conversations between Mrs Grose and the governess are riddled with interruptions, making them conducive to misunderstandings. We often see dashes between the sentences of the two women, suggesting that they are completing each other’s sentences, although not necessarily correctly. In chapter eighteen, Mrs Grose says ‘you leave him–?’, and the governess replies ‘So long with Quint?’ without knowing what Mrs Grose had intended to say. Because of the difference in social status, it would not have been possible for Mrs Grose to correct the governess.
In answer to the question ‘Do you think Henry James wrote The Turn of the Screw as a ghost story?’, I would say that I think the book is purposefully ambiguous, in order to allow the reader to interpret the book in several ways, each as valid as the next. If one chooses to interpret the book purely as a ghost story, it is possible to do so. Similarly, it is possible to interpret the book as a commentary on the social situation of the Victorian era via either the governess’s sexual hysteria or the miscommunication created by the governess and her housekeeper.
