Small turns of phrase used by the governess also lead us, at least subconsciously to doubt the account of the governess. She “can’t say how long” she remained rooted to the spot after the vision, in a dream-like daze perhaps? She is writing this account well after the events after all, meaning that her own views of events and time are distorted. There is a vagueness and ambiguity to the whole account and of course her personal feelings could have coloured her view of actual events; it is incredibly difficult to remember something so long after with total recall.
She finds herself “hesitate to mention” the events to Mrs Grose. Why is this? Could she doubt her own ideas already or is she as she says trying to “spare” her companion? What is this “inward revolution” that she experiences? This idea of the governess seeing herself as a hero and saviour is prevalent throughout the chapter and the novel. The innocence of the children is possibly the central theme of the novel and perhaps this manifestation of Quint happens because she feels threatened. Indeed the apparitions always seem to take place after a happy session with the children.
Whether Quint is a ghost or not, the idea of evil approaching innocence is important to consider as a symbol. James has taken great pains to highlight the innocence of the children and the governess gives us her own views on the evilness of this character.
Every scene and action seems to further illuminate the question to us of the children’s innocence. The governess sees Miles as “quite unpunishable” and sees his actions as a “direct disproof” to his guilt, but we as readers know that Miles has been expelled from many schools. The governess freely admits that she is “under the spell” of the children of whom she has only known for a relatively short time. She becomes incredibly critical of the headmaster and school, “little horrid unclean school-world” and “stupid sordid headmasters” show us that she is becoming very defensive, almost irrationally so, of this one thing – the children – that is almost keeping her going.
There is an altogether unwholesome purity to Miles and Flora, as if they are ‘too’ innocent and it creates ideas in our own heads about how they could be playing with the governess. Could Quint be the manifestation of a sense of her feeling that this happiness with the children is threatened?
The governess’ own ideas about Quint also lead us to question her because they are entirely subjective views and they get more and more subjective throughout the novel. Originally there was some credibility to her account as she described the physical aspects of the ‘ghost’. We don’t know that it’s Quint, just a man, and this makes her account seem more trustworthy.
On the second occasion she gives her thoughts and the account begins to unravel a little. How can she possibly know that he was looking for the children? She can not possibly. She makes claims that can’t be proven such as the “monstrous liberty” that this ‘traveller’ has taken by coming into the grounds and taking a look form the tower. She speaks of her “duty and courage”, again referencing herself as the hero.
She is beginning to fit her ideas around the vision and more and more doubt is being cast upon her all the time. The fact that she sees him a second time disproves her original view of him being a wayfarer. The fact that it appears to be the same handsome man could be a mistake, and this in fact could be a stranger who exists in reality outside of her fantasies.
She mentions the children as being an “antidote to any pain.” Could she be speaking of the master here as well as her problems at home? She recognises the man “one step into the room…instantaneous” as though she’s almost expecting it. It is very difficult to recognise someone you have seen only once from very far away immediately. The “forward stride” he has taken is symbolic of her approaching madness perhaps? She has “known him always”, is he a part of her, some part of her mind?
We also have the symbolism, “the darkness had quite closed in”, of madness fairly early in the chapter. Many people recall insanity or madness to be like a great cloud or darkness, and of course this is echoed in the greyness of the day and poor weather, which incidentally is very evocative of the gothic mood leading us to reconsider the possibility of a supernatural event actually taking place as well I believe.
Both times that she sees the man, she spends days wandering about, losing track of time and this could be a reaction of intense shock to seeing a ghost, but she doesn’t yet know that this is a ghost.
“There were hours, from day to day…when I had to shut myself up to think”
She is almost obsessing over the vision. He has to decide whether or not she has been “made the object of any game,” another instance of her paranoia. She “repeatedly dipped into” her room again and again by her own admission and we are beginning to wonder now at the state of her mind and the nature of the shock she had undergone. After the first time she describes her reaction as "the shock I had suffered.", and all of these wanderings, loss of time and bouts of shock lead me personally to believe she has had a bout of hysteria and could possibly be imagining the whole thing.
“The good thing after all, was that we should surely see no more of him.” – although she is trying to convince the reader and herself, she doesn’t seem very sure, although we again have to remember that she is writing this after the events. She is withholding information from us deliberately, and when we find out that she does see him again, it affects our trust of her once more. She even loses all sense of “duration” again. She speaks of losing him and outside being “empty with a great emptiness”, sounding almost disappointed at not finding the man, or manifestation of the master.
She has feelings for her absent master, similar in appearance to this vision, sexual desires, and this on top of the bad news that she has been receiving from home and the paranoia she has been experiencing builds up and up until it manifests itself on a dark night/grey day and she thinks that she sees something. On both occasions she has even been the instigator of her placement; she decides to go for a walk and she was the one who left the gloves where she had on the second occasion. Was it mere coincidence that the apparitions happened on both of these occasions? We are left, as usual in the novel, unsure by the ambiguity and to decide for ourselves.
Ironically at the end of the chapter, the governess is juxtaposed with the position of the stranger, and she becomes the source of terror for everybody else rather than the heroine as she presses herself against the window and Mrs Grose enters the room.
