The Turn of the Screw (or The Screwy Get a Turn)

Oh dear. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I had to read this story with a dictionary in hand. James is a bit wordy, is he not?

The governess is a young girl who finds herself offered the perfect job- if she was forty-five and experienced in running a household and raising children by herself, that is. However, she is a young girl and this is her first job. She has romantic fantasies about the ‘master’, a man who obviously wishes he’d never been put in the position of guardian and whose irresponsible attitude is to pass the children and the household off to the first person who will take it, and to order them never to contact him about anything. I thought this man was horrible, but the governess sees him as perfect and she has silly romantic fantasies about him throughout the story.

As I read the story and the governesses reactions to the things that happen to her and around her, two words came to mind: Drama Queen. This girl is a wreck. She has been hired into a position far beyond her abilities and she has no support at all. She is too young to realize that she is in over her head and now that she is at Bly, she has no one to turn to for help. When she begins seeing the ghosts, if they do indeed exist outside of her own overtaxed imagination, she goes to pieces completely. She sobs and wails and clings to Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper. I found these displays of emotion annoying.

I burst, as I had, the other time, made her burst, into tears; she took me to her motherly breast, and my lamentation overflowed. “I don’t do it!" I sobbed in despair. “I don’t save or shield them! It’s far worse than I dreamed—they’re lost!” (p. 674)

Oh, please. What adult in their right mind would react in this manner? Outbursts such as these led me to the conclusion that this girl is not in her right mind, that the ghosts are not real and that she has lost touch with reality and is, indeed, crazy. I think this may be one of the reactions James was hoping for. This story could go in so many different directions. Is the governess insane, or are the ghosts real?

I see similar tensions in this story as I saw in Roman Fever. There is an unspoken sexual tension here. What of the relationship between Peter Quint and Miss Jessel? The reader never finds out for sure just what that relationship was nor how much it involved the children. There are unspoken situations that may or may not be happening and, depending upon where one’s mind goes, the story can take different directions. For example, Mrs. Gross tells the governess that Peter is “too free” with Miles. Too free in what way? Does he let him get away with mischief that he should not be allowed to? Or does their relationship border on the inappropriate? Maybe Peter is simply too common and Miles, being a gentleman’s son, is learning behavior that is not fitting his station in life? James wrote the story in such a way as to leave each of those questions open, with no right or wrong answers.

My opinion of the story, however, was simply that a young girl got in too deeply and couldn’t handle the stress. She saw things that weren’t there, jumped to inappropriate conclusions, and made mountains out of mole-hills. She drove Flora away from her and, somehow, contributed to Miles’ death (though I haven’t quite figured out how she did it). Overall, it was an interesting story and shows the language of the day. Sometimes, too much so.