Henry James Shows Real Horror through the Governess Insanity

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1 Fagan1 Kerrie Fagan Dr. Pennington New Criticism Henry James Shows Real Horror through the Governess Insanity Our first reaction to Henry James The Turn of the Screw is to think that the ghosts are the root of evil at Bly; however, the real source of evil is the Governess herself. The Governess has been drawn into insanity by the evil inside her. The Governess does not want to admit her sinister side to herself, so she creates her own reality in which she is the hero of the story by protecting the children s innocence. Readers are given clues to her insanity through her obsession with the children and their innocence and through scenes where she sees herself within the ghosts. The Governess insanity eventually leads to the death of Miles which the Governess believes is at the hand of Peter Quint; her ghostly hallucination. Henry James shows us that true evil is not ghosts or goblins, vampires or werewolves; but the insanity within our fellow humans. One of the first signs that the Governess may be insane is her obsession with the children and their innocence. The Governess at first is so enchanted by the children. The little girl who accompanied Mrs. Grose appeared to me on the spot a creature so charming as to make it a great fortune to have to do with her. She was the most beautiful child I had ever seen (18). This is only one example of how the Governess talks and thinks about the children; it is as if they have a strange power over her. When the Governess first meets the Miles and Flora, she believes neither of them could have ever done anything wrong. Even after the Governess gets a letter from Miles

2 Fagan2 school saying that he was not allowed to return, she thinks it must have been a mistake. It would have been impossible to carry a bad name with a greater sweetness of innocence, and by the time I had got back to Bly with him I remained merely bewildered so far, that is, as I was not outraged by the sense of the horrible letter locked up in my room, in a drawer (CH. 3). Soon, however, her obsession changes to her trying to keep her view of the children the same as when she first met them. When she first saw them she never thought they could do anything bad, but in reality, there is no such thing as the perfect child. All children make the wrong choices sometimes. But when the children show signs of being normal children playing jokes, making mistakes the Governess has to come up with some supernatural reason for these children to not uphold their former image. She says it must be the ghosts that are corrupting them and that they are always lying to her. Just one example of the Governess obsession with the children and their lies is when Flora is missing from bed, Flora says she did not see anyone. The Governess thinks to herself: At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied (70). That is only one example but throughout the novel, the Governess seems to be obsessed with the children keeping their innocence. This obsession is one clue to the Governess insanity because she wants to believe these children are perfect and innocent and when she finds out they are not what she wanted them to be, she comes up with a supernatural reason for them to be seen like any other child. Another clue that the Governess is insane is that she sees herself reflected in the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. It seems that at some times, the Governess actually sees herself in the role of the ghosts. When the Governess sees Peter Quint for the second time she physically puts herself in his position. She walks outside the window and when she is standing there, Mrs. Grose sees her. The Governess thinks: But there s only one I take space to mention. I wondered

3 Fagan3 why she should be scared (38). This gives us a clue to the fact that the Governess is who we should really fear in the story. Again on the second time the Governess sees Peter Quint, she feels as though she has always known him; 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 (37). This tells us she feels like she has always known him, which gives us an idea of the evil inside her. He is a representation of the evil that has always lived inside her. We see this idea again when she see Miss Jessel. Then I again shifted my eyes I faced what I had to face. (51). The Governess is really having to face the evil that is inside her. These are clues that we have been given to piece together the real evil in story. Whether the Governess is aware of the evil inside her or not, we as readers should realize the clues we are given that the ghosts are just hallucinations in the Governess mind. These hallucinations that represent the Governess evil within are proof to her insanity. Finally we are given another clue to the Governess insanity through the reality that she created for herself. The Governess has created a reality where she is the hero that is saving the children from a loss of innocence. She has the hallucinations of the ghosts that are evil and are trying to take away Miles and Flora s innocence. So in her mind of the ghosts are evil, she must be the hero that saves these children from evil. When the Governess sees Peter Quint she gets a sense of bravery. The flash of this knowledge for it was knowledge in the midst of dread produced in me the most extraordinary effect, started as I stood there, a sudden vibration of duty and courage. I say courage because I was beyond all doubt already far gone (37). We see here that Governess is feeling heroic. She gets a feeling that she is brave and smart and that she can help save these children from the evil that is present at Bly. The Governess seems to think that she is the only one who can help the children. You do know, you dear thing, I replied; only

4 Fagan4 you haven t my dreadful boldness of mind, and you keep back, out of timidity and modesty and delicacy (61). The Governess believes that she is the only one that can save these children from evil. She thinks that Mrs. Grose doesn t have what it takes to help them. Perhaps this is because the evil she is trying to save them from is the evil within herself. No one else admits to ever seeing these ghosts. The children that she believes are corrupt with evil may just be normal children who like to play jokes sometimes. The Governess creates this scenario where the children were perfect little children but now they are being corrupted by evil spirits and she is the only one who can save them she is the hero. Throughout the novel we can see clues that the Governess is actually insane and the ghosts she sees are only figments of her imagination possibly to represent the evil that lives inside her. She shows her obsession with Flora and Miles as soon as she meets them. She is captivated by their beautiful charm. Then when she begins to become obsessed with their lies. She believes they are always lying to her about the ghosts. However, they are not lying because the ghosts are not real. The ghosts are only hallucinations that help her to create a reality were she is the protagonist. In the end though, we get our final clue to the Governess; evil insanity. The Governess is trying to get a confession out of Miles, she asks him who. He responds by saying: Peter Quint you devil. (143). In this final quote from Miles before he dies, James gives us our final clue as to who is the real villain in this story. From the past clues we are given, we can infer that Miles is in fact telling the Governess that she is the devil, not Peter Quint. James shows us in this novel that we should not fear ghosts, but the true evil that can lie within a person.

5 Fagan5 Works Cited: James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw. Transatlantic Print, Print 2012.