Christmas Reading '09: The Turn of the Screw

[Dark Muse]

If the actual evil of the story is to be sourced, I think it stems from the uncle's desire to abnegate his responsibility to his brother's children, a responsibility that involves more than throwing money and shelter at them, and the primacy of his own interests, which the poor young woman accepts, but evidently not without becoming conflicted by it.

I think the pressure does start to get to the governess being placed under such circumstances, as there is a lot going on within the story to work against her and let her mind start to play tricks upon her or perhaps for stress to just start to shape itself in various different ways.

For she herself is a young and inexperienced woman who is put in a position of being fully responsible for these two children knowing she has no real support system.

It is alluded to the fact that she may have fallen in love with the Master, even if her contact with him is all but non-existent so she is eager to please him by not forcing him to have more responsibility but takes it all upon her own shoulders to appease his wish to be left completely out of it. Her only confidant being Mrs. Grose who is not much help at all.

Her first introduction to the young boy being under the condition of some mysterious trouble he got himself into and Mrs. Gose's evasiveness about the nature of the child's behavior.

In addition to the rather vague disappearance of the former governess coupled with the background of being mostly alone within this rather large and strange house.

It would put quite a strain upon a person and cause their thoughts to start to crop up various different plausible scenarios to try and make since of some of the vague and elusive mysteries that do hover around the house and those connected to the house.

James may be indicating some interesting things about desire which exists, but ferments, unrealized. We are also made aware of the death of the lady before her, at this point.

That makes me think of her first encounter with the "figure" whom she sees within the tower, and rather conveniently the image appears to her shortly after she had just been contemplating now nice it would indeed be if she were to encounter another person upon her walk.

[Jozanny]

Mmm. This is why I have always loved reading James so much, as even old, he is new. Even now though, from the very introduction to this woman's POV, her perceptions are not quite trustworthy, from her "flights and drops" to her calling Flora "my little girl".

Another cue, as the child isn't her little girl. It may seem innocent and tender enough to develop an attachment to a beautiful orphan--but for me the possessiveness of that statement raises a flag that the governess is too invested from the very start.

I do want to thank you all, because I am beginning to envision the prospect for a possible paper to the HJR; a small one to be sure, but possible, and I am internally connecting the dots, and have contact, if needed, with the editor. It will take some real legwork, and I would have to get to a research library and get hold of an MLA manual, but Michael, who is one of my blessed ghosts on my shoulder, always urged me to write an article, and I think I see a way, after all these years, of aiming for a quiet byline.

And to think I begrudged rereading TOS again-- that should teach me a lesson

[Dark Muse]

Mmm. This is why I have always loved reading James so much, as even old, he is new. Even now though, from the very introduction to this woman's POV, her perceptions are not quite trustworthy, from her "flights and drops" to her calling Flora "my little girl".

Not to mention Miles the little boy. By nothing more than her first laying eyes upon him she completely disregards the letter which came from the school about his behavior, and presumes because he is a "beautiful" child that he must be innocent.

So she automatically within the first seconds of meeting the boy decides that the school where the boy has been attending for sometime must either be lying for some unknown reason, or made some horrible mistake.

She does not even decide to try and get further information from the school about the incident.

[kasie]

I'm seeing all sorts of parallels with Jane Eyre in the opening part of the story - the lonely, young, orphaned outsider, retained by a handsome, mysterious man to care for a dependent child (or in this case, two) with whom he has no wish for contact, an isolated house, a solidly sensible housekeeper who is holding back information. The young Jane even dreads 'seeing' the ghost of her dead uncle. Rochester, however, does become involved in the events at his country home, whereas this man (are we ever told his name?) is reluctant to have anything to do with his charges and for no given reason - is he resentful of their dependence on him or just idle?

Given her circumstances, I don't think it is so strange that the governess develops a strong attachment to her charges - teachers can be a bit like that!

I've noticed however how often she refers to them as 'angelic' or 'heavenly'. I'm reading now with half an eye on brother James' idea of 'intuitive psychology' and am beginning to wonder if big brother Henry is quietly saying he is more than a little wary of relying on intuition as a guide to judging people.

[Dark Muse]

I'm seeing all sorts of parallels with Jane Eyre in the opening part of the story - the lonely, young, orphaned outsider, retained by a handsome, mysterious man to care for a dependent child (or in this case, two) with whom he has no wish for contact, an isolated house, a solidly sensible housekeeper who is holding back information. The young Jane even dreads 'seeing' the ghost of her dead uncle. Rochester, however, does become involved in the events at his country home, whereas this man (are we ever told his name?) is reluctant to have anything to do with his charges and for no given reason - is he resentful of their dependence on him or just idle?

This story makes me think of Jane Eyere as well. I think that he just does not like being bothered by the children. It was a responseblility that came upon him rather unexepcedly and to say the least suddenly finding yourself with children will disrupt your life. He probably does not like the inference they have on his routine.

Given her circumstances, I don't think it is so strange that the governess develops a strong attachment to her charges - teachers can be a bit like that!

Even so, I think it is a little insensible to decide that just by the child's appearance before she has even said a word to him that he must be innocent of any charges against him. I would think a teacher would want to actually investigate the matter of his possible behavior problems and not just dismiss because he is pretty to look at.

[Dark Muse]

a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?

Here is what could be a direct reference to Jane Eyre and knowing the that woman by her own admission is given to flights of fancy if we suppose she has read the novel, thus finding herself in a similar position, and seeing by the reference to Udolpho her tendency for Gothic novels it is easy to see where these things would start to play within her mind being in such a house under such circumstances.

[Virgil]

Ok, I'm half way through and really enjoying this. I do want to highlight an important sentence from chapter 1 that I think brings together several motifs that I'm seeing running through this.

But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty had probably more than anything else to do with the restlessness that, before morning, made me several times rise and wander about my room to take in the whole picture and prospect; to watch, from my open window, the faint summer dawn, to look at such portions of the rest of the house as I could catch, and to listen, while, in the fading dusk, the first birds began to twitter, for the possible recurrence of a sound or two, less natural and not without, but within, that I had fancied I heard.

First that's a great sentence. I love the winding nature of it, and the modifying clauses that are tacked on, extending the experience and linking so many things together. What I'll point out I'll call motifs because without having read the entire story yet, I don't know if they're full fledged themes or how they relate to the themes, but they do see to recur. First is this notion of beauty and how that's associated with the children. That stands in contrast to the "evil" of the ghosts. There's no particular reason that I can see why the ghosts must be evil (it doesn't have to be by definition), but the Governess (we never do get a name for her, do we?) seems to jump to that conclusion. However, the anglic beauty versus evil contrast is very stark and intentionally so.

Second motif is this notion of natural and unnatural. I'm not sure this is clear to me, but certain things seem to be associated with natural, like the birds here, and unnatural such as the ghost of Peter Quint. Certainly Quint's cause of death is an unnatural act.

Third is the notion of "fancied" or what the Governess imagines and what she discerns as fact. It seems to me that there is a sort of blurring of the two going on and we aren't always sure. I do think the ghost is discerned and real.

Fourth and I think most important of all is the notion of the visual and the act of seeing. Here the Governess takes in the entire scene, a visual listing (and audio in this case as well) of the surroundings. "To watch" and "to look" seems to be a predominant, recurring action in the story. Almost every other page seems to have a reference to the visual. I keep circling them as I come across them and they are so frequent that it's beyond just a story teller describing the action. James is clearly making a point. Here let me list a few:
From chapter 2:

She was evidently grateful for such a profession. "See him, miss, first. Then believe it!" I felt forthwith a new impatience to see him; it was the beginning of a curiosity that, for all the next hours, was to deepen almost to pain. Mrs. Grose was aware, I could judge, of what she had produced in me, and she followed it up with assurance. "You might as well believe it of the little lady. Bless her," she added the next moment--"Look at her!"

From chapter 3:

It produced in me, this figure, in the clear twilight, I remember, two distinct gasps of emotion, which were, sharply, the shock of my first and that of my second surprise. My second was a violent perception of the mistake of my first: the man who met my eyes was not the person I had precipitately supposed. There came to me thus a bewilderment of vision of which, after these years, there is no living view that I can hope to give. An unknown man in a lonely place is a permitted object of fear to a young woman privately bred; and the figure that faced me was--a few more seconds assured me--as little anyone else I knew as it was the image that had been in my mind. ...It was as if, while I took in--what I did take in--all the rest of the scene had been stricken with death. I can hear again, as I write, the intense hush in which the sounds of evening dropped. The rooks stopped cawing in the golden sky, and the friendly hour lost, for the minute, all its voice. But there was no other change in nature, unless indeed it were a change that I saw with a stranger sharpness. The gold was still in the sky, the clearness in the air, and the man who looked at me over the battlements was as definite as a picture in a frame. That's how I thought, with extraordinary quickness, of each person that he might have been and that he was not.

From chapter 4:

He appeared thus again with I won't say greater distinctness, for that was impossible, but with a nearness that represented a forward stride in our intercourse and made me, as I met him, catch my breath and turn cold. He was the same--he was the same, and seen, this time, as he had been seen before, from the waist up, the window, though the dining room was on the ground floor, not going down to the terrace on which he stood. His face was close to the glass, yet the effect of this better view was, strangely, only to show me how intense the former had been. He remained but a few seconds--long enough to convince me he also saw and recognized; but it was as if I had been looking at him for years and had known him always. Something, however, happened this time that had not happened before; his stare into my face, through the glass and across the room, was as deep and hard as then, but it quitted me for a moment during which I could still watch it, see it fix successively several other things. On the spot there came to me the added shock of a certitude that it was not for me he had come there. He had come for someone else.

And these from chapter 6:

This chance presented itself to me in an image richly material. I was a screen--I was to stand before them. The more I saw, the less they would. I began to watch them in a stifled suspense, a disguised excitement that might well, had it continued too long, have turned to something like madness. What saved me, as I now see, was that it turned to something else altogether. It didn't last as suspense--it was superseded by horrible proofs. Proofs, I say, yes--from the moment I really took hold.

Suddenly, in these circumstances, I became aware that, on the other side of the Sea of Azof, we had an interested spectator. The way this knowledge gathered in me was the strangest thing in the world--the strangest, that is, except the very much stranger in which it quickly merged itself. I had sat down with a piece of work--for I was something or other that could sit--on the old stone bench which overlooked the pond; and in this position I began to take in with certitude, and yet without direct vision, the presence, at a distance, of a third person. The old trees, the thick shrubbery, made a great and pleasant shade, but it was all suffused with the brightness of the hot, still hour. There was no ambiguity in anything; none whatever, at least, in the conviction I from one moment to another found myself forming as to what I should see straight before me and across the lake as a consequence of raising my eyes.

Notice how all these paragraphs have a reference to seeing or the act of the visual. I can't say it's voyerism, but it is a passive act. I don't know what to make of it yet, but it's there in almost every chapter.

[Dark Muse]

First is this notion of beauty and how that's associated with the children. That stands in contrast to the "evil" of the ghosts. There's no particular reason that I can see why the ghosts must be evil (it doesn't have to be by definition), but the Governess (we never do get a name for her, do we?) seems to jump to that conclusion. However, the anglic beauty versus evil contrast is very stark and intentionally so.

It is interesting the way in which the age old notion of good vs. evil is rather contorted within this story, and questions where does the true good and the true evil lie? If they exist at all? Considering that it is all within the own mind of the governess and how she becomes so truly obsessed with the children whom she constantly likens to angels.

So by contrast of the children our angels than the apparitions must thus be evil as it is interesting the way she than sets herself up in the position of being the protectors to these little heavenly beings. Perhaps within it there is some notions of self-grandeur as she refers to herself as being the "heroine"

It is also a complete invention of her own mind that the ghost/Quinn must be after Miles, there is nothing in her brief encounter with the apparition to suggest that he has any interest in the boy. But she out of the blue makes this presumption and than convinces herself of its truth by taking the vague information that Mrs. Gorse gives her.

Third is the notion of "fancied" or what the Governess imagines and what she discerns as fact. It seems to me that there is a sort of blurring of the two going on and we aren't always sure. I do think the ghost is discerned and real.

Yes, the Governess seems to take what vuage facts she manages to preduce from Mrs. Grose and than she completely runs away with it, and starts filling in the blanks to come up with all of these wild assumptions which she convinves herself must than be the truth.

[Scheherazade]

My library does not have a copy and cannot tell me when they can get me a copy because of Christmas and New Year holidays so will have to skip this one.

[Jozanny]

Though I cannot take in all Virgil's leaps at once, and I am taking a break from all this reading I am doing to work, ludicrous as the idea may be three days before holiday week is in full swing, my assessment of Miles' dismissal is that the governess assumes too much, and assumes the worst, where a more experienced caretaker might have been more pragmatic. When *Miss* says to Mrs. Grose that the headmaster's refusal to have Miles back can *only* have one meaning, she is sorely mistaken. This is a young boy probably better able to remember his parents, and grieve them, than his sister, and might have as much acted on this impulse as any desire to *contaminate* or *corrupt*.

If, over the years, I have come to distrust her voice and dislike her character, my distaste becomes all the stronger the closer I read the text.

I am not sure I will finish reviewing all the rest tonight, as I am preparing notes for a possible paper, I will probably conclude by Thursday.

[Dark Muse]

When reading the story today I was particularly struck by a curious idea, though know I am not sure how much validity there is to support the idea. In the start to the text when Douglass introduces the story, it alludes to the fact that the Governess was in love with the Master.

Though considering how much she comes to care for the children it seems hard to believe that she could have such feelings for the man whom neglected them in such a way and shows no interest in them (but then she is young and unreasonable)

There is a moment where she reflects upon the character of the Master, which does not seem to be overly flatteringly and does not appear to come from a woman given to strong emotions whim is in love with such a mysterious figure in her life:

This squared well enough with my impressions of him: he was not a trouble-loving gentleman, nor so very particular perhaps about some of the company HE kept. All the same, I pressed my interlocutress. "I promise you _I_ would have told!"

I began to wonder if in fact she was in love with Miles, for those she cares for both of the children it seems to me that she does take a most particular interest within the boy.

Though when going back and re-reading the introduction to the story it was a bit more specific about her alleged feelings for the Master than I had first thought or remembered. But of course this information is given 2nd and could perhaps just have been Douglas' impressions and his reliability as a narrator has already been put to the question.

[Virgil]

I meant to ask about the Master. Did I miss it? Why is he not around?

[Dark Muse]

I meant to ask about the Master. Did I miss it? Why is he not around?

It does not really explain but the general impression is that he simply dosen't want to have any bother or trouble with anything to do with the children. He wants to kept out of thier life and concerns as much as possible. Though just where he is, I do not think is made known. He stays away from the house becasue the children are there.

[Paulclem]

When reading the story today I was particularly struck by a curious idea, though know I am not sure how much validity there is to support the idea. In the start to the text when Douglass introduces the story, it alludes to the fact that the Governess was in love with the Master.

Though considering how much she comes to care for the children it seems hard to believe that she could have such feelings for the man whom neglected them in such a way and shows no interest in them (but then she is young and unreasonable)

There is a moment where she reflects upon the character of the Master, which does not seem to be overly flatteringly and does not appear to come from a woman given to strong emotions whim is in love with such a mysterious figure in her life:



I began to wonder if in fact she was in love with Miles, for those she cares for both of the children it seems to me that she does take a most particular interest within the boy.

Though when going back and re-reading the introduction to the story it was a bit more specific about her alleged feelings for the Master than I had first thought or remembered. But of course this information is given 2nd and could perhaps just have been Douglas' impressions and his reliability as a narrator has already been put to the question.

I'm getting the impression that she is attempting to win him the master - over. She threatens to leave if Mrs Grose tells the Master. Is this because that would go against the wishes of the Master, and she would have failed in the task given her?

I also take Virgil's point about about seeing. As he says, there are lots of references to views etc, but perhaps the Governess' view is meant to contrast with our own. As has been pointed out, the Ghosts are attributed with evil intentions by the Governess, but we only have her point of view about that, and the narrative structure allows us to question her account.

Also, does she see Quint and the former governess as rivals for the care ofthe children?

[Dark Muse]

I'm getting the impression that she is attempting to win him the master - over. She threatens to leave if Mrs Grose tells the Master. Is this because that would go against the wishes of the Master, and she would have failed in the task given her?

I just find it interesting that considering how emotional she is, and the fact that she doesn't show any real restraint or sensibility of anything else, and the way she gushes over the children, and how passionately she does feel things, she doesn't really express any feelings for the Master, but the occasional thoughts that do seem somewhat critical regarding his inattention to the children.

Her threats to leave if Mrs. Grose tells the Master, could perhaps come from her fear of the Master interfering in her personal heroisms for the children. As she declares herself as "their shield" the one who must stand between them and evil. Perhaps at this point she does not want now the Master to come between her and the children. She has set herself up in this self-important role of the defending of good against evil and doesn't thing anyone else can do what she can for the children.

I also take Virgil's point about about seeing. As he says, there are lots of references to views etc, but perhaps the Governess' view is meant to contrast with our own. As has been pointed out, the Ghosts are attributed with evil intentions by the Governess, but we only have her point of view about that, and the narrative structure allows us to question her account.

I also can't help but to wonder, just what is Mrs. Gorse's view. Does she truly believe the Governess in her claims? Or is she just sort of humoring the Governess?

Because in observering one the conversations that the Governess had with her after she saw the ghost of the woman. Mrs. Grose was really just asking the Governess clarifying questions on just how she did come up with her conclusions she did and the Governess than took the questions as validation, but that could just as well be her own fancy.

She brought me, for the instant, almost round. "Oh, we must clutch at
THAT--we must cling to it! If it isn't a proof of what you say, it's a
proof of--God knows what! For the woman's a horror of horrors."

Mrs. Grose, at this, fixed her eyes a minute on the ground; then at last
raising them, "Tell me how you know," she said.

"Then you admit it's what she was?" I cried.

"Tell me how you know," my friend simply repeated.

The Governess makes the automatic presumption that the ghost she saw, whom she presumes to be Miss Jessel must be a wicked woman, while Mrs. Grose replies "tell me how you know" which in fact could just be a simple valid question asking her, just how she is so certain that the figure she saw was one of evil since she does seem so certain of it. But the Governess interprets the question as a way of confirmation that indeed the specter must truly be evil.