The Turn of the Screw Summary

The novel opens as a group of friends sit around the fireplace of an old house in
1890s England, telling ghost stories. A man named Griffin tells a ghost story
featuring a little boy, and a man named Douglas proposes to tell a true story
about two children. He keeps the manuscript of the story locked in a drawer at
home in London. It was written by a woman, now dead, who was once his
younger sister's governess and with whom he was in love. Three days later, the
manuscript arrives by the post, and Douglas begins his story.
Before reading the manuscript, Douglas explains that the young woman had
interviewed for her first governess job with a gentleman on London's Harley
Street. She was quite smitten with him, and he was able to convince her to
accept the position of governess to his niece and nephew at his country house
Bly. The previous governess has died and the boy is now away at school and the
girl in the care of the housekeper. There is one condition: She cannot contact
him at any time and must deal with all problems herself.

The governess arrives at Bly, where she is met by a beautiful little girl, eight-
year-old Flora, and the housekeeper Mrs. Grose. The boy, ten-year-old Miles,
will return from school in a few days. The night before his arrival, the governess
receives a letter from the headmaster of his school refusing to allow Miles to
return to school after the summer holiday. Mrs. Grose assures that Miles is too
good a boy to have done anything to deserve expulsion, and the governess
agrees to meet the boy before drawing any conclusions.
Upon his arrival, the governess finds Miles to be just as beautiful and angelic as
his sister and decides to do nothing in response to the letter. For a time, the
governess is very happy. The children are excellent students. One evening, as
she strolls around the grounds, she images their uncle coming upon her and
smiling his approval at her for succeeding at her job. At just that moment, the
governess looks up and sees a man in one of the towers of the house. She at first
thinks it is the uncle but then realizes it is a stranger. The man stares at her until
she turns away.

The governess is worried after this but guesses that it must have been a traveler
who trespassed in the tower for the view it provided. She instead concentrates
on the children, until one rainy afternoon when she goes into the dining room to
look for her gloves. Outside the window, she sees the same man staring at her,
but when she runs out of the house to confront him, he is gone. She describes
the man - curly red hair, red whiskers, sharp eyes - to Mrs. Grose, and the
housekeeper says that the man is Peter Quint, the uncle's former valet. Quint is
dead.
The governess believes that Quint was not looking for her but for Miles and
finds it odd that Miles has never mentioned him. Mrs. Grose tells her that Quint
was "too free" with Miles when he was at Bly and that the two spent a great deal
of time together. The governess pledges that she will protect the children.

One afternoon, the governess sits with Flora as she plays by the lake. She
becomes aware that someone else is present across the lake. She rushes to tell
Mrs. Grose what has happened. A woman appeared across the lake, and she is
certain that Flora knew she was there but said nothing. The governess is
convinced that the woman was Miss Jessel, the governess who died. Mrs. Grose
tells her that Miss Jessel had an inappropriate relationship with Quint and then
went away, though she does not know the exact circumstances of her death. The
governess believes that the children are lost to these ghosts.
The governess, knowing about Miles's friendship with Quint, comes to believe
that he did something wicked that resulted in his expulsion from school. She
thinks that the children are communing with the ghosts behind her back and
tries to keep them in her sight at all times.

One night, the governess is up late reading when she hears something in the
hallway. She sees Quint standing halfway up the stairs. He stares at her, then
turns and walks away. When she gets back to her room, where Flora also sleeps,
the little girl is missing. She finds her behind the curtain, looking out the
window. Flora says she thought someone was outside but saw no one.

Another night, the governess sees a woman sitting at the bottom of the stairs,
her head in her hands, as if she is crying. Several nights later, the governess
wakes up and sees that Flora is behind the curtain, looking out the window
again. She slips out into the hall and stands outside Miles room, listening at his
door to hear if he is awake, before choosing an empty bedroom from which to
look out onto the lawn. There, outside, is Miles.

The next day, the governess tells Mrs. Grose what happened. When she brought
Miles back to his room and asked why he was outside, he told her he arranged
things with Flora so that the governess would think him, for a change, bad. The
governess is even more certain that the children meet with the ghosts in secret.
She thinks Quint and Miss Jessel want to possess the children and lead them to
their deaths. When Mrs. Grose suggests contacting the uncle, the governess
threatens to leave Bly if she were to do so.

The governess believes that the ghosts are sometimes present and visible only to
Miles and Flora. The children write letters which are never mailed to their uncle
and talk of his coming to visit, and the governess sees evidence of his trust in
her in his failure to visit.

Walking to church one Sunday, Miles asks the governess when he is going back
to school. He wants to know if his uncle thinks what the governess does about
keeping him out of school and says that he will do something to make his uncle
come visit. The governess is so upset she does not enter the church and instead
rushes back to the house, planning to leave. She sits on the stairs, crying, and
then realizes that she had seen Miss Jessel sitting in the same spot. She then
goes in the schoolroom where she sees Miss Jessel sitting at her own table,
staring at her as if she is the intruder.

The governess decides to stay, and when Mrs. Grose returns, she tells her that
Miss Jessel told her that she suffers the torments of hell and that she wants Flora
to suffer them with her. The governess decides to write to the uncle.

That night, she talks with Miles about going to a new school and asks about
things that happened at Bly and at school before. Suddenly, the candle blows
out, and Miles says he did it.

The governess writes the letter but keeps it in her pocket the next day, planning
to send it later. Miles offers to play the piano for her, and while he does, she
loses track of time. When he finishes, she realizes Flora is missing. Mrs. Grose
doesn't know where she is either. The governess leaves the letter on the table for
a servant named Luke to take, and the two women rush to the lake to look for
Flora.
They find the boat missing. Flora has take it - with Miss Jessel's help, the
governess believes - across the lake. They walk around to find her. The
governess demands the child tell her where Miss Jessel is, and suddenly Miss
Jessel appears on the other side of the lake. The governess points her out, but
Mrs. Grose cannot see her. Flora only looks at the governess who demands she
admit that Miss Jessel is there. Finally, Mrs. Grose takes the distraught child
home, and the governess collapses in tears on the bank. When she comes home,
Miles sits with her by the fire and says nothing.

The next morning, Mrs. Grose tells her that Flora is feverish and is terrified of
seeing the governess, of whom she says awful things. She also says that the
letter never went to the uncle, and Miles must have taken it. The governess
sends Mrs. Grose and Flora by coach to the uncle immediately, and plans to stay
alone with Miles.

Miles is gone, wandering the grounds all day. Finally, the he and the governess
eat dinner in the dining room, where she once saw Quint through the window.
The governess asks Miles to tell her what is on his mind, but he says that he
wants to talk to Luke first. Suddenly, Peter Quint appears in the window.

The governess struggles to keep Miles's back to the window and demands to
know if he took the letter. When he says he did, she demands to know what he
did at school to get expelled, and he says that he "said things" to his friends
which they passed on to their friends. The governess shrieks at Quint in the
window, and tells Miles he's at the window. Miles asks, "It's he?" and when the
governess demands to know which "he," Miles shouts "Peter Quint - you
devil!," then yells "Where?" The governess tries to show Miles Quint in the
window, then grasps the boy in her arms. After a few moments, she realizes his
heart has stopped beating.

The Turn of the Screw Character List

The governess
The governess is the primary narrator and central character in The Turn of the
Screw. She is twenty years old and was raised in Hampshire, the youngest
daughter of a poor clergyman. From the stories she tells her young charges, we
know that she had many sisters and brothers, as well as a dog. She has just left
home when she interviews in London for the position of governess to two
children in a country house in Essex. From the prologue, we know that she is
smitten with her employer, and throughout the novel, she hopes to gain his
respect or affection by succeeding at her job. The governess may be a loving,
strong woman, whose struggle against the evil ghosts she encounters for the
souls of the children in her care show her to be a good person. Or she may be
mad - sexually repressed and delusional, imagining ghosts and evil that is not
there - responsible for the destruction of young Flora and Miles.
Mrs. Grose
Mrs. Grose is the housekeeper at Bly. She was originally the maid of the
gentleman in Harley Street's mother, and she has been responsible for little
Flora since the death of Miss Jessel, the previous governess. She seems to be
middle aged but her age is never stated. She is illiterate, and as a servant, she is
afraid of angering her employer by bothering him. She acts as a confidant to the
narrator and seems to accept and believe her conclusions about the ghosts at
Bly. Mrs. Grose is the only source of information we have about Peter Quint
and Miss Jessel. Unlike the narrator, she wants to involve their employer early,
but is unable to stand up to her superior.
Flora
Eight years old, Flora is the niece of Bly's owner. She is blond and beautiful,
capable of playing music and reciting poems, and a very friendly, docile child.
The narrator first finds her angelic but later believes that at times she is "an old,
old woman." Flora was left alone with her former governess Miss Jessel for
many months, and she may now be carrying on a secret communication with the
woman's ghost. Her outer perfection and innocence may be real or it may
conceal a greater evil.
Miles
Ten years old, Miles is away at school when the governess arrives at Bly. She
finds him to be just as angelic and beautiful as his sister and says that he
possesses a gentleness. Miles was expelled from his school for an unspecified
offense. That and his other actions, such as going outside in the middle of the
night, may mean he's simply a naughty little boy or it may mean he is clever and
deviant. Miles spent a great deal of time with "base menial" servant Peter Quint
and the governess suspects Quint's ghost of continuing to corrupt Miles. He is
an excellent little "gentleman," can play the piano, and his confrontations may
result from a desire to get away from her and go to school or they may show
Quint's control over him.
Peter Quint
Quint was the gentleman in Harley Street's valet. Because he was ill, he was left
in charge at Bly, where he would sometimes wear the master's clothes. He had
curly red hair, red whiskers, sharp black eyes, and appeared handsome, but
untrustworthy. When alive, Quint was a "hound" and had affairs with a number
of women, including Miss Jessel, a woman above his station. He died by
slipping on an icy path when drunk. As a ghost or possibly a hallucination,
Quint appears to the governess and seems to want Miles's soul. Quint may also
be a representation of the nineteenth-century stereotype of the sexually
predatory male.
Miss Jessel
Miss Jessel was the children's former governess. Like the current governess, she
was young and pretty. She seems to have had an affair with Quint and may have
gotten pregnant. Miss Jessel died while away for her holiday and may have
committed suicide. As a ghost, she appears wearing black and is often
mournful. The governess believes that she wants Flora's soul and says that she
speaks of suffering the torments of hell and wanting the child to suffer them
with her. Miss Jessel in many ways parallels the governess and may be a
projection of her fears.
The gentleman in Harley Street
Also referred to as the master and the uncle, he is the owner of Bly and the
uncle of Flora and Miles, whose parents died in India. He is a young, attactive
man who uses his power over the governess - and other women - to get them to
agree to his demands. He is absorbed in his own affairs and refuses to allow the
governess to contact him at all about the children. In that sense, he is indirectly
responsible for the events that befall the children at Bly.
Luke
Luke is one of the servants, the only one given a name. He is charged with
posting the governess's letter to the gentleman in Harley Street, but does not
because Miles steals it first. Miles's final request is to see him.
Servants
Bly is inhabited by many servants, both "maids" and "men." The governess
once mistakes Miss Jessel for a maid. She also frequently worries that the
servants will learn about the ghosts and tries to keep her suspicions from them.
Douglas
Douglas owns the manuscript which comprises the majority of the book and
introduces the story of the governess in the book's prologue. Probably about
sixty, Douglas knew and was in love with the governess as a young man, when
she was his sister's governess. This may bias his description of her. He has kept
her manuscript in a locked drawer in his home for many decades.
Narrator
Though little description is given, the narrator is one of many people present in
a country house telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve. The prologue is told in
first-person from his point-of-view. He says that Douglas gave him the
governess's manuscript before his death.
Griffin
Another member of the party in the prologue, Griffin tells as an unsuccessful
ghost story about a little boy which inspires Douglas to tell his tale.
Mrs. Griffin
Griffin's wife, who surmises that Douglas was in love with the governess, after
he introduces his story.
Friends
Other guests at the country house where the ghosts stories are told. All are
impatient to hear Douglas's story, though some ladies must leave before he
begins it.

The Turn of the Screw Summary and Analysis of Prologue and Chapters 1-
4
Prologue Summary

Friends gathered around a fire in a country house outside London on Christmas

Eve entertain themselves by telling ghost stories. When a man
named Griffin tells of a little boy who experiences a ghostly visitation, his
friend Douglas notes, a few nights later, that the age of the child "gives the
effect another turn of the screw" and proposes a ghost story unsurpassed for
"dreadfulness" about two children. The manuscript of this true story has been
kept in a locked drawer for twenty years, since the death of its writer. The story,
which the writer and now Douglas have kept secret for forty years, Douglas's
younger sister's governess, with whom he became friends when he was a
university student at home on holiday.
The narrator quickly guesses that the reason the governess kept the story secret
was that she was in love, and Douglas refuses to say more until the governess's
manuscript arrives by post in three days. All the members of the group, eager to
hear the answers to their questions about the story, pledge to stay at the country
house, including a group of ladies who have planned to leave before three days
time. When Douglas has bid the group a hasty good-night in the midst of their
inquiries, one woman notes that regardless of whom the governess loved,
Douglas was clearly in love with the governess.

The narrator notes that his narrative comes from an exact transcript, created
when Douglas later gave him the governess's manuscript before his own death.
On the fourth night at the country house, Douglas prepares to read his story to a
reduced group, its small size increasing the thrill even further. (The ladies have
indeed departed despite their earlier protestations.) He prefaces his actual
reading with background information about the governess, the youngest
daughter of a poor country parson from Hampshire, who at age twenty
answered an advertisement placed by a gentleman seeking a governess for his
orphaned niece and nephew.

The inexperienced young woman, who had never left Hampshire before, met
with the gentleman on London's fashionable Harley Street. She was
immediately impressed by his wealth, good looks, and bold manner, and, the
narrator suggests, ultimately accepted the position because he made it appear as
if he was doing her a favor by offering her the opportunity. The children lived at
his lonely country house, Bly, in Essex, where little girl was currently looked
after by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, and to which the little boy, who, though
very young, had been sent away to school, would soon be coming home for the
holidays. The death of their previous governess, which the gentleman notes
caused "great awkwardness," had necessitated this arrangement.
Here, one listener demands of Douglas the cause of the governess's death, while
another wonders if the position required danger to life. Douglas again tells his
friends they shall soon hear the answers and instead speaks of how governess's
youth and naïveté allowed her "seduction" by the gentleman - that her love for
him, combined with the generous salary he offered, led her to accept the
position at the time of a second interview. The beauty of this love, Douglas
says, is that she only saw the gentleman twice. The man had a single condition
which had frightened off all previous applicants. He made the governess
promise that she would never contact or trouble him, instead dealing with all
problems herself and getting money from his solicitor. Having agreed to his
conditions, the governess never saw the gentleman again. Not until the next
evening does Douglas begin reading the story.

Prologue Analysis

To a far greater degree than most other books, The Turn of the Screw faces an
interpretive crisis. Is it simply a ghost story, as Douglas intimates, or is the
governess, from whom we will hear the rest of the tale, a madwoman and an
unreliable narrator? James, in addition to being a novelist, was also a literary
critic and the question of interpretation was one with which he was familiar.
The majority of the novel purports to be the manuscript written by the
governess and is thus written in the first-person from her limited point-of-view.
In speaking of the manuscript in the framing section, rather than simply
beginning with the governess's narrative, James emphasizes that it represents
the perspective of a single person. This opening framing section notably sets
itself apart from the story. As told from an objective authorial perspective, in
which the unnamed narrator himself speaks about his own transcription of the
manuscript into the book his reader holds in his/her hands, it seems at first
glance to provide the reader with trustworthy background information necessary
for the story.

However, it is important to note that all the information provided about the
governess comes not from the narrator but solely from Douglas, a man whom
the characters themselves note was clearly in love with the governess. We hear
from Douglas - rather than see for ourselves - that the governess was a young
innocent whose employer took advantage of her inexperience. Douglas's words,
unsurprisingly condemnatory of a man loved by this woman, shape the reader's
assumptions as s/he begins the governess's narrative and demand s/he question
the reliability of the story's narrators. Because of Douglas's emotional
connection to the governess, we cannot be wholly certain about her innocence
nor about the gentleman's conniving.

If we do accept Douglas's retelling of the governess's encounter with her

employer, however, her tenuous position with regards to both gender and class
becomes apparent. Her profession places her between two worlds. She seeks to
align herself with the upper class world of her employer, who sees her, unlike
the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, as the appropriate companion for his young wards.
At the same time, she eschews identification with the servants, whom the
employer enumerates alongside buildings and livestock - "a cook, a housemaid,
a dairywoman, an old pony, an old groom, and an old gardener." The
governess's desire to align herself with the upper class, however, are threatened
by her employer's dismissal of the previous governess's death as a hindrance
rather than a tragedy and by her need to accept the job because of a salary which
"much exceeded her modest measure."
This opening section also reveals the origin of the book's title. Telling a ghost
story in which a child is visited by a ghostly apparition, Griffin gives the
already frightening tale one "turn of the screw." By telling a story about two
children who encounter ghosts, Douglas says that he seeks to give the screw two
turns. On this objective level, then, it seems that James intends his book as a
ghost story. Douglas recalls that when he met the governess, he was a student at
Trinity College - a college which, as James himself knew, was the center for
psychical research in late nineteenth century Britain. At the same time, we must
separate James's intention from that of Douglas, for whom the explanation of
ghosts rather than madness renders the governess innocent, and remember that a
biased character, rather than an objective author, frames these events.

Chapter I

Summary:

The governess recalls the doubts and unease she felt after accepting the position
from the gentleman in Harley Street. These doubts plagued her during the long
coach ride to the country. There, she is met by a large horse drawn carriage
which brings her to Bly. As she approaches the house, the beautiful summer day
begins allay her doubts, and she is pleasantly surprised when she arrives at the
house - impressed by its size, open windows with maids peering out, its lawns
and flowers, crows flying overhead, so different than her own small house.

She is met at the door by a woman who curtsies "as if I had been the mistress or
a distinguished visitor" and a little girl. The splendor of the house and its
inhabitants make the governess believe her employer to be even more of a
gentleman for underplaying his description of the place when hiring her.
Immediately, she is thrust into an introduction to her young pupil that does not
allow her to rest until the next day.

The little girl Flora, the governess immediately decides, is the most beautiful
and charming child she has ever seen - yet another thing her employer had not
mentioned to her. She can barely sleep that night because of her excitement at
of all the surprises. She has been given one of the best and largest bedrooms in
the house. It has full-length mirrors, and for the first time in her life, she can see
herself from head to foot. Immediately, the governess assumes that Mrs. Grose -
with whom she had earlier worried about getting along - is incredibly glad to
see her, though she does not show it. Wondering why she guards against
showing these feelings, the governess feels a bit uneasy.
She is not uneasy, however, about Flora, whose angelic beauty keeps her awake,
wandering around her bedroom, looking out at the dawn. She hears birds sing
outside, but thinks also that she has heard a few unnatural sounds coming from
inside the house, what sounds like the far-away cry of a child and a footstep
outside her door. Though she easily dismissed them at the time as fancies, in her
present "gloom" the worrisome memory comes back to her.

Instead, she focuses her thoughts on Flora, who after that night will sleep in her
room with her. She and Mrs. Grose had during the previous day discussed
Flora's timidity and decided to allow her one last night in Mrs. Grose's room.
Over dinner, with Flora present, they could only discuss her and her brother
"obscure and roundabout allusions." Mrs. Grose assures her that Miles is just as
"remarkable" looking as his sister and that she will be carried away by the "little
gentleman."
When the governess says that she has already been carried away "in London,"
Mrs. Grose wants to know if it was "in Harley Street?" The governess confirms
it, and Mrs. Grose tells her she's not the first, and she won't be the last. They
proceed to talk about Miles, who is not coming home tomorrow, as the
governess had anticipated, but on Friday, on the same coach the governess came
on. The governess suggests that she and Flora meet him at the coach, and the
governess takes Mrs. Grose's agreement to mean that they will agree on every
matter.

The next day, the governess feels "a slight oppression" as she takes in her new
circumstances, which both scare her and make her proud. Unable to concentrate
enough to give lessons, she decides to get to know Flora by allowing the child
to show her the grounds - including empty rooms, crooked staircases, and a tall
tower that makes the governess dizzy. Within half an hour, they are
"tremendous friends." Looking back, the governess says that to her older eyes,
Bly would look ugly, empty, and far less important. At the time, she imagined it
as a fairy tale, but now she sees it as a drifting ship with a few passengers, with
her "strangely at the helm."

Analysis:

The material lens through which the governess judges her surroundings is
readily apparent in this chapter. Her melancholy is only offset by her
recognition of the size and appearance of Bly - to which her own "scant home"
compares unfavorably. She is especially pleased by the ability this position
gives her to transcend her station - as demonstrated by her happiness in seeing
the two maids peeking out of the house as she arrives and her thrill at Mrs.
Grose's curtsy. This chapter reverses the dynamic of the previous in which the
governess had inhabited a lower class - and therefore held less power - than the
gentleman.

In transcending her class, the governess usurps a position not rightfully hers -
"the mistress." Taking the position of Flora's governess allows her to assume the
role of mother. She is doing far more than giving lessons to Flora; she is
functioning as her guardian, even having the child sleep in her room. Though
she may not contact the gentleman, in acting the role of mistress of Bly and
mother of Flora, the governess assumes the role of his wife by proxy.

The governess also, unthinkingly, usurps Mrs. Grose's position. She gives
thought to Flora's feelings but notably not to Mrs. Grose's when deciding that
the child will sleep in her room. Moving Flora's bed from Mrs. Grose's room to
her own allows the governess to take the mother (and mistress) role that Mrs.
Grose had previously inhabited.

Some critics argue that Mrs. Grose was literally the gentleman in Harley Street's
mistress - that Flora and Miles are not his niece and nephew at all but his
illegitimate children with his housekeeper. Mrs. Grose's facial expression -
which the governess when writing her manuscript can still remember - when the
governess speaks of being swept away in London, as well as her immediate
guess that the governess is talking about Harley Street and her comment that
"Miss, you're not the first" suggests that perhaps she herself has been swept
away by the gentleman - physically or at least emotionally.

In this chapter, as well, we already see the thread of assumptions and veiled
communication which characterize the novel. Mrs. Grose never says that she is
glad to have the governess there, and in fact, the governess explicitly notes that
she does not show any happiness. However, without any statements or evidence
to support her conviction, the governess decides that Mrs. Grose must be happy.
Likewise, she takes Mrs. Grose's assent to her suggestion that they meet Miles
at the coach as an unspoken "pledge" that they should always agree - forgetting
or ignoring that this woman, a servant who curtsied to her upon her arrival, may
not have the freedom to disagree with her.

Interestingly, the governess's observations of and assumptions about Flora are

all based upon physical appearance. Time and again, she calls her beautiful,
describes her blond curls and blue eyes, and compares her to an angel, "indeed
one of Raphael's holy infants." In part, this emphasis on Flora's seeming angelic
nature makes her later corruption all the more disturbing, but at the same time, it
demonstrates the fallibility of the governess's judgment, all of which is based
upon appearance. Though she says that the child spoke incessantly on their tour
of the grounds, she does not transcribe that dialogue, nor does she include her as
a participant in her dinner time conversation with Mrs. Grose. In fact, her
presence at the table is responsible for the ambiguity of the conversation. Mrs.
Grose's assertions that Miles, like Flora, is "remarkable" and that he will carry
the governess away have no definite positive meaning.

Despite the governess's positive attitude through much of the chapter, there
remain elements which foreshadow the coming events. Her apprehension and
doubts during the coach ride turn out to be well-founded. The crows which
circle over Bly upon her arrival do not bode well for the visit. Crows are
carrion-eaters, eaters of dead and decaying flesh, and are a symbol of death.
Similarly, the child's cry and footstep the governess believes she has heard
inspire a fear that is later fully realized. They might be the marks of ghosts or
these sounds might be the onset of the governess's paranoia. In noting these
instances of warnings or foreshadowing, it is important to remember that the
governess is writing her manuscript from a position of hindsight, in which small
things that meant nothing at the time have taken on greater meaning in light of
the "gloom" which followed.

The governess concludes the chapter by announcing "I was strangely at the
helm!" In creating this metaphor of herself as captain and Bly as a ship, which
will later recur, she declares herself responsible not only for the care of the
children but suggests that she is the force behind the events which are to occur
at Bly. She is also at the helm of the book, reminding the reader that they are
not seeing a transparent reality but rather her interpretation and retelling of the
events.

Chapter II

Summary:

The next day, the governess receives a letter from her employer. He has
enclosed a still-sealed envelope from the head master of Miles's school along
with a note ordering the governess to deal with it but not to report back to him.
Though the governess struggles with the letter's thick seal, she does not read it
right away. Rather, she leaves the letter to read in her room just before going to
bed. Its contents, which she does not immediately disclose to the reader, give
her another sleepless night.

On the following morning, she cannot bear her anxiety any longer and tells Mrs.
Grose that Miles has been dismissed - permanently - from his school. When the
governess offers the letter to Mrs. Grose when she wonders for the reason for
the boy's dismissal, the housekeeper reveals that she cannot read. The governess
then tells her that the letter lacks particulars but that she assumes they must
mean that Miles is "an injury to others." This infuriates Mrs. Grose, who
expresses her disbelief - disbelief that the governess professes to share, all the
while feeling a burning curiosity to meet Miles. Mrs. Grose protests that the
governess might as well believe such cruel things of Flora, who has left her
penmanship exercises in the schoolroom and appeared in the doorway. The
governess hugs and kisses Flora, feeling guilty for having suspected Miles.

That evening, the governess again approaches Mrs. Grose, who she thinks is
trying to avoid her, on the staircase. She asks if Mrs. Grose had meant that
Miles had never been bad, and Mrs. Grose unabashedly replies that she prefers a
boy with the spirit to be naughty. When the governess worries about boys with
the spirit to corrupt, Mrs. Grose laughs at her, wondering if she thinks Miles
will corrupt her.

The next day, before meeting Miles, the governess asks Mrs. Grose about the
children's former governess. She is told that the woman was young and pretty -
as "he" seemed to like. She says she was referring to the master, but the
governess suspects otherwise. Saying she won't tell tales, Mrs. Grose gives little
information about the woman, except that she went off, seemingly on a well-
earned holiday, without appearing to be ill. Only later did the master tell her that
the woman had died, though he never said of what.

Analysis:

Though Mrs. Grose assures her otherwise, the governess here receives the first
suggestion that Miles might be "bad." Again the ambiguity of the language the
women use plays a part here. Mrs. Grose is shocked at the suggestion he might
have done anything to warrant his dismissal from school, but at the same time,
she expresses her joy that Miles can be a "bad boy" if he so desires. The
problems of communication are magnified - the governess receives no specific
account of the reason for Miles's dismissal, nor does Mrs. Grose enumerate
what Miles's past naughtiness has entailed.

Psychoanalytic criticism suggests that the governess fits the model of the sexual
hysteric that was well-known at the turn of the century. (James himself was
familiar with hysteria, both through Breuer and Freud's Studien über Hysterie
and through the illness of his sister Alice.) At the time, sexual hysteria was seen
as a psychosexual disorder affecting primarily well-bred, intelligent women, as
caused by the conflict between natural sexual desires and the repression of
Victorian social ideals. As the daughter of a country clergyman, living a
confined life without the possibility of expressing these feelings to a man to
whom she consciously feels attraction. Such a state, psychologists of James's
day believed, was characterized by a paradoxical combination of sexual
frigidity and intense sexual preoccupations.

Here, the governess assumes that the head master's letter "can have but one
meaning" - that Miles is "an injury to others." Those who read the governess as
a sexual hysteric might well interpret her worries over Miles's ability to
"contaminate" or "corrupt" - whether founded in truth or not - as particularly
sexual fears. Faced with this unstated reason for Miles's dismissal, some critics
in fact argue that Miles may have been engaging in homosexual behavior with
his classmates, incited by what they will interpret later in the story as caused
by Peter Quint's "corruption" of young Miles.
Unable to express her feelings directly to her employer - or even to contact him
at all - the governess transfers her anxiety over him to her relationship with the
children. Oddly, she and Mrs. Grose emphasize the master's preference for
pretty, young employees when these employees are women he has chosen never
to see again. Thus, the master uses the suggestion of sexual attraction to ensure
his governesses' compliance. The governess's fear that Miles will corrupt her
results from her association of Miles with his uncle - a man who, as Douglas
says in the prologue, "seduced" her into accepting the job. Likewise, her desire
to see the children as beautiful and good is a product of her worship of her
employer.

The absent master has a great deal of presence in this section, especially in the
discussion of the former governess. This governess's current assertion that "he
seems to like us young and pretty" strengthens the parallel between herself and
her predecessor. That connection becomes problematic when Mrs. Grose
alludes to the reason for the other woman's death. The woman who went off, not
apparently ill, and died, without a disclosed reason, may well have been
pregnant and killed herself, as Mrs. Grose's later words will suggest even more
strongly. As with Miles's story, the lack of explanation here allows the
governess to fill in the gaps with her greatest fears.

Some critics argue that Mrs. Grose deliberately drives the governess mad
because she resents the young woman's usurpation of her role. In this case, her
changing reactions - first abhorring the thought of Miles's wrongdoing, then
proclaiming his naughtiness, then laughing in the governess's face for her fears -
create new anxieties within the governess's mind. Certainly, her seeming
avoidance of the governess is noteworthy, suggesting that either she does resent
the woman's presence or the governess is paranoid.

Even before Miles has entered the story, the governess has begun to have
doubts. The uncertain reason for his dismissal, the undisclosed "he" of Mrs.
Grose's slip of the tongue, and the unknown cause of the previous governess's
death all foreshadow greater evil to come - whether it be from the governess's
mind or from ghosts concealed by these secrets.

Chapter III

Summary:

The governess begins the chapter by noting that Mrs. Grose's "snub," refusing to
tell her any details regarding the previous governess's death, did not impede
their continued friendship. After bringing home Miles, she says, she was more
than ready to agree with the housekeeper that the charges against the child were
ridiculous.

The governess meets Miles at the coach stop and instantly perceives him to be
innocent and beautiful, unlike all other children she has known, seeming to have
known "nothing in the world but love." When they arrive back at Bly, she
expresses to Mrs. Grose her outrage and disbelief over the contents of the letter
and professes her intention neither to reply to the letter nor to write the
children's uncle nor mention the letter to Miles himself. Mrs. Grose agrees to
support the governess in this decision, and the two kiss and embrace "like
sisters."

Looking back, the governess says, she is amazed at her naïve belief that she
could handle the situation. Though she remembers intending to resume Miles's
studies that summer, she instead spent weeks enjoying herself and her charges.
The children give her little trouble, and though she speculates on the pain the
future could bring them, she can only imagine their lives to be like fairy tales.

During those long summer days, after the children have been put to bed and
before the sun goes down, the governess has her "own hour," when she walks
around the grounds of the country estate. She is happy because she knows she is
giving pleasure to her employer by keeping worries about the children from
bothering him and thinks herself to be a "remarkable young woman" for doing
as he has asked.

One evening, the governess indulges in a frequent fantasy that a handsome

someone - presumably her employer - would appear in the path and smile his
approval. This night, as she comes into view of the house, she is surprised to see
him standing up on one of the two large towers of the house, as if her fantasy
had become reality.

Suddenly, she is shocked to see that the man is someone else entirely and as a
woman alone, she is terrified to see a strange man staring down at her. Looking
back on that experience, as she writes, the governess says that she still
remembers it in great detail. Standing in the path, she looks up at him, all the
sounds of nature seeming to have stopped, goes through every possibility of
who he might be, and discards them all. He wears no hat and stares right at her,
finally turning to cross to the other side of the tower.

Analysis:

This chapter is the site of the first significant critical controversy over the nature
of the book. Who is the man in the tower? At this time, the governess does not
even know - and that lack of knowledge is the reason for her fear. Many
possibilities have been argued, the most common being that he is either the
ghost of Peter Quint, of whom we shall hear presently, or the governess's
hallucination. Another critic has suggested that perhaps Miles has dressed up in
Quint's clothing and appeared on the tower as a sort of prank on the governess.

If we choose to see the man on the tower as a ghost, then his appearance to the
governess marks an important turning point in the story. The governess herself
makes a point of stating that he could not have been anyone she knew. At the
very least, he is a stranger, and his appearance marks the introduction of an
unknown and potentially threatening element into the idyllic life at Bly. The
governess herself notes that "an unknown man in a lonely place is a permitted
object of fear to a young woman privately bred." Once again, Victorian morality
leads her to perceive a particularly sexual threat.

The nature of this threat is especially relevant to those critics who have
described The Turn of the Screw as an allegory depicting the struggle between
Good and Evil. In this reading, Bly is a sort of Paradise. The weeks of
happiness, innocence, and beauty with the children, which the governess
describes at the start of this chapter, are a sort of prelapserian Eden, whose
inhabitants have known "nothing in the world but love." The vision of the man
in the tower represents the introduction of Evil into this world. This curate's
daughter, who might well recognize the sexual implications of the snake in the
story of Adam and Eve, similarly sees the threat to her own Paradise as
particularly sexual in nature.

The sexual connotations of the governess's encounter with the man in the tower
are central to psychoanalytic readings of this text. If the governess is a sexual
hysteric, then this man is actually a hallucination caused by a "hysterical fit."
Notably, the governess is imagining a handsome man, to whom she feels
sexually attracted, when she first glimpses the figure in the tower. Indeed, she
herself notes that it seems as if, at first, her fantasy of seeing her employer
smiling approvingly at her has transformed into reality.

Only at second glance does the man transform into a frightening stranger. While
the governess may simply have been mistaken at first, the timing of his
appearance, coupled with her imaginings, is suspect. Some psychoanalytic
critics argue that her fear of male sexuality, as a repressed parson's daughter in
Victorian England, is responsible for her transformation of the man from a
sexually desirable figure to a sexually threatening one. Certainly, his
appearance, standing "very erect" on a rather phallic tower, supports the
psychoanalytic readings.

It is important to take note of the governess's description of the figure as she

sees him in this instance, as compared to how she will later describe him to Mrs.
Grose. Here, she gives little in the way of physical particulars - only mentions
that he had an air of familiarity demonstrated by his lack of a hat and his staring
at her. Later, she will give a far more detailed description - leading some readers
to believe she must be prevaricating and others to insist that on the certainty of
the figure's identity.

Here, too, we must also note the significance of her interaction with Mrs. Grose.
After telling the housekeeper that she intends to do nothing in response to the
head master's letter and receiving the woman's support, she finishes Mrs.
Grose's sentence, "Would you mind, Miss, if I used the freedom -" to cement
what she sees as their friendship. "To kiss me? No!" the governess replies and
grasps the other woman in her embrace, though neither she nor the reader has
received any affirmative evidence that it was Mrs. Grose's intention to kiss her.
If Mrs. Grose is really hostile toward the governess, here is important evidence
of the governess's blindness to the housekeper's feelings, demonstrated by her
repeated talk of their friendship and sisterhood even while Mrs. Grose disagrees
with and "snubs" her. Another less common reading of this kiss between the
two women is critic Helen Killoran's proposal that all the characters in the novel
are in fact bisexual.

On a more basic level, the governess's decision to ignore the letter from Miles's
head master has profound plot implications. In choosing not to pursue the
reason for the boy's dismissal with either the head master or Miles himself, the
governess allows the continuance of a mystery that will later allow her to
suspect Miles of wrongdoing and corruption. Her decision not to contact the
boy's uncle is likewise a mistake - one born, as she notes in this chapter, of her
desire to see herself as competent and to make herself happy by doing as the
uncle had asked of her, rather than of any true ability to address the problem.
Already she, who had previously seen herself as "at the helm" of the household,
is in fact loosing power, despite her cherished illusion of control. Hired as a
governess, she cannot even convince her ten-year-old charge to begin his
lessons but instead allows him to "teach" her about enjoying the summer.

Chapter IV

Summary:

Deeply shaken by the figure she has seen in the tower, the governess loses all
sense of time, wandering in circles for three miles. By the time she returns
home, it is already dark, and Mrs. Grose's surprise at her agitated appearance
convince her that the housekeeper had nothing to do with the figure she had
seen. So glad to see this comforting sight is she that the governess spares the
woman her the story of her encounter, instead offering a vague excuse for her
lateness and heading to her room.

In the following days, she considers the encounter whenever she has free time -
not yet nervous but afraid of becoming nervous. Her senses suddenly
heightened, she observes the servants, wondering if they have played a prank,
and decides they have not. Ultimately, she decides that the man must have been
a traveler who boldly and inappropriately trespassed on the tower for the view it
provided.

Rather than focus on her worries, the governess immerses herself in life with
her charming pupils, making constant discoveries about them. Miles is so good
and innocent she decides the head master must have been vindictive and
mistaken. The children are angelic, and Miles never speaks of school. The
governess knowingly ignores the issue and concentrates on her charges.

One Sunday, the rain prevents them from going to church in the morning, and
so the governess and Mrs. Grose plan to go to the evening service after putting
the children to bed. Realizing she has left her gloves in the dining room, the
governess goes there to retrieve them and is stopped short by the figure of a
man - the same man she had seen earlier in the tower - standing outside and
staring in the window. When he moves his eyes off her and looks elsewhere in
the room, she realizes he is there looking for someone other than her.

Realizing this, she runs out of the house to look for him outside, but he has
already vanished. She waits for an uncertain amount of time for him to reappear
and cannot see him hiding behind any trees or bushes. Finally, she goes back to
the window, where she shocks Mrs. Grose, who has just entered the dining
room, just as the man had surprised her, and wonders why the housekeeper is
scared.

Analysis:

The governess's second sighting of the strange man is just as problematic as the
first. That it appears to be the same man could be evidence that the governess's
first impression, of seeing a handsome man on the tower, was simply a mistake,
and that this is a particular stranger who exists in a reality outside her fantasies.
Clearly, his second appearance proves wrong her suspicion that he is just a
traveler passing through the area.

In both cases, the governess reacts in a similar manner - by wandering about,

losing complete track of time. This may, of course, be a reaction to an intense
shock, such as one might have in seeing a ghost. But notably, the governess
does not yet think this man is a ghost. Even after the first encounter, when she
guesses the man might be a traveler, she describes her reaction as "the shock I
had suffered." This description of agitated wanderings, lost time, and intense
shock all offer proof to the assertion that the governess has experienced a
hysterical fit and hallucination.

Certainly, the governess's manner begins to change after the first shock. She
describes how her senses are sharpened, which may be a result of necessary
watchfulness or could be the beginnings of an intense paranoia. She is not
acting completely rationally, as she herself notes, in her dealings with the
pupils. Though she refuses to ask Miles about his school, she becomes
increasingly convinced, based solely on lack of evidence and on Miles's own
odd reticence in mentioning school, that the headmaster was vindictive and
wrong.

The governess's continued comparisons of the children to angels and her

observance of their gentleness plays into the allegory of a contest between good
and evil. Whether or not there are ghosts, the governess clearly believes the
children are good and innocent and already, she sees it as her duty to protect
them from evil. If the children represent Adam and Eve and Bly represents
Eden, the governess therefore has assumed the role of God - suggesting her role
will be to protect the children but also to punish them for transgression.

At the beginning of the chapter, the governess alludes to famous novels in the
Gothic tradition, Ann Radcliffe's 1794 The Mysteries of Udolpho and Charlotte
Brontë's 1847 Jane Eyre. In part, this illustrates the literary tradition that
influences James's writing. Additionally, it demonstrates the governess's desire -
shown earlier in her many references to fairy tales - to see herself as a literary
heroine, like Jane Eyre. This is especially significant since the governess is in
fact writing her own story and is therefore able to portray herself as heroine,
protector and defender of her charges. It relates, too, to her active imagination -
responsible first for imagining her employer appearing to her and now for her
musings about who the man she saw could have been. If the ghosts are not real -
or even if they are simply benevolent - the governess's desire to see herself as
heroine drives her to see the spirits as real threats to Miles and Flora which she
can then vanquish.
The governess's continuous brooding on the figure after their first encounter
may therefore be responsible for the figure she sees in the window - prossibly a
product of her imagination. One critic has suggested that the windows would be
too blurry on a rainy day for the governess to have seen the figure so clearly as
she purports. Certainly, it is odd that she says she saw him no more distinctly
than she had upon his appearance in the tower - when he was too far away from
her for her to shout to him and be heard. Likewise, the governess's "certitude"
that he had not come for her but for someone else results only from what she
perceives is his glance away from her and around the room. She calls that
realization a "flash of knowledge," yet she has no true evidence to support it.

The interactions between the governess and Mrs. Grose in this chapter are
similarly puzzling. The governess is reassured when Mrs. Grose appears to have
no idea why she is so upset after returning from seeing the man on the tower
because it means the housekeeper is ignorant of the origin of the figure on the
tower. And yet, when Mrs. Grose expresses fear when she sees the governess
standing outside the window, she suspects that Mrs. Grose must know
something she does not. Though she has pushed Mrs. Grose for answers to
questions she cannot know - such as Miles's dismissal from school - in the past,
here she cannot bring herself to ask what seems a simple and pragmatic
question about the man in the tower - when the housekeeper, quite possibly,
could know if he were a workman or visitor at the house.

The Turn of the Screw Summary and Analysis of Chapters 5-8

Chapter V

Summary:

Mrs. Grose rushes outside the house, where she meets the governess, who is
now pale with shock, and demands to know what is wrong with her. No longer
desiring to protect Mrs. Grose from her knowledge, the governess tells her that
through that same window, she saw something much worse and more
frightening - a man looking in. Prompted by Mrs. Grose's questions, she says
she does not know who he is nor where he has gone but that she has seen him
before in the tower.
The housekeeper demands to know if the man was a stranger and if so why she
had not been told. The governess affirms her suspicions and suggests that now
that Mrs. Grose has guessed - which Mrs. Grose interjects she has not - she'll
tell her. She tells her she has seen the man in the tower and in the spot in which
they stand.
Responding to Mrs. Grose's questions, she says that no, he was not a gentleman,
nor was he from the town - rather, "he's a horror." At that Mrs. Grose suggests
leaving for church, but the governess says that she cannot leave the children at
this time because she is afraid of the man she saw. Mrs. Grose, upon learning
that she saw the man in the tower at the same time of day, suggests that it was
nearly dark, but the governess insists she saw him clearly. She tries to send the
housekeeper off to church, but instead, Mrs. Grose asks if she fears for the
children. Though she says she was afraid, she ran out after him because she has
her "duty" to protect the children.

The governess then describes the man to Mrs. Grose. "He's like nobody" with
curly red hair, a pale long face, red whiskers, arched eyebrows, small sharp
eyes, a large mouth with thin lips - like an actor and not a gentleman. He is
handsome but dressed in someone else's clothes, without a hat. At this, Mrs.
Grose exclaims in recognition: It is Peter Quint, the master's valet, who was at
Bly with the master the previous year. He never wore a hat, and while he was
there the master's waistcoats were missing. He remained on, in charge, after the
master left. And, Mrs. Grose concludes, Quint is dead.
Analysis:

This chapter is the most problematic for those who wish to argue that the
governess is mad. Mrs. Grose's immediate recognition of Peter Quint from the
governess's description seems to offer affirmative evidence that the governess
has seen a ghost. The detailed description seems to preclude the possibility of
misrecognition and explains the man's ability to appear suddenly, without
barriers to entrance or exit. This is the first time the governess considers the
possibility of a ghost, and it is clear that she has not consciously considered it
previously. Mrs. Grose's revelation that Quint is dead comes as a great shock to
both narrator and reader.

Critics who favor reading the governess as mad and the ghost as figments of her
imagination offer various suggestions for circumnavigating this textual obstacle.
On suggestion is that the governess had heard a description of or story about
Quint while in town sometime and offered it up knowing that Mrs. Grose would
confirm it. Others argue that Mrs. Grose, resenting the governess's intrusion into
Bly and deliberately attempting to drive her mad, would have identified any
man she described as the dead valet.

The specifics of the man's appearance, however, also have another possible
origin - in the study of human physiognomy in the nineteenth century. In other
words, the man the governess describes fits the stereotype of the sexually
frightening man popularized by pseudo-science and literature of her day. In her
sexual hysteria, she imagines precisely the image that would represent her
greatest fears - an image that in its specificity seems to accord with Quint's
appearance.

According to the pseudo-science of physiognomy, the man's "straight good

features" and handsome appearance suggest he is a cad. More importantly, red
hair, especially curly red hair, has existed as a sign of evil all the way back to
the Bible, to depictions of a red-haired Satan in human form, and to the belief
that Judas was a redhead. Red hair was also associated in the nineteenth century
with lechery. The sharp, small eyes illustrate the man's sexuality and
wickedness, and his arched eyebrows show him to be proud. The shape of his
mouth shows him to be cruel.

James himself was aware of theories of physiognomy, and while the governess
herself had most likely not read scientific treatises on the subject, she has
already proved herself to be familiar with the literature of her day. One such
character is Fagin, in Dicken's Oliver Twist, which had appeared serialized in
the months before the governess accepted her position at Bly. Likewise, this sort
of physiognomic cliché of a villain proliferates in the Gothic fiction with which
she was familiar.
Thus, James simultaneously draws upon a rich tradition of villains defined by
their appearance - a tradition which includes The Canterbury Tales Œ Wife of
Bath and Gulliver's Travels' Yahoos - but uses the existence of that tradition
within the story. The governess, unable to acknowledge her sexual desire for her
employer, projects the image of a stereotypical sexual threatening male - a man
who just happens to wear clothing similar to employer. The governess's initial
description, "He's like nobody," demonstrates his air of unreality and suggests
that he is possibly a hallucination - or a ghost.
The governess has already mentioned her well-founded fear at seeing a strange
man on the property. That he "only peeps," as Mrs. Grose observes, should
come as a relief to her. However, his peeping represents a threat to her control
and authority. The governess has assumed a subjective position as head of the
household at Bly. By constructing her with his gaze, both from the tower and
through the window, Quint threatens to undermine the governess's subjectivity.

James's familiarity with spirit phenomena also play a part. Mrs. Grose and the
governess's exchange about how the man got in - or out - of the tower echoes
the statement given to the Society for Psychical Research (of which James's
father and brother were members) about a woman, alone in a house with two
children, who reports seeing two ghosts, a man and a woman, and who, when
discussing the incident with another woman, wonders how the man got in - or
more importantly, how he got out.

Chapter VI

Summary:

The governess is so shocked that she must lie down for an hour. After that, she
and Mrs. Grose don't go to church but rather have their own "service" of tears,
prayers and promises to each other in the schoolroom. Though Mrs. Grose has
not seen anything, she does not question the governess's sanity but defers to her
judgment. They decide to "bear things together," and the governess is certain
she can protect Miles and Flora.
As they go over the sighting, the governess expresses her sudden certainty that
Quint was looking for Miles and that Quint wants to appear to the children. She
recalls being sure she would see the ghost again but is willing even to sacrifice
herself to protect the children. She tells Mrs. Grose she finds it strange that the
children have never at all mentioned Quint. Mrs. Grose says that Flora does not
know that he is dead, but Miles, whom the governess promises not ask, was
"great friends" with Quint. Quint liked to play with Miles and was, in the words
of Mrs. Grose "much to free" with him and with "every one." The governess
considers the household servants but cannot think of any stories she has heard.
There are no frightening legends attached to Bly.

Just at midnight, as Mrs. Grose is about to leave, the governess demands to

know if Quint was "definitely and admittedly bad." Mrs. Grose reveals that the
master did not know that he was, and because he did not like complaints, she
never told him. Quint, who was supposedly staying at the country house for his
health, was given complete control over its inhabitants - including the children,
which leads Mrs. Grose to break into tears.

In the following days, the governess worries that there is something Mrs. Grose
has not told her and thinks about Quint's death. He had been found dead on the
road to the village, and is believed, after an inquest, to have died by accident
after slipping down an icy hill while drunk. There is also much gossip about his
secrets and vices.

The governess is able to find happiness thinking about her heroism in protecting
the children. Determined to keep them from seeing anything she has, she
engages in a watchfulness over them "that might well, had it continued too long,
have turned into something like madness." She is saved from that, she says, by
encountering proof.

One afternoon, she leaves Miles reading in the house, and goes with Flora to the
lake on the property. As she sews and Flora plays, she becomes aware, without
looking, that there is another person present across the lake. She prepares her
reaction - hoping the person is the postman or a messenger - while staring at her
sewing and then looks over at Flora, worried that she will see. Suddenly turning
her back to the water, Flora attempts to stick a piece of wood into a hole in
another flat piece to make a boat with a mast. The governess stares at her intent
efforts for several minutes before looking up across the lake.

Analysis:

With her need to lie down after Mrs. Grose's news, the governess illustrates the
state of her mental deterioration. The hour she takes to do so also functions as a
power play in the power struggle between her and Mrs. Grose. The housekeeper
must wait until the governess feels better to discuss the revelation of the ghost
with her.

The class dynamics at play in the relationship between these two women
provide insight into Mrs. Grose's behavior. The governess speaks of Mrs.
Grose's "deference," despite talk which might lead others to question her sanity.
As a servant speaking to the person who has been put in charge of the
household, Mrs. Grose is not able to politely confront or contradict the
governess. Indeed, she could not even bring herself to act against Quint, who is
lower in class than the governess, despite what she seems to feel was despicable
behavior.

Quint's class, too, plays a part in the governess's aborrence of him. Quint was a
valet - a servant. His usurpation of the master's power, though done with
permission, offends her class-conscious Victorian sensibilities. That valet Quint
spent time with Miles seems to upset her even more than the realization that
Quint is now a ghost. In part, this reaction may proceed from a subconscious
recognition of her commonality with Quint. In her imaginings about her master,
she too has hoped to transcend the class into which she was born. Likewise, her
exultation in her rich physical surroundings at Bly and her power in the
household are eerily similar to that for which she condemns in Quint.

Much has been made of Mrs. Grose's statement that Quint was "much too free."
We will see that, in part, she refers to Miss Jessel, the former governess, with
whom he had an affair. But Mrs. Grose also speaks specifically of Quint being
too free with Miles. She may simply mean that Miles association with this
uncouth servant was detrimental to his development as a little gentleman. Or,
some might argue, she means free in the same - sexual - sense.
The contrast between the inclinations of Mrs. Grose and the governess becomes
readily apparent in this chapter. Mrs. Grose protests that she could not act
against Quint's influence because the children had been placed in his charge,
rather than hers, and that she preferred not to complain to the master because he
was "terribly short with anything of that kind." In other words, she is ineffective
because of the inconvenience action would have caused her. The governess, in
contrast, seeks a more active role than is traditionally available to her as a
woman. Her desire to protect the children on her own is born of a self-
congratulatory impulse and the belief that by keeping worries from her
employer, she will gain his love.

The sexual preoccupations of the governess become noticeable in a

psychoanalytic reading of the scene on the beach. She has no true evidence that
anyone else is present and before she looks to see if her "knowledge" that third
person is present is correct, she looks at Flora. The little girl is attempting to
jam a long thin "mast" into a hole in another piece of wood to make a boat.
Some critics read this as evidence of Flora's sexual confusion as she approaches
puberty. She attempts to take an active masculine role with the phallic mast but
her attempts are unsuccessful as a result of Victorian gender roles and her
imperfect role model in the governess - a woman who seeks power but in doing
so must deny her sexuality. Even if one does not accept that Freudian reading, it
is significant that the governess observes the child engage in this play - which
may be innocent and unknowing but which the governess may, consciously or
subconsciously, interpret as sexual and threatening to the innocence of her
charge - before looking up to see just who (if anyone) watches from across the
lake.

Chapter VII

Summary:
The incident over, the governess rushes to find Mrs. Grose, telling her that the
children "know." She says that Flora saw the specter at the lake and said
nothing. Across the lake, a woman appeared and simply stood there. She was no
one the governess has ever seen, but she says, someone Flora and Mrs. Grose
have seen - Miss Jessel.

Mrs. Grose remains bewildered throughout the exchange, not understanding the
source of the governess's certainty. Nevertheless, the governess remains
adamant in insisting that Flora knows about Miss Jessel and that if asked about
seeing her she will lie. Now, the governess's greatest fear is not seeing the ghost
but rather "of not seeing her" because that will mean Flora is interacting with
the ghost without her knowledge.

The housekeeper, who has already suggested that Flora has kept her sighting of
Miss Jessel a secret to spare the governess the fright, now wonders if the child
likes the ghost - that her lack of fear is simply proof of her innocence. The
governess agrees but says that Flora's innocence is "proof of - God knows what!
For the woman's a horror of horrors."

At that, Mrs. Grose wonders how the governess knows this about Miss Jessel.
The governess explains it is from the gaze of intention which the ghost fixed on
Flora and from her wicked appearance. She was dressed in a shabby black dress
but was very beautiful, though infamous. Mrs. Grose confirms that Miss Jessel
was "infamous" - together with Quint. At the governess's insistence, the
housekeeper implies that despite the difference in their rank, Miss Jessel and
Quint had a sexual relationship and subtly implies that Miss Jessel left because
she was pregnant. Unaware of the details of the former governess's death, the
housekeeper has imagined dreadful possibilities.

Hearing this news, the governess feels defeated. She bursts into tears and Mrs.
Grose attempts to comfort her. She has not protected the children, she realizes.
They are already "lost."

Analysis:

Interestingly, we do not get a direct description of Miss Jessel's appearance at

the lake but only hear about it - unclearly - in the governess's spoken account to
Mrs. Grose. Equally important, we are not give a direct description of Flora
seeing the ghost. When the last chapter concluded, Flora had turned her back to
the lake and the governess had not yet lifted her eyes to see the figure she
"knew" was across the lake. Because of this, the governess's certainty that Flora
knows is suspect - and not surprisingly, this is the cause of much confusion for
Mrs. Grose.
This incident represents a significant turning point in the governess's perception
of the children. Until now, they have been described as "angels," but by the end
of this chapter, she is certain that they are damned. This change demonstrates
the instability of perception in The Turn of the Screw. The children, in fact,
have not acted at all differently in the previous chapter than earlier in the book.
Miles was in the house and not even present during the appearance of Miss
Jessel, and Flora did not definitively react to her presence. The governess's
certainty that the two children know of the ghosts is, oddly, based on their
inaction, their lack of reaction. She sees no possibility of getting affirmative
evidence - Flora would only deny seeing the ghost if asked.
The governess's certainty in this chapter is especially troubling if we see the
ghosts as her hallucinations. The children have no defense to her assumptions
here. Anything they might say will be assumed to be a lie. Even if the ghosts are
real, the governess here gives no consideration to the possibility - though she
has previously spoken of her receptivity to seeing the ghosts and Mrs. Grose's
inability to see them - that Flora truly could not see Miss Jessel or to Mrs.
Grose's suggestion that the ghost was benevolent.

Likewise, the governess's certainty that the woman she saw was Miss Jessel is
based on assumption. Here, she does not even bother to physically describe the
figure, as she did Quint, before identifying her. She is certain that the woman
was Miss Jessel, a woman she never met, largely because of her "infamous"
appearance. The governess's ability to describe Miss Jessel is much more easily
explained than her description of Quint. What physical description she does
give is vague and cannot be confirmed or denied by Mrs. Grose. Furthermore,
the governess knows that the master prefers to hire pretty women, so it is only
logical that Miss Jessel be "handsome." Since Miss Jessel is dead, it is
somewhat fitting that she is clothed in mourning attire. The governess's
suspicion that Miss Jessel was infamous may easily be a conclusion drawn from
knowledge of the former governess's quick departure and unexplained death.

Here, Miss Jessel's evil has an unmistakable sexual element. Mrs. Grose's
statements imply that she left because she was pregnant. The cause of her death
is uncertain but seen as deserving - "she paid for it." She may have died in
childbirth or during a botched abortion. Her appearance by the lake might also
suggest she drowned herself. It is most likely these possibilities that Mrs. Grose
refers to when she speaks of the dreadful possibilities she imagines. The
governess's assertion that she imagines still more dreadful things is significant
for its use of the word imagine. The governess's imagination, more than any
knowledge, is responsible for the beliefs she holds at the end of this chapter.

Victorian culture only provided three possible roles for women - mother, whore,
and lunatic. The governess has previously sought to inhabit the role of mother,
but her sublimated sexual desires are magnified by her counterpart, Miss Jessel's
actions consign her to the role of whore. Though Mrs. Grose seems to feel
sympathy for Miss Jessel's punishment, calling her "poor woman," the
governess does not. The dreadful things that Mrs. Grose imagines are the
agonies Miss Jessel must have experienced unwed, pregnant, and finally dying.
In contrast, the governess offers no sympathy for Miss Jessel. Her "dreadful"
imaginings are not what Miss Jessel has suffered but what she has done.

To admit sympathy for Miss Jessel would be to admit their similarity and to
therefore risk the label of whore. The many commonalities between the
governess and her predecessor extend beyond their profession. Notably, both
exhibit desire for men outside their station. Rather than feel sympathy for Miss
Jessel, however, the governess is disgusted by Miss Jessel's affair with a man of
the servant class. The transgression which occurred during their lives more so
than their appearance as ghosts makes them evil in the eyes of the governess.

Miss Jessel, in a psychoanalytic reading of the text, may then exist as a

symbolic representation of the desires the governess cannot herself admit or
express. This hallucination has been borne of the governess's dangerous
indulgence in sexual fantasies about her employer. Miss Jessel must therefore
be abhorred as evil by a governess seeking to repress her own similar sexual
urges. Significantly, she appears after the governess has been brooding on the
sexually predatory Quint and at the very moment she intently watches Flora
play with the mast and driftwood. Also important in a Freudian reading is the
male ghost's appearance in a tower and the female's on a lake.

Even if the ghosts are real, the governess's conclusion at the end of the chapter,
that the ghosts are evil and the souls of the children are lost, is unwarranted.
James himself called the ghosts "fairies of the legendary order," and some
critics suggest - as Mrs. Grose does here - that the ghosts are actually
benevolent entities. Beyond her assumptions based on their earthly sexual
activities, the governess has no reason to believe that the ghosts are evil.

Chapter VIII

Summary:

Determined to remain rational about her suspicions, the governess talks with
Mrs. Grose in her room late at night. She wonders how, if she made it up, she
could have given such detailed descriptions of the two ghosts such that Mrs.
Grose was able to identify them. Though Mrs. Grose wants to forget the subject
entirely, the governess professes her belief that she will get used to the danger.

Upon seeing her pupils the next day, however, she finds it hard to believe that
they could be at all evil. Their beautiful, innocent appearance and manner forces
her to replay the moment at the lake over in her mind and the reasons for her
certainty that Flora saw the ghosts and tried to conceal it from her. Thus
suspicious of the children, she sees their increased babbling and playing as
means of quelling her worries.

Saying that she does not really believe her previous horrible assumptions, the
governess subtly elicits more details from Mrs. Grose. She wonders why Mrs.
Grose spoke of Miles being bad when he has been a little angel while she has
known him. Mrs. Grose explains that while Quint was there, he and Miles were
"perpetually together." Worried, she finally spoke out of her station to Miss
Jessel to protest and was told to mind her own business.

The governess then begins to badger the housekeeper for clarification. Her
many questions bring Mrs. Grose to reveal that she reminded Miles himself that
he was a little gentleman and Quint a "base menial." She also recalls Miles lying
about times he had spent with Quint and his denial of knowing anything about
Quint and Miss Jessel's relationship. The governess is certain that Miles knew
the truth.

Launching into the subject of the headmaster's letter, the governess wonders if
Miles seems to be an angel now how he was "a fiend at school" - and suggests
Mrs. Grose should have suspected when she told her of the letter. She deduces
that Miles called Mrs. Grose a "base menial" but that she forgave him. Trying to
allay Mrs. Grose's suspicions that she is returning to her worries about the
children, the governess tells her that Miles's bad acts are less than she had
worried and that until further evidence arises, she does not accuse the children
of anything.

Analysis:

The governess's contradictory thoughts and actions in this chapter reveal her
discomfort with ambiguity. She must know if the children are all good or all
bad. Looking at Flora's beautiful blue eyes, she is unable to imagine that the
children might know about the ghosts and be good. For her, it is all or nothing.
Her approach to questioning Mrs. Grose - telling her that she does not believe
her previous suspicions were true while at the same time obsessing over and
asking for evidence to support them - demonstrates her knowledge that to reveal
her true thoughts would alienate the other woman.

The conversations between the governess and Mrs. Grose in this chapter may
support a view of an antagonistic relationship between the two of them. James's
very punctuation - such as dashes at the end of sentence, when the governess
interrupts the housekeeper and finishes her sentences - prevent any definitive
interpretation of any one speaker's intended meaning. Again, it is the very lack
of evidence - the fact that Miles never mentioned Quint's relationship with Miss
Jessel - that leads the governess to believe that he did know about it. Once
again, she finds affirmation of the children's evilness in their denials.

The conflict between the governess and what she perceives as Miles's badness is
at heart an issue of class. When asked what Miles did that warranted being
called bad, Mrs. Grose describes how he spent many hours with Quint, though
"she liked to see young gentleman not forget their station." Miles refusal to
obey her flouts the distinctions of class and reminds the housekeeper of her own
position as a "base menial" - the words of the governess, who is also consorting
with a servant below her station. Some critics suggest that Miles refusal to
adhere to Victorian notions of class may have been what got him thrown out of
school.

Clearly, class transgression is the most obvious element that makes the hours
Miles spent "quite as if Quint were his tutor" abhorrent to the governess.
Additionally, this chapter is one others have used to suggest Miles's corruption
was actually an inappropriate homosexual relationship with Quint in the hours
they were together. Just what Miles learned from Quint in their hours together is
unclear but is nonetheless the source of what, the governess suspects, led to his
dismissal from school.

The reminder that Mrs. Grose is a "base menial" also reminds the reader of the
class divide which separates her from the governess. The governess, who
herself refrains from speaking about their class difference during the
conversation does not explicitly recognize that Mrs. Grose, too, cannot speak
completely freely to a woman of another rank. Here, especially, where Mrs.
Grose seems unbelieving of the governess's previous assertions, her lack of
strong objection - and her mention of the difficulty she had contradicting Miss
Jessel - illustrates her reticence to speak against her superior. Though the
housekeeper does not here object, it should be noted that the governess's
assertion that she gave such detailed descriptions of Quint and Miss Jessel as to
receive affirmative identification is not completely true. Though Mrs. Grose
identified Quint from the description, the governess herself identified the
second ghost as Miss Jessel - even in the face of Mrs. Groses's initial
skepticism.

The Turn of the Screw Summary and Analysis of Chapters 9-12

Chapter IX

Summary:
The governess resigns herself to wait as the days pass, keeping her fears from
her pupils. She worries that they will notice the extra attention she shows them
and wonders if perhaps their increased affection for her covers deeper secrets,
just as hers for them does. They are very fond of her and dedicated to their
lessons. Often, they will act out stories and surprise her by reciting poems they
have memorized.
She continues to avoid the subject of Miles's schooling and continues his
lessons herself. Still, she finds it unbelievable that the Miles she knows was
kicked out of school. At Bly, Miles and Flora demonstrate their musical talent,
and Miles is especially adept at playing the piano by ear. The children's
tenderness toward each other is remarkable.
There is a library at Bly full of eighteenth-century novels. The governess has
borrowed Fielding's Amelia and sits in her room reading it by candlelight one
night, as Flora sleeps in her little curtained bed. As she reads, the governess has
the sense she had on her first night there that something is going on in the
house. She takes her candle, locks the door behind her and goes into the hall to
investigate.

As she reaches the top of the stairs, her candle suddenly blows out. In the
moonlight coming through a window, she can see Quint standing on a landing
half-way up the stairs. She is terrified, and they stare at each other for an
interminable period of time, saying nothing. Finally, Quint turns his back and
moves off down the staircase.

Analysis:

As the governess describes the events of the schoolroom, we can begin to see
that she herself is doing that of which she accuses Quint and Miss Jessel -
controlling the children. Here, she finds the closeness between Flora and Miles,
and their signals to occupy the governess while the other prepares a surprise for
her, to be touching. Likewise, she is proud of Miles's cleverness. When those
same abilities allow the children to keep secrets from her, the governess will see
the children in a wholly different light.
The relationship between Miles and Flora is only acceptable so long as the
governess can see them as a "little boy" and "little girl." Psychoanalytic critics
argue that the governess's extreme watchfulness over her charges forces her to
recognize that, as children entering puberty, they will one day become sexually
mature adults with desires for adult men and women beyond each other. This
reading argues that the governess's actions all result from her attempts to stifle
their sexual development - as symbolically represented by the adult, sexual
ghosts.

Certainly, if the ghosts are real, the governess's insistence on staying in the
house and protecting the children has the potential to be harmful to the children.
One must wonder why, if she worries about Miles's secret interactions with the
ghost of Quint, she refrains from finding him a new boarding school.

This chapter also offers more support for the argument that the Quint whom the
governess has described to Mrs. Grose is actually a physiognomic stereotype of
the sexually predatory male. The book Amelia which the governess is reading
just before Quint appears to her on the stairs contains a character with red hair, a
red beard, and a long pale face - a man with secrets, vices, and a criminal past.
Though he later in the novel repents, the governess has not yet finished the book
when this sighting occurs. Amelia also contains stories of young women ruined
by attractive men - including Mrs. Bennet, the daughter of a clergyman, whose
story, if the governess had begun the book before her first encounter with Quint,
may have reminded her of her own infatuation with the gentleman in Harley
Street and incited a hysterical hallucination.
The class differences which so upset the governess in learning of Quint and
Miss Jessel's rank-transgressing affair are made physically apparent in her
encounter with Quint's ghost on the stairs, which symbolize the class hierarchy
of upstairs/downstairs Victorian society. Quint appears below her, halfway up
the stairs, and at her appearance, does not come any higher. The man, who she
calls a "low wretch," referring both to his class and physical position, finally
turns and goes down the stairs. In this symbolic instance, the governess has
thwarted Quint's ambitions to rise above his lower class background.

The context of this encounter is significant, whether the governess is crazy or

the ghosts are real. The late night and Gothic novel may well be playing tricks
on the governess's mind. She could be sleep-walking or even dreaming. On the
other hand, the noises the governess heard on the first night in the house recur
here - the foreshadowing has been justified, the source of the stir in the house
revealed to be ghosts. Nonetheless, this incident, like the others, occurs at a time
and place at which no one can confirm or deny the ghost's presence.

Given her class-consciousness, however, the "something undefinably astir in the

house" which the governess senses may in fact - at least in the opening scene -
be the servants who live there but are little-mentioned. The appearance of Quint
- a ghost and a servant - demonstrates the governess's Victorian attitudes
towards servants, who in many ways do not count to her as human, just as the
ghost Quint is not truly human.

Chapter X

Summary:

The governess returns to her room and sees that though its curtains are closed,
Flora's bed is empty. She gives into her terror and tears at the bed sheets.
Finally, she sees movement behind the curtain covering the window, and Flora
emerges from behind it.

Before the governess can confront the child, Flora calls her naughty and
demands to know where she was. Flora herself explains that knowing the
governess was gone, she went to the window to look for her but saw no one out
there. At that moment, the governess grasps the child tightly and is tempted to
demand a confession from her. Instead, she asks why Flora closed the bed
curtain, and the girl says she did not want to frighten her if she returned.

In the nights after that, the governess sits up late and often walks around the
halls. One night, she comes to the stairs and sees a woman sitting below, her
back to the governess, holding her head in her hands as if she is upset. The
woman then vanishes.

On the eleventh night since she last saw Quint, the governess goes to bed on
time but wakes up suddenly at one o'clock. The candle she had left burning has
been blown out, she thinks by Flora. Once again, Flora is hiding behind the
curtain, looking out the window, and she does not notice as the governess leaves
the room.

Out in the hall, the governess searches for a room from which to look out and
see what Flora sees. She is tempted to go into Miles's room, look out his
window, and shock him into telling her the truth, but she decides not to, since he
"might be innocent." Also, the ghost she believes is outside is concerned with
Flora, not Miles.

Instead, the governess finally decides to enter a large empty room on the first
floor. She quietly opens the window. The moon makes the grounds outside quite
visible, and on the ground, she sees a figure looking up at a window above her.
She feels sick to realize that the figure is Miles.

Analysis:

The control that the governess seeks over the children is manifested physically
in this chapter. Previously, we have seen her desire to hug the children in order
to allay her fears that they are "lost." Here, when Flora offers her reasons for
looking out the window, the governess "gripped the little girl with a spasm that,
wonderfully, she submitted to without a cry or a sign of fright." The joy the
governess takes in the child's submission and this sign of her desire to possess
the child is a physical counterpart to her need to control the children's actions
and thoughts.

Though she reminds herself that the children "might be innocent," her
suspicions have come dangerously close to controlling her behavior and
launching her into demands which, if her fears are unfounded, could irreparably
harm the children. In this chapter, she is "tempted" to force confessions from
both Flora and Miles. The need to question Flora about the "truth" of her trip to
the window comes after Flora has just explained her reasons and explicitly said
that no one is outside. Her desire to shock Miles into a confession comes not
when she has any evidence of his activity but when she hears silence in his
room. One must wonder, then, if the governess were to interrogate the children
and be met with denials, if their statements would mean anything to her.

The difference in the governess's encounters with the two ghosts on the stairs
are significant. Though Miss Jessel, like Quint, appears below the governess on
the stairway - thus suggesting her belief that the other woman is "lower" than
her in class or morality - the governess reacts far differently to the female ghost
than to the male. When confronted by Quint, she stares at him defiantly until he
turns and leaves. She is threatened by his power, as represented by his gaze on
her, and combats it by assuming for herself the masculine power of the gaze.

Miss Jessel, however, is not even aware of the governess's presence. Here, the
governess holds all the power because she sees Miss Jessel and Miss Jessel does
not see her. This is a reversal of the scene at the lake during which the
governess was afraid to raise her eyes to see the figure she felt was looking at
her. As such, Miss Jessel's appearance does not frighten the governess as does
Quint's. Even after seeing the Miss Jessel on the stairs, the governess continues
counting nights from Quint's last appearance, not from the most recent ghost
sighting. Such importance placed on the male ghost may lend credence to the
argument that the governess's is a particularly sexual fear - that she sees a
handsome man as more threatening than a woman.

The image of Miss Jessel that the governess sees is far from threatening and - to
the reader - might almost appear sympathetic. This appearance is more like an
echo of a past spirit, repeating incidents from life, than a conscious, active
ghost. Sitting on the stairs crying, Miss Jessel seems to be reliving an incident
from her troubled life at Bly. Her disappearance, as the governess stands there
looking at her, makes her more ephemeral, more like a memory or a vision, than
Quint. Her actions, sitting and crying on the stairs do not earn the governess's
disgust, as had Mrs. Grose's story of her sexual exploits, and in fact parallel
quite strongly the governess's own frequent tears. Similarly interesting is the
governess's ability to separate the authority of the two ghosts. She need not
worry about Miles, she believes, because Miss Jessel only haunts Flora. In
focusing on the gendered relationships between the children and ghosts, the
governess reveals her sexual preoccupations and fails to predict what she will
find out on the lawn.
Throughout the book, it seems as if real life is more frightening to people than
spirits. The governess is less frightened by the fact that she is seeing dead
people than by the behavior those people engaged in during their lives.
Likewise, she is more shocked to see Miles - a living person who resides in the
house - to be standing out on the lawn than she would have been to see Miss
Jessel. Her surprise, it seems, is what "sickens" her - for she had until that
moment believed that Miles was asleep in his room. Here, her ability to know
her pupils every thought and move is proved wrong.

Chapter XI

Summary:

The next day, the governess talks to Mrs. Grose. She is comforted by the
housekeeper's calm attitude but believes that it is a result of a lack of
imagination. Only if the children were physically injured would Mrs. Grose
worry. The two women stand watching the children - whom the governess has
decided to always keep in sight - playing on the lawn.

The governess reflect on the previous night. In order not to disturb the other
people in the house, she had walked down to the lawn to meet Miles. He came
straight to her and she walked with him in silence back to his room. She
wonders how he will explain things to her, thinking first that he has finally been
caught in a situation he cannot excuse or explain. As she thinks, she realizes that
she is caught too - she cannot bring up the subject of ghosts without seeming
monstrous.

The two reach Miles room, where the bed is still made and the window is open.
The governess is overcome and sinks down on the bed, realizing that Miles is
too clever for her. She does not know how to confront him and actually admires
him throughout this encounter.

Finally, she asks Miles to tell her the truth about why he was outside and what
he was doing there. He first asks if she will understand, if he is to tell her, and
she quickly assents, eager to hear the truth. Finally, he says that he wanted her
to do just as she is doing - "think me - for a change - bad!" Miles explains that
he sat up and read till midnight, in order to be extra bad. He had arranged with
Flora that she should look outside, so as to wake up the governess and get her to
see him out there. The governess realizes she's fallen into the children's trap.

All she can do is tell him she is worried he caught a cold outside at night. He
hugs her, saying he had to in order to be "bad enough," and the governess
reflects that he was able to use his goodness to play this joke on her.

Analysis:
Much of the governess's nighttime encounter with Miles and her later thoughts
on the incident will stem from the words the two use. The governess and Mrs.
Grose have already created confusion in calling Miles "bad" - a word that, for
the governess, means evil and for Mrs. Grose, means naughty. When Miles
says, "When I'm bad I am bad!" he may simply be bragging about his
naughtiness, as he purports to be doing, or he may be implicitly confessing what
the governess already suspects - that, corrupted by Quint, he has become evil.

The terror of the chapter stems from the governess's inability to act. Feeling that
she is "caught" by Miles, she cannot explicitly confront the child with her
suspicions. Her continuing doubts that her fears may be unfounded and her
awareness of what others will think - "who would ever absolve me, who would
consent that I should go unhung, ifŠI were the first to introduce into our perfect
discourse an element so dire?" - prevent her from eliciting any confirmation or
denial of her suspicions from Miles. She proceeds, assuming she is right and
that Miles understands what she means when she asks for his reasons for going
outside, but in doing so, she ignores her own doubts. If her doubts are right - if
Miles is innocent - then any "confession" this conversation has elicited is
essentially meaningless. All Miles has confessed to is a joke, not evil.

The governess focuses in this chapter on mental capacity. First, she says, the
housekeeper is not smart enough to worry about the children unless she can
visibly see physical injury to them. In doing so, she sets herself above Mrs.
Grose - using her power as narrator of the story and "reader" of the children to
suggest her greater mental acuity. Others' inability to perceive that the children
are haunted does not prove her wrong; rather it proves her smarter and more
perceptive than the average person. Such a belief is born of hubris and may
result in the governess's failure to see the truth and her eventual failure. A
reading of The Turn of the Screw in which Mrs. Grose has deliberately
attempted to make the governess goes mad exposes this dangerous pride even
further; the governess may have overestimated herself and underestimated her
adversary.
However, if the governess is correct and Mrs. Grose is simply amiable and
lacking in imagination, we must discount her as a source of support for the
governess's claims. She accepts what the governess tells her about the children,
but she is not able to see the evidence which the governess purports to see for
herself. Her "belief" in the governess's suspicions may only be a result of her
agreeable nature. Likewise, the force with which the governess shares her
suspicions with Mrs. Grose may be enough to convince the less imaginative
woman that the governess's suspicions are true. Certainly, the use of the word
"imaginative" is significant. She uses it to signify intellect, but perhaps it is
better to be less "imaginative." Perhaps the more imaginative governess has
imagined everything.
Similarly, the governess may have overestimated the children. Miles is only ten
and Flora eight. She recognizes the great planning that had to go into this "joke"
- planning which Miles has been proud to share with her. However, she also
believes that Miles is more clever than her. He has designed the incident so that
she cannot confront him about the truth behind it. Such cleverness in a ten-year-
old boy is frightening, for it implies that he must have had help, presumably in
the form of Quint. But the governess's assumption about this cleverness is
dangerous; because of its very basis in her inability to question Miles, she can
never confirm her suspicions.

Chapter XII

Summary:

Back on the lawn, the governess and Mrs. Grose continue their conversation.
The governess emphasizes the last comment Miles made to her before she left
his room: "Think, you know, what I might do!" Rather than take that as proof of
his goodness, the governess believes he is referring to the far worse things he
did at school.

Mrs. Grose can barely believe the governess, but the governess insists that
anyone who had seen the children in the past nights would understand. She sees
the fact that they have never mentioned Quint and Miss Jessel and that Miles
has not mentioned his school as proof of their plan. Though Miles appears to be
reading a story to Flora out on the lawn, the governess says, they are really
talking of the ghosts. She says that she may appear crazy and that anyone else
who had seen the things she has would be driven crazy, but she is actually more
lucid.

A worried Mrs. Grose wants to know what her lucidity has shown her, and the
governess explains that the children's beauty and goodness is all a "fraud." They
have been living a secret life and belong to Quint and Miss Jessel. Mrs. Grose
admits that in life they were "rascals," but wants to know what they can do now
that they are dead. The governess proclaims that they can destroy the children -
that right now they are watching and tempting but that the children will
ultimately go to them and be killed - unless the governess and Mrs. Grose can
stop them.

Mrs. Grose suggests that the uncle stop the ghosts, that the governess write to
him. The governess angrily retorts that she cannot bother the man by writing
that his house is haunted and the children are mad. Mrs. Grose admits he does
not like to be worried, and the governess says that his desire not to be bothered
kept Quint and Miss Jessel in power for so long, but that she will not deceive
him as they did. Nonetheless, Mrs. Grose is adamant that the uncle come - until
the governess threatens her, telling her that if she contacts the master, then the
governess will leave both of them immediately.

Analysis:

Once more, Mrs. Grose's agreeable nature allows the governess a great deal of
power at Bly. Still bolstering her own importance by emphasizing her
perception, the governess embarks on a series of shocking observations that
frighten and surprise the housekeeper. Whether or not the ghosts are real, the
governess has little proof of their intentions and still less proof of the children's
knowledge of them. Once again, she takes a lack of evidence - here, the fact that
Miles and Flora have never mentioned Quint or Miss Jessel - as undeniable
proof that the children have already been corrupted by them. The ghosts, when
she has encountered them, have done nothing but watch and have never given
her any reason to believe that they want to kill the children.

Here, then, the governess's assertion of her own lucidity is suspect. Mrs. Grose
and the ghost both function as foils for her, revealing her own malicious
influence. "I go on, I know, as if I were crazy; and it's a wonder I'm not. What
I've seen would have made you so," she says to Mrs. Grose, "but it has only
made me more lucid, made me get hold of still other things." When those "other
things" are groundless, wild observations, one must wonder if the governess is
not in fact crazy.

Likewise, the governess says of the children, "They're not mine - they're not
ours. They're his and they're hers." Once again, we have more proof of the
governess's desire to possess the children than we do of Quint and Miss Jessel's.
The governess has hugged them so hard they have wanted to cry out. She has
wanted to know their every thought. Quint and Miss Jessel, even if they are
ghosts, seem to be, as Mrs. Grose suggests, impotent - watching and not acting.

The governess also compares herself to the ghosts when denying Mrs. Grose's
suggestion of eliciting their employer's involvement. His desire not to be
bothered allowed Quint and Miss Jessel to "take him in" for so long. "As I'm not
a fiend, at any rate," the governess says, "I shouldn't take him in." Her extreme
desire to keep the situation at Bly from the master - which leads her even to
threaten a worried Mrs. Grose - suggests that maybe she, and not the ghosts, is
the true fiend. Surely, the man's request not to be bothered has limits, such as a
poisoned house and mad children. The governess's desire not to contact him
seems to be an illogical extension of her previous desire to "pleasure" her
employer by fulfilling the obligations of her job. What better way has she to
prove her worth than by protecting his niece and nephew from ghosts - real or
imagined - bent on stealing their souls. Conscious or not, the governess's
decision not to contact her employer will prove to have negative consequences -
especially when she finds she is unable to protect the children as she wants to
do.

The Turn of the Screw Summary and Analysis of Chapters 13-16

Chapter XIII

Summary:

For a month, the governess lives in the awkward state of suspecting her pupils
and saying nothing. In all this, the governess's perceptions are sharper than ever.
She is sure that it is not her imagination but that Flora and Miles are aware of
her knowledge. Conversations take sharp turns whenever they approach the
subject of the dead or life after death. The children seem to know that she wants
to bring up the subject of Quint and Miss Jessel but cannot bring herself to do
so. Instead, all talk centers around the governess's family, neighbors, and even
pets, but none touches upon the children's past. The children's constant
questions about her life make her feel most suspicious of their intentions.
Summer has turned to autumn since she saw Miss Jessel on the stairs, and she
has not encountered either ghost since then. Even though there have been many
instances in which she expected to see them, due to weather similar to the first
night she saw Quint, she has not seen them at all. She in fact wishes she could
see them and know the worst and wonders if she has lost her ability to see the
ghosts. This especially frightens her because she believes the children continue
to see the ghosts even when she cannot.

There are times that she is with the children when she is certain the ghosts are
also present, though invisible to her. She wants to confront the children but their
actions in these instances are all the more friendly and sweet. She practices her
confrontations when alone in her room but even there cannot bring herself to
speak Quint and Miss Jessel's names. It is as if there is a code of manners that
cannot be violated, even when there is a hush in the schoolroom that makes her
certain the ghosts are present.

Her greatest fear is that the children see much worse things than she has seen -
and whenever that thought occurs, there seems to be a ritual by which she and
the children deny it, by kissing and mentioning writing to their uncle in Harley
Street. Wondering when the uncle will visit is a frequent occurrence and the
governess allows the children to write letters to him that she does not send. She
sees his failure to write or visit not as selfish but as evidence of his trust in her.

At this point, she says, she does not yet hate the children and she wonders if
nothing else had occurred, would she have gotten frustrated and finally
confronted them?
Analysis:

The element of the unsaid pervades this chapter. The content of the children's
interactions with the governess has not changed. They still play the piano, recite
poems, and ask her to tell stories, but now, when they do these things, she
suspects that they do so only to steer her away from other topics. "The element
of the unnamed and untouched became, between us," she says, "was greater
than any other." What is unclear, however, is if this subject is unmentionable
only by the governess or if there is, as she believes, a "tacit arrangement"
between herself and the children not to mention death or the ghosts or the
children's past with Quint and Miss Jessel. She cannot bring herself to speak the
ghosts' names even when alone in her room. This suggests the enormous
symbolic power the ghosts have come to hold in her mind. Whether or not they
exist, they control her interactions with the children.

The governess's focus upon Quint and Miss Jessel as unnamable suggests that
for her, they represent deeper unspeakable fears - fears that find representation
in her conscious mind in the figure of this deviant couple. In Victorian England,
sex was very much an unspeakable subject - one that the governess could not
even think of, much less mention, directly. Miss Jessel and Quint, as sexual
beings, represent her fears of sexuality and moral ruin.
Here, the governess is insistent that her belief in her pupils' unseen communion
with the ghosts is not her "mere infernal imagination." Nonetheless, her belief in
the children's relationship with the ghosts increases from chapter to chapter. In
the last chapter, as they walked on the lawn, she simply believed that the
children spoke of the ghosts and encountered them when she was not present.
Now, she believes that the ghosts are present even while she is talking and
playing with the children. Again, her proof does not proceed from any evidence
of the children's awareness of the ghosts but from a complete lack of evidence -
from the children's continued failure to mention the Quint and Miss Jessel. She
calls the moments during which the ghosts are present "hushes" but states that
these moments actually occurred when the children were more active and
playful.

In this chapter, the governess refers to her watchfulness of the children and her
understanding of their relationship with the ghosts as "the strange steps of my
obsession." Whether or not the ghosts are real, the governess's behavior has
clearly become obsessive and unhealthy. Rather than take the passage of time
since she last saw Miss Jessel as an indication that the ghosts are gone, she
devotes more energy to drawing conclusions about the children's behavior. "It
was essentially in the scared state that I drew my actual conclusions," she says,
and the fear which she builds up in herself through her continuous worrying
about the ghosts may lead her to make false conclusions.
Again, the subject of the uncle in Harley Street seems to be at the root of the
governess's actions. The children's letters - written as "exercises" which the
children know will never be sent - function as examples of the unspoken. The
governess says that she still has copies of those letters in her possession, and the
reader must wonder about the alternate narrative they provide. For the
governess, the unsaid is paramount. She sees the uncle's failure to write to the
children and lack of communication with her as flattery "for the way in which a
man pays his highest tribute to a woman is apt to be but by the more festal
celebration of one of the sacred laws of his comfort." This may simply be a
Victorian belief celebrating the woman's place in the domestic sphere, or it may
illustrate the governess's delusions about her employer's love for her - believing
his self absorption somehow flatters her.

Chapter XIV

Summary:

On the way to church one Sunday morning, the governess walks with Miles
while Flora walks with Mrs. Grose. The governess wonders why the children
are so obedient when she keeps them with her at all times - especially Miles,
who dressed up like a little gentleman, seems independent and is just about to
begin what the governess calls a "revolution."
Miles suddenly asks the governess when he will go back to school. Though he
speaks charmingly, the governess stops short and feels helpless to respond.
Miles says that he is a fellow and cannot always be with a lady, even if she is
perfect. He says he has been good except for the one night he snuck outside.
The governess takes the opportunity to ask him again why he did it, and he says
that it was to show her that he could but that he won't do it again. He asks again
when he is going back to school.

Hoping to put him off until they get into the church, where he cannot ask any
more questions, the governess tries to find out why Miles wants to go back to
school if he is happy at Bly, and he finally tells her that he wants to see more
life and wants his own sort. When the governess suggests that Flora is his own
sort, he is offended by the comparison to a "baby girl," which upsets the
governess.

Miles then asks about his uncle's opinion on his schooling, and the governess
lets it slip that the uncle doesn't care. Miles wonders if he can be made to come
visit and says he will be the one to make him do so.

Analysis:

The governess's past observations of Miles's silence on the question of school

foreshadowed its significance, and in this chapter, it is brought to a head. The
governess's lack of action on this matter, separate from the question of ghosts,
must make the reader question her responsibility in performing her job. In truth,
she has only followed part of her employer's stipulations. She has not bothered
him but neither has she dealt with the problem herself, instead choosing to
ignore Miles's dismissal from school. Miles's question about going back to
school suggests he may not be aware that his dismissal is permanent and may
therefore provide evidence of why he has not mentioned it until this point.

This chapter provides evidence of the governess's - rather than the ghosts' -
desire to possess the children. Logically, Miles should be in school. His uncle
had enrolled him at school and clearly intends for him to be there. If there are
ghosts at Bly, Miles would be safer away from them at school. The governess
has had months in which to find him a new school. And yet, she asks him why
he wants to return when in fact he has no reason not to expect to return to
school after a summer holiday.

The governess's reactions to Miles's reasons for wanting to return illustrate her
personal reasons for keeping him at Bly. She is distraught when Miles implies
he would be just as happy at school as he is with her at Bly and is confused
when he says he wants more of his own sort. To the governess, Miles is a
special little angel, matched only by his equally angelic sister. Miles seems to
simply refer to wanting to be with other little boys, but the governess's desire to
believe that her pupils are special - which thus makes her special - does not
allow her to see the obvious.

The subject of the uncle, brought up in the previous chapter and here as well,
remains an important one in influencing the actions which occur in the
remainder of the book. The governess herself says that with Miles's
"revolution," "the curtain rose on the last act of my dreadful drama, and
catastrophe was precipitated." Miles's announcement, at the end of the chapter,
that he will do something to make his uncle come is the significant decision that
will push the catastrophe forward. The governess, though she desires the uncle's
approval and had previously imagined him visiting Bly, paradoxically seems
terrified that he will actually come - first at Mrs. Grose's suggestion and now at
Miles's. Looking at her fear from a psychoanalytic perspective, we must
remember that her romantic imaginings about the uncle precipitated her sexual
hysteria and that her fears of his tangible presence are intertwined with her fears
of Quint as a representation of male sexuality. More so than Miles's desire to
see his uncle, the governess's reaction to the boy's decision will be the deciding
factor in the coming catastrophe.

Chapter XV

Summary:
The governess does not follow Miles into the church but instead sits on a
gravestone outside, considering the meaning of his words. By the time she has
thought it out, it is too late to go into church without everyone noticing. She
realizes that Miles has sensed that she is very afraid of something and believes
that he will use that knowledge to gain himself freedom. She is afraid of dealing
with his dismissal from school and even though she knows a visit from the
uncle should be desired, she does not want to face the pain of such an
encounter.

She knows that Miles has every right to demand a return to school, and her
newfound awareness that he is consciously planning something keeps her
outside pacing around the church because she is too afraid to sit in silence next
to him for an hour. The idea of getting away dawns on her. She realizes that the
house is nearly empty, with all the servants in church, but that even if she
disappeared just until dinner, the children would confront her for her reasons.

Nonetheless, she rushes home, deciding to leave. She is overcome, worrying

about arranging transportation, and she sinks down onto the stairs until she
suddenly remembers that she saw Miss Jessel sitting in that very place. The
governess rushes up to the schoolroom to collect her belongings. There, she sees
a woman sitting at the table, with her head on her hand, who she first thinks is a
servant. When the woman does not look up after she has entered the room, she
realizes that it is Miss Jessel. Miss Jessel stands up and stares at the governess,
who yells, "You terrible miserable woman!" The ghost then vanishes. The
governess recalls feeling as if she, and not the ghost, is the intruder and knows
that she must stay.

Analysis:

This chapter marks the governess's first ghostly encounter in several months.
The circumstances surrounding the governess's sighting of Miss Jessel in the
schoolroom suggest that the instances in which she sees the ghosts have less to
do with any sixth sense - which she feared earlier she had lost - and more to do
with her emotional state. As with previous encounters, this one takes place
when the governess is emotionally distraught. She has finally discussed the
unspeakable subject of school with Miles, and now, she must face a
confrontation with the uncle or must leave. On top of all this, her encounter with
Miss Jessel in the schoolroom is immediately preceded by her sudden memory
of seeing the ghost on the stairs.

The governess's realization on the stairs emphasizes the many parallels that can
be drawn between the governess and Miss Jessel in this chapter. These parallels
suggests that Miss Jessel is, perhaps, a projection of the governess's fears about
herself. She may recognize herself - particularly her own sexual desires - in
Miss Jessel and fear that she will reach the same ruinous consequences. These
parallels are emphasized when the governess sits in the same pose of emotional
defeat on the staircase as Miss Jessel had previously. Her recognition of this
similarity shocks and frightens her, leading us to realize her conscious fear of
becoming like her predecessor. Likewise, she notes in the schoolroom that it is
she, and not Miss Jessel, who is the intruder - that Miss Jessel seems to feel she
has the same right to sit at the table as she. This recognition of their
commonality, more than any observance of Miss Jessel's wickedness, may be
what spurns her outcry, "You terrible miserable woman!" In condemning Miss
Jessel, she is also condemning the part of her that she recognizes is like her
predecessor and is thus attempting to deny their connection.

The causes surrounding the governess's decision to leave and then to remain are
likewise illuminating. Interestingly, an earthly argument with Miles makes her
want to leave while seeing a ghost leads her to decide to stay. Miss Jessel, of
course, left her position as governess after she was "ruined" by Quint. The
governess's decision to stay seems to be a rejection of her similarity to Miss
Jessel by not running off like the previous governess did.

The governess's apparent reason for leaving, however, is even more troubling.
She becomes so upset after Miles announces that he will make his uncle come
that she cannot even enter the church. We might take her seeming inability to
enter a church (just as she skipped church upon seeing Quint earlier) as
evidence that the governess - and not the ghosts - is the true evil party here and
that her reaction to Miles's announcement will be the thing that will truly
corrupt the children. Though she has previous expressed her willingness to stay
with the children no matter how great the danger and has also imagined the
uncle visiting, here the prospect of "the ugliness and pain" of dealing with the
boy's dismissal from school - particularly the prospect of speaking to the uncle
about it - is so great as to make her want to run away. Though she at first
suggests getting away only until dinner, her worries about hiring a conveyance
suggest she is planning a more permanent exit. Despite her previous
protestations of strength, this first straightforward confrontation with Miles
seems to have precipitated the beginnings of a breakdown.

Chapter XVI

Summary:

When Mrs. Grose and the children return from church, none of them mention
the governess's absence, and immediately, the governess suspects the children
of "bribing" Mrs. Grose into doing so. Before tea, she visits Mrs. Grose's room,
where the housekeeper tells her that the children asked her not to ask why she
had left because she would like it better. The governess tells Mrs. Grose that she
went for a walk - to meet some "friends."

The governess informs Mrs. Grose that she in fact did not like their silence and
then tells her that it is "all out" between her and Miles. Though Mrs. Grose asks,
what "all" means, the governess interrupts her to say that she saw Miss Jessel
and that the two had "a talk." She found her in the schoolroom, and she says that
Miss Jessel said that she suffers the torments of the damned and that she wants
to share them with Flora. Mrs. Grose is terrified.

The governess says all that doesn't matter, though, because she will send for her
employer. Mrs. Grose begs her to do so, and the governess says that she will,
even though Miles tries using her fear of doing so against her. The employer
will not be able to reproach her for not sending Miles to school because she will
show him the letter from the old school master.

What's more, she now believes that Miles was expelled for "wickedness" - since
he is clearly perfect in all other respects. She believes it is the uncle's fault for
leaving the children for Quint and Miss Jessel, but Mrs. Grose tries to take the
blame on herself. Mrs. Grose tries to take charge of sending for the uncle, by
having the town bailiff write to him for her, but the governess scoffs at having a
stranger tell their incredible story and says instead that she will write.

Analysis:

The governess's account of her encounter with Miss Jessel plays a pivotal role
in the argument that she is mad or deceptive. In her description of the encounter
in the previous chapter, Miss Jessel said nothing and disappeared as soon as the
governess spoke to her. Here, she describes a mutual exchange in which Miss
Jessel speaks of the torments of hell and argues her intent to draw Flora into
damnation with her. If the governess is a hysteric, it is possible that the
encounter has expanded in significance during the hours when she waited for
Mrs. Grose and the children's return. Notably, the intentions she attributes to
Miss Jessel are the ones she already suspected.

One reading of the governess's retelling of the encounter hinges upon her
statement, when asked by Mrs. Grose if Miss Jessel spoke, that "It came to
that." In other words, she may be giving the housekeeper the gist of what she
intuited from a silent Miss Jessel. Such a reading supposes that the governess is
incredibly sensitive and intuitive to meaning - that she could tell from Miss
Jessel's weary countenance that she suffered hell's torments and from her gaze
could read her intention of damning Flora, just as she and no one else can
recognize the ghosts' presence even when they are not visible.
All these things, of course, can also be used as arguments that the governess is
delusional - that she imagines her greatest fears into reality. Certainly, her report
of Miss Jessel's words coincides with her deep fear of sexuality borne of
Victorian morality. Miss Jessel, who it appears was engaged in a sexual
relationship with Quint and found herself pregnant, suffers the torments of hell.
What worse punishment could a curate's daughter imagine for the unspeakable
act of sex? Her fear that Miss Jessel plans to take Flora with her ties to her
deep-seated desire to deny Flora's passage into puberty and sexual subjectivity.

Interestingly, it is this encounter with Miss Jessel, who the governess believes is
only concerned with Flora, that leads to her certitude that Miles was expelled
for "wickedness." This marks a significant shift from her previous reading of
Miles as an angel. It is noteworthy, too, that the governess reaches this
conclusion not after observing Miles in contact with a ghost but after what she
perceives is his opposition to her control over the household.

The governess's decision to contact the uncle is a sharp turn from her previous
fear of dealing with him. This may partially explain Mrs. Grose's desire to take
the communication into her own hands. The governess's reaction to Mrs.
Grose's suggestion to have the bailiff write the letter for her "had a sarcastic
force [the governess] had not fully intended" and makes the housekeeper break
into tears. In this too, the governess desires control.

The Turn of the Screw Summary and Analysis of Chapters 17-20

Chapter XVII

Summary:

Sitting in her room as a storm rages outside that night, the governess sits in her
room trying to a begin a letter to employer. With nothing yet written, she goes
and listens outside Miles's door to see if he is awake. He calls for her to come
in, saying he could hear her out in the hallway.
Inside the room, Miles tells the governess that he lies awake and thinks - about
her, he says, when she asks, about the way she is raising him "and all the
rest." The governess tells him that if he wishes, he can go back to school, but
that it will be another school. She mentions that he has not once spoken about
his school or anyone there since coming home, and when Miles expresses
surprise that he has not mentioned it, she believes that the hand of Peter Quint is
involved.
The governess says that she thought he was happy, living only in the present at
Bly, but he says he wants to get away. He likes Bly but he wants his uncle to
come down and settle everything with the governess. The governess asks what
he will have to tell his uncle that he has kept from her, since the uncle cannot
send him back to his old school. Miles insists he wants a new school.
The governess is struck by Miles's "unnatural childish tragedy" and hugs and
kisses him, asking if there is anything he wants to tell her. He repeats that he
wants her to let him alone, and she is afraid that means abandoning him. She
tells him she has begun a letter to his uncle and asks the boy what happened
"before." He asks in reply "what happened?" and she is brought to her knees,
proclaiming that she wants to help save him. Suddenly, a chill hits the room,
though the window remains closed, the candle goes out, and Miles shrieks. He
then says that he blew the candle out.

Analysis:

Again, the governess's unnatural desire to possess and control the children
herself becomes evident. Despite Miles's pleas to be "let alone," the governess
cannot control her need to hug and kiss him. Her proclamation that she would
die for him and wants to save him is described as "seiz[ing] once more the
chance of possessing him." Her actions, listening outside his door at night, have
a decidedly obsessive bent, and indeed, she even calls her need to do so part of
her "endless obsession."

The governess believes that the children's actions are controlled by the ghosts,
but throughout this chapter, she describes her own actions as if they were not
under her control. She is "impelled" to listen at Miles's door. She is
"overwhelmed" and "let[s] [her]self go" when she embraces him. And even
though she knows "even now [she] should go to far" by saying she wants to
save him, she speaks the words anyway. The blast of cold air comes into the
room not in response to any of Miles's words or actions but instead after the
governess knowingly crosses a line and speaks the unspeakable.

This conversation, like many others, is couched in ambiguous terms. If the

governess is mistaken about just what Miles knows, her error may be the result
of one particular assumption she states here. "It was extraordinary how my
absolute conviction of his secret precocityŠmade him, in spite of the faint breath
of his inward trouble, appear as accessible as an older person, forced me to treat
him as an intelligent equal." Bereft of adult companionship - for she has already
expressed her disdain for Mrs. Groses's intellect and her servant status - and
particularly male adult companionship, the governess has made Miles into a
substitute for his uncle. If the governess is simply projecting her need for adult
contact onto Miles, then his confusion when asked about what happened
"before" and his failure to speak of school may not be deliberate obfuscation but
simply may be the inability of a ten-year-old boy to understand the governess's
questions.

In this case, Miles desire to be "let alone" and to leave Bly, even though he likes
it, has a logical, earthly explanation. He is afraid of the governess and her
unpredictable behavior. He certainly appears sincere in his desire to bring his
uncle to Bly, as he emphasizes by urging the governess to finish her letter, and
any actions the governess sees as "wicked" on his part may simply be the only
way a little boy knows how to attract the attention of a neglectful guardian.
Some critics suggest that James wrote this novel in order to criticize Victorian
modes of parenting - in which rich parents often left the entire upbringing of
their children to servants. Through the uncle's neglect of his charges, the
governess's irresponsible behavior, and the inevitable outcome, James offers a
worst-case scenario which demands greater parental involvement.

Chapter XVIII

Summary:

The next day, the governess tells Mrs. Grose that she has written, even though
she has not yet actually mailed the letter. She has spent the morning teaching
the children, who performed brilliantly at their lessons. She finds Miles to be
extraordinary, and she wishes for proof of his wrongdoing at school.
After the noontime meal, he the governess if he can play the piano for her, and
she takes this request to mean that he does not really want to leave her and go
away to school but just argued to prove the point. The governess is so distracted
by his piano playing that she loses all track of time. When he finishes, she
suddenly wonders where Flora has been.
Looking for Flora, the governess first goes to Mrs. Grose's room, but the child is
not there with the housekeeper. This is the first time the governess has let Flora
out of her sight in a long time, and the two women question the maids as to
Flora's whereabouts.

Mrs. Grose wants next to search other rooms in the house, but the governess
expresses her certainty that Flora is outside. Mrs. Grose points out that she
didn't take a hat, and the governess says that Miss Jessel never wore one. She
believes Flora is with Miss Jessel and that Miles is with Quint in the
schoolroom. Miles's piano-playing was part of a plan to distract the governess
while Flora goes to Miss Jessel and giving Miles a chance to see Quint while
the governess searches for Flora.
The governess decides that she will go look for Flora, saying she doesn't mind
anymore leaving Miles with Flint. She leaves the letter on the table for the
servant Luke to take to be mailed. When Mrs. Grose wants to get a coat and hat
before going out into the damp weather, the governess tells her to stay and
check the schoolroom instead. Afraid of being left with Miles and Quint, the
housekeeper agrees to go with the governess after Flora.
Analysis:
The governess's ambivalence towards Miles is in full force in this chapter. She
switches instantaneously from seeing him as good to seeing him as evil. His
excellence in the schoolroom and his talent at the piano lead her to imagine a
reconciliation, while her discovery that he is tricked her make her conclude not
that he is simply naughty or mischievous but that he is evil. Indeed, the
governess's changing intentions toward Miles - in the last chapter to possess and
save him, and in this chapter, to abandon him to Quint when she believes he has
betrayed her - suggest that she is indeed a neurotic.

Some critics suggest that the governess's torment stems from her need to view
the children as all good or all evil. This is why she cannot imagine a lesser
"naughty" act that might have gotten Miles expelled from school but instead
assumes he must have done something "wicked." This mindset is explained, in
part, by our knowledge that she is the sheltered daughter of a country parson
and was therefore raised in a home of extreme Victorian religious morality in
which all sin, no matter how small, might have been considered dangerous or
evil.

Much of the governess's fear stems, of course, from her belief that the ghosts
seek to make the children emulate them and their wicked behavior. It is
interesting to note, then, that the act of emulation that leads her to believe Flora
is with Miss Jessel is not an act of evil at all - at most it is an act of foolishness.
Flora has left the house without a hat and from that, the governess has "made up
[her] mind" that she is with the ghost. We must note, also, that the governess
continues her unintentional habit of emulating Miss Jessel - as she did by sitting
on the stairs - by leaving the house, herself, without wearing a hat.

The attitude of extreme calm the governess describes taking in this chapter
suggests the extreme mental effects her situation has taken upon her psyche.
Similarly, her strange cheerfulness in suggesting that Miles in the schoolroom
with Quint shows she is nearing her breaking point.

The governess's actions concerning the letter must make the reader wonder if
she ever planned to send it. She makes Mrs. Grose believe the letter has already
been sent when it has not, and she then nearly convinces herself that Miles's
piano playing means their situation has been resolved. Only when Mrs. Grose
finally mentions the letter again does the governess leaves this important letter
on the table for a servant to mail, rather than take care of it herself.

Chapter XIX

Summary:

The governess and housekeeper go straight to the lake, and the governess tells
Mrs. Grose that she believes the child is in the place where she pretended not to
see Miss Jessel. She believes that the children talk of the ghosts when they are
alone and say terrible things.

When they reach the lake, Flora is nowhere to be seen, and the boat is gone.
Mrs. Grose wonders how the child could have taken it alone, but the governess
reminds her that she has Miss Jessel with her and that at such times she's as
clever as an "old, old woman." They spot the boat across the lake and walk
around the banks to the spot.

The women spot Flora, who picks a withered fern and holds it out to them. Mrs.
Grose breaks the silence by rushing over and embracing the child. Flora
continues to stare at the governess and finally drops the fern. The governess
takes this to mean that "pretexts were useless now."

Mrs. Grose finally stands, holding Flora's hand, and Flora looks at the bare-
headed governess and asks where her things are. The governess asks the same
of her and Flora responds by asking where Miles is. Finally, the governess can
control herself no longer and asks, "Where, my pet, is Miss Jessel?"

Analysis:

There is rising evidence of the governess's madness in this chapter. Once again,
she invents communications that are never spoken. In the last chapter, she
(mis)interpreted Miles's piano playing, saying it was "quite tantamount to his
saying outright" several sentences culminating in his desire not to leave her. In
this chapter, just from watching Flora drop her fern, "she and I had virtually said
to each other...that pretexts were useless now." Making these assumptions about
looks and intentions is dangerous - especially if Flora is unaware, as she must
be, of the governess's thoughts.

Likewise, the governess's obsession finally comes into dangerous contact with
the children when she can no longer control herself and asks the child about
Miss Jessel. Previously, she has always considered the possibility that the
children are not haunted and has refrained from mentioning the ghosts. Her
mention of Miss Jessel shows her certainty, but her description of her mind
before making the statement sounds as if she is describing a mental breakdown.
"These three words from her" - asking where Miles was - "were in a flash like
the glitter of a drawn blade the jostle of the cup that my hand for weeks and
weeks had held high and full to the brim and that now, even before speaking, I
felt overflow in a deluge."

It is important to recognize the governess's mental state here, as she is about to

see Miss Jessel yet again. In every instance in which she has seen the dead
governess before, she has been suffering extreme emotional turmoil. Her
confrontation, here, of Flora and her expectation, from the moment she left the
house, of finding her with Miss Jessel have paved the way for such a moment.

Chapter XX

Summary:

Flora looks shocked at the governess's words. Mrs. Grose suddenly gives a cry,
and the governess turns to see Miss Jessel standing on the opposite bank of the
lake. She feels a thrill to know that she finally has proof. She points across the
lake, and Mrs. Grose looks there, but Flora's eyes remain fixed on the governess
in an expression of accusation. The governess is certain Flora can also see Miss
Jessel, and she sees this cold calm with which the child looks at her as proof of
her evilness. She shouts at the child that Miss Jessel is there and she knows it.

Mrs. Grose, though, shocks her when she asks where she sees anything. The
governess tries to point Miss Jessel out, describing her and yelling at the woman
to look, but Mrs. Grose cannot see her. The governess is shocked and terrified.
Mrs. Grose turns to Flora, reassuring the child that there is no one there and that
Miss Jessel is dead and buried, and turns to take Flora home. Flora now appears
ugly to the governess, and she screams that she doesn't see anyone there and
that she never has - saying also that she doesn't like the governess and crying to
Mrs. Grose to take her away from the governess. The governess is certain that
these words are controlled by someone else, and she finally says she's lost Flora,
telling Mrs. Grose to take the child and go.

The governess has no memory of what happened next but finds herself fifteen
minutes later lying on the ground, where she must have thrown herself crying.
She gets up and goes to the house, where she does not see Flora or Mrs. Grose
that night. Flora's things have all been taken out of her room. She sits in the
schoolroom, taking her tea, and does not even bother to ask the servants where
Miles is. When he finally comes in and sits down at eight o'clock, they say
nothing to each other.

Analysis:

Here is what many find irrefutable proof that the governess is indeed mad. Mrs.
Grose does not see the ghost of Miss Jessel, and Flora herself professes not to
see her. The governess therefore has condemned herself with her own words.
Believing Mrs. Grose at first able to see Miss Jessel, she says, "She was there,
so I was justified. She was there, So I was neither cruel nor mad." She is not, in
fact, there, and the governess is both cruel and mad.

The governess's actions towards Flora reach a dangerous point here. She
describes the child she once considered an angel and beautiful as hard and ugly.
She calls the child "you little unhappy thing." If Miss Jessel is simply a
hallucination, there is little wonder that Flora asks as she does. The accusatory
look she levies at the governess is not cold if there is nothing else there for her
to see; it is expected that she would stare at the governess, looking for an
explanation of her outburst. Similarly, her harsh words at the end, asking Mrs.
Grose to take her away, are an appropriate response for a child whose governess
has just called her mean names, accused her of things she has not done, and
demanded she see something that is not there.

The sexual hysteria at the root of the governess's madness is revealed in her
descriptions of Flora at the lake. Unable to accept Flora's approach to puberty
and eventually to adult sexuality, she can only equate goodness with childhood
innocence and badness with adult depravity. Thus, Flora becomes, in the
governess's eyes, "an old, old woman." Her "incomparable childish beauty had
suddenly failedŠshe was literally, she was hideously hard; she had turned
common and almost ugly." The class component of this description is likewise
unmistakable. The governess perceives the child to be choosing Miss Jessel - a
woman who sunk below her station in her affair with a servant - and thus
denigrates the child in terms such as "a vulgarly pert little girl in the street."
These are the words of a scorned woman.

Some critics argue that James portrays Flora, in her outburst against the
governess, as possessed. The author would have been aware of spirit possession,
a popular belief in the nineteenth century. The governess says that Flora had
gotten her words "from an outside source," but we must remember that these
particular words condemn the governess. If she believes they are Flora's words,
she would have also to accept that she has been hurtful to Flora and the child is
knowingly rejecting her. The governess's rejection of the child - saying "I've
done my best, but I've lost you. Good-bye." - as Mrs. Grose carries her away
likewise protect her from the inevitable realization that she has failed as Flora's
governess and protector.

In fact, if we compare the governess's actions and Mrs. Grose's actions - ghosts
or not - in this chapter, it is clear that Mrs. Grose's behavior towards Flora is
much more healthy than that of the very governess who has sworn she would
die protecting the child. Mrs. Grose comforts the child, reassures her, and takes
her home to bed. The governess screams at her, makes her cry, and disavows
her. The governess has clearly failed to save Flora - whether from Miss Jessel or
herself.

The Turn of the Screw Summary and Analysis of Chapters 21-24

Chapter XXI

Summary:
Mrs. Grose comes to the governess's room while she is still in bed the next
morning and tells her that Flora is feverish and ill and has been frightened all
night of seeing the governess. The governess wants to know if she still denies
seeing Miss Jessel, and Mrs. Grose says she can't push her on it. She agrees with
the governess, though, that Flora has a "grand manner" about not wanting to
speak to the governess again. Mrs. Grose is under the impression that Flora did
not see anyone at the lake the day before.
The governess says that Flora and Miles have worked the situation to their
advantage, and that Flora will try to get her uncle to dismiss her from her
position as governess. She orders Mrs. Grose to leave and take Flora straight to
the uncle and says that she is confident that Mrs. Grose's loyalty and Miles's -
which she plans to gain while alone with him - will protect her. She does not
want Miles and Flora to see each other alone before Mrs. Grose and Flora leave,
and the housekeeper assures her that so far, that has not occurred.
The events of the previous evening, when Miles sat with her for two hours as if
he wanted to confess, have made the governess believe that he is not lost to her.
With a day or two more, she hopes to have him on her side - and if she doesn't,
at least Mrs. Grose will be able to persuade the master to trust her. The
housekeeper, who agrees to go to town with Flora immediately, says that she
believes the governess because of the "appalling" things Flora has said in the
past day - using horrible language that Mrs. Grose has heard before - saying
things not about Miss Jessel but about the governess herself.

When the governess reminds Mrs. Grose that the master will have received her
letter by the time she and Flora arrive, the housekeeper informs her that when
she returned the previous evening, the letter was gone and when
asked, Luke said he had never seen it. Miles must have taken it, Mrs. Grose
says, and furthermore, she now believes he was expelled from school for
stealing letters. The governess believes his offense was far worse, but suggests
that he will find little useful information in the letter. At least, the offense
provides Miles with an opportunity for a confession - after which, the governess
believes, he will be saved, and so will she.
Analysis:

Flora's illness in this section suggests that the governess, and not she, is in the
wrong. If Flora had, in reality, been communing with evil spirits for months, the
previous day's confrontation with the governess and appearance of Miss Jessel
should not have had so violent an effect upon her. Her fever and her agitation
over the thought of seeing the governess again suggest that the governess's
accusations have shocked and upset the innocent little girl. Far from saving her,
the governess has done just the opposite.

The governess's agitation at hearing about Flora's accusations seem to illustrate

her guilt. She expects that Flora will be crying about - or at least mentioning -
Miss Jessel, but she has only insulted and asked not to see the governess. In this
manner, the governess has unintentionally taken on Miss Jessel's role. The
horrible, unspeakable language Mrs. Grose says Flora uses condemns the
governess as the very Victorian whore archetype she subconsciously fears.

We must note that though earlier the governess had spoken of her intention of
saving the children - even at risk of her own life - here her own concerns take
priority. She is worried about Flora not because the child is ill or because she is
controlled by an evil spirit but because she believes that Flora, made clever as
an old woman by Miss Jessel, will be able to convince the uncle to fire her.
Likewise, her reason for wanting to remain at Bly with Miles stems from her
selfish desire to gain his trust and support by the time the uncle arrives - so that
he and Mrs. Grose can argue in her favor. This decision to stay, made for these
selfish reasons, will have terrible consequences which the governess would
have avoided had she allowed Miles to leave with Mrs. Grose and Flora. Her
concern throughout this chapter on her employer's opinion of her remind us that
her need for him to like her - which she now admits he does not show by
ignoring her - has been at the root of her actions toward the children from the
start of the book.

Again, we can see the contrast between Mrs. Grose and the governess's
understanding of "bad" behavior. Mrs. Grose says that she believes the
governess because Flora uses "appalling languageŠreally shocking" that she
herself has heard before - presumably from Miss Jessel. Flora may, however,
have learned this language from Miss Jessel while she was alive or even from
her brother, who was away at a boys school, and certainly, her use of such
language while feverish and upset does not prove her to be evil. Similarly, Mrs.
Grose's conclusion that Miles was dismissed from school for stealing letters -
again, believable "bad" behavior for a child - is seen as unlikely by the
governess, who suspects Miles of greater evil, though she, unlike Mrs. Grose,
has no proof.

At this point, the governess has so intertwined the fates of the children's souls
with her own professional fate that she cannot distinguish between actions
benefiting them and those benefiting herself. She says she wants to save Miles -
save his soul - but doing so has only become a means to an end of saving her
job.

Chapter XXII

Summary:

Once Mrs. Grose leaves, the governess realizes how alone she is. She is very
worried and nervous. The servants, because of Mrs. Grose and Flora's quick
departure, know that something is wrong, and the governess must act very
"grand," overseeing the estate, to keep from breaking down in front of the
servants.

She realizes that the servants must see, too, the change in her power over Miles.
Since the previous afternoon, he has ceased to seek her permission or tell her
where he is going. From the servants, she learns that he ate breakfast with Mrs.
Grose and Flora and then went out for a walk.

That evening, they eat dinner in the formal dining room, the same room where
the governess saw Quint through the window. The governess realizes it will
take all the efforts of her will and "another turn of the screw of human virtue" to
persevere in this unnatural situation. Once the servants leave, Miles asks the
governess about Flora's sudden illness. The governess only tells him that "Bly
didn't agree with her" and that she could see the illness coming. When he
wonders why she didn't send her away earlier, the governess says she will get
better as a result of the journey away from Bly.

The meal finishes in silence. The governess compares the awkwardness, as the
maid clears up the plates, to a newly married couple feeling shy in the presence
of a waiter. Once the maid leaves, Miles stands up and announces that they are
alone.

Analysis:

The governess's uncertainty, after the departure of Mrs. Grose, telegraphs the
coming climax of the story. Despite her previous certainty in sending Mrs.
Grose away and planning to "save" Miles, she finds it difficult to begin - and in
fact wastes an entire day, allowing Miles to wander around the grounds, before
seeking him out. The difficulty she finds in confronting Miles could come from
the great challenge she recognizes she faces in wresting the boy away from
Quint's influence or it could come from her own uncertainty that she is doing
the right thing. Her confrontation of Flora left the child sick and "lost" to her.

One interesting thing to note in this chapter is the governess's attitude toward
the servants, whom she refuses to recognize as people. The only way she can
keep herself together in front of them is to act "very grand and very dry,"
walking around the house and grounds as if she owns them and reminding
herself of her responsibilities. This "high state" she "cultivates[s]" is very
similar to her previous fantasies of her employer falling in love with her and
presumably making her mistress of the house - the very fantasies which
preceded her first vision of Quint. Rather than enlist the servants help in dealing
with Miles, she attempts to conceal the situation from them, even though she
knows they can tell that something is wrong. Not only does this show the
governess's attitude of superiority towards the servants - an attitude that made
Miles's relationship with Quint seem so wrong to her - but it also illustrates her
irresponsibility in desiring to be the savior of Miles.

Miles's actions in this chapter do not bespeak evil but instead show his
confusion over the governess's behavior. She sees the fact that they do not have
lessons that day as a mutual recognition of their changed relationship. The
governess has barely seen or spoken to him the previous evening or that
morning, and he may simply have decided to amuse himself until she resumed
her normal behavior. As she did with Flora, she assumes that Miles possesses
adult intelligence. If he, in fact, is simply an innocent child, her vague answers
to his questions about Flora's illness and confusing and hurtful.

Likewise, the governess's strange attitude toward Miles, colored by her

obsession with sexual matters, is revealed in her comparison of them to a
newlywed couple. Her decision to treat Miles as an equal seems to encompass
more than his intelligence - and this may also be a dangerous effect of her
neurosis.

Chapter XXIII

Summary:

The governess and Miles speak awkwardly about the servants. The governess
says they are not quite alone, and Miles wonders how much the servants count,
concluding that everything depends. He stands near the window, facing outside,
as the governess takes a seat on the couch readying herself for some terror.
Gradually, she realizes that Miles must be looking for something he cannot see -
he must somehow be barred from seeing Quint as she has been in the past - and
she feels hopeful.

Finally, Miles turns around and says that Bly agrees with him. They discuss
how he has seen so much of it, walking around, during the past few days, and he
asks if she likes it and if she minds being so alone. She tells him that she does it
for his company and reminds him that she said she would do anything for him.

Miles thinks she asked him that to get him to tell her something - presumably
what he did at school - and the governess suggests he tell her now. Miles
suddenly becomes uneasy and wants to leave, and the governess is struck with
how terrible a thing she is doing by bringing up this horrible subject with the
child. Looking back, it seems even worse.

After a moment, Miles says he will tell her everything - or anything - she wants
but he wants to see Luke first. The governess feels ashamed for making him
give this false excuse and as he is about to leave she off-handedly asks if he
took her letter the previous day.

Analysis:

The governess and Miles's discussion about the servants seems like idle chatter,
but it helps to illuminate the class issues which underscore the governess's
worldview and particularly her view of Quint and Miss Jessel. "They don't
count much, do they?" Miles asks, about the servants - and though the
governess does not give him a straight answer, her opinion is
clear. Servants don't count; hence, she is alone with Miles. This attitude toward
servants, of course, is what made Miles's friendship with Quint and Miss
Jessel's romance with Quint seem so obscene to her.
It is significant, then, that Miles attempts to go to the servant Luke to escape the
governess's inquiries at the end of the chapter. For Miles, servants, like Luke,
are people. For the governess, on the other hand, they are tantamount to ghosts.

Here, the governess's hindsight allows us to see the coming climax of the story
and prepares the reader for "the anguish that was to come." She comes close to
admitting her culpability in what is about to happen, calling her interrogation
"an act of violence" and speaking of "a perverse horror of what I was doing."
Even she is ashamed when Miles is frightened enough to try to find an excuse to
get away from her. Likewise, his promise to tell her "anything you like" sounds
less like the beginning of a confession and more like the desperate plea of
someone threatened with torture.

In her conversation with Miles about the servants, the governess suggests that
"It all depends on what you call Œmuch,'" and Miles rejoins, "everything
depends." This attitude towards the uncertainty of language reminds the reader
of the different meanings the governess and Miles may each attribute to the
vague conversation that follows. It is not even clear what the governess is
asking Miles to confess - nor is it clear whether he plans to tell her the truth or
simply anything to make her stop.

Chapter XXIV

Summary:

The governess suddenly notices Peter Quint standing outside the window. She

grasps Miles and holds him with his back to the window. Immediately, the
governess decides she can and will fight with Quint for Miles's soul and looks at
the boy who now has sweat on his forehead.
Miles says that he took the letter, and the governess embraces him, feeling his
heart beat, while watching Quint outside the window. The boy is drenched in
sweat. She asks Miles why he took the letter, and he says he wanted to know
what she had said about him. Feeling triumphant, she proclaims that he found
"nothing!" and he quietly agrees and tells her he has burnt it.

The governess then asks if Miles stole things at school, and he is surprised that
she knows he wasn't allowed to go back. She says she knows "everything" and
asks what he did. Miles says he "said things" but when she asks, he cannot
remember to whom. She feels as if she has won but "blind with victory" persists
in asking to whom. He says only to a few people, who he liked, and suddenly
the governess worries if he is innocent and lets him go, the window now empty.

Nonetheless, the governess persists in asking, and Miles tells her that the boys
he told must have repeated the things to people they liked and that the masters
caught wind of it - but that the "things" were too bad to write in a letter. The
governess demands to know what he said.

Just then, Miles moves, and Quint appears again behind the window. The
governess screams "No more!" at him and Miles asks if "she" is here - which
the governess takes to mean Miss Jessel. She screams that its not but tells him
"it's at the window." Miles does not seem to see anything and finally asks if it's
"he" - "Peter Quint - you devil," he says when she asks who he means, and
screams "Where?" The governess says it no longer matters - she has Miles and
Quint has lost him.

Miles jerks around and she catches him as he falls and cries out. She holds him
for a minute and realizes that they are alone and Miles heart has stopped.

Analysis:

Miles death at the end of the novel has been met with many interpretations.
Many believe that the governess simply frightened him to death. Others
suggestions range from shock at the forced recognition of Quint's evil,
smothering in the governess's grasp, and exorcism of the spirit possessing him,
to homosexual panic, the governess' invasion of another human heart, and loss
of erotic freedom. One critic has even suggested that Douglas, who introduces
the governess's manuscript in the prologue, is actually Miles and that Miles
therefore did not die in the final scene of the book.
All the foreshadowing in the novel culminates in this scene in which we get a
reason for Miles's dismissal from school. Miles "said things" - presumably used
dirty language - and passed those bad words onto his friends who said them too.
Miles, therefore, was "bad," in Mrs. Grose's sense of the word, but did not do
anything other little boys were not capable of doing. Miles's "confession"
suggests that Flora may have learned the "appalling language" she used in the
previous chapter from him, not from the ghost of Miss Jessel.
From the governess's reaction to Miles's confession, it is clear that this is not
what she expected and her own statements suggest that she is wrong in
proceeding in her assumptions and interrogation. "It was for the instant
confounding and bottomless, for if he were innocent what then on earth was I?"
The governess has just been provided with an adequate explanation for Miles's
expulsion, yet she cannot stop herself in proceeding with the "confession" she
seeks, even when it appears there are not questions left to ask.

The physical state of Miles throughout this scene suggests to the reader that the
governess's behavior is having a dangerous effect on the boy. The sweating,
hard breathing, and weakness she describes begin even before she tells the boy
that Quint is present. And the governess's physical actions during this scene
border on the violent - grasping and holding the boy and even shaking him.

Much interpretation of this scene hinges on the meaning of Miles's words when
he says "you devil." Does he refer to Peter Quint or to the governess? If to Peter
Quint, he may be denying the evil spirit which till now has controlled him, but
if to the governess, his words may illustrate the evil effects of her shrieking
demands that he recognize a dead man who is not there.

Similarly, a thread of uncontrollably pride on the part of the governess runs

through this final scene. Several times, when she has elicited answers from
Miles, she feels controlled by a sense of victory and unadvisedly plunges ahead
with more questions. It is frightening to think that, for her, Miles's death
represents a sort of victory. At last she can possess him - if in body only - and
Quint has lost him. The governess's desire to know and control "everything,"
however, has led to Miles's death - and her knowledge and possession,
therefore, of nothing.