Greetings, we return to Turn of the Screw today by Henry James. As we are nearing the end of the book, we should be taking note of the building tension in the house. The governess has now seen ghosts on two occasions and the children are acting strange. In the following chapters, more eeriness assails the governess and more truth comes out!
Chapter 11-13
After standing on the lawn at night and frightening the governess, she leads Miles back inside and questions him as to why he acted that way. Miles insists it is because he wants to be “bad” and to prove it to her.
He tells her: “‘Think me—for a change—bad!’ I shall never forget the sweetness and gaiety with which he brought out the word, nor how, on top of it, he bent forward and kissed me.”
While the governess doesn’t entirely understand Miles’s motivations, she forgives the child.
Though Mrs. Grose doesn’t believe the governess, the governess goes into detail about the children’s relationship with Quint and Miss Jessel, explaining that they are either tied to them or are in fact that spiritual slaves, aiming to destroy the children. Mrs. Grose attempts to convince the governess to contact the master of the house in order to spirit the children away, but the governess denounces any and all plans for various reasons–mostly because she doesn’t want to seem mad.
In the text, the governess explains that she could already see the master of the house’s “derision, his amusement, his contempt for the breakdown” of her resignation.”
Furthermore, she states: “She didn’t know—no one knew—how proud I had been to serve him and to stick to our terms; yet she nonetheless took the measure, I think, of the warning I now gave her. “If you should so lose your head as to appeal to him for me— … ‘I would leave, on the spot, both him and you.’”
As the season turns to autumn, the governess finds the children still a delight but has her suspicions about how they communicate with the ghosts. However, the governess is unable to confront the children about these sightings and relationships and so leaves it be for the time. After the children ask to see their uncle, the governess insists that they write letters (letters that she in fact keeps and does not send out).
Chapter 14-15
One day, when walking to church with Miles, Mrs. Grose, and Flora, Miles asks about returning to school, and admits that he has been very good with only one exception. The governess tries to discern Miles’ reasons for being sent out of school, but is unable to figure it out. Miles then insists that he wants to go back to school, and though he is rebuked, he insists he will convince his Uncle to visit and allow him to return.
In the novel, both the governess and Miles have a brief exchange outside of the church before the child enters:
Miles, on this, stood looking at me. “Then don’t you think he can be made to?”
“In what way?”
“Why, by his coming down.”
“But who’ll get him to come down?”
“I will!” the boy said with extraordinary brightness and emphasis. He gave me another look charged with that expression and then marched off alone into church.
At this point, the governess intends to leave Bly as she feels as though much of what has happened at the house is just too much to deal with. Entering the house, she sits on the stare but remembers seeing the ghost of Miss Jessel there and so gets up and heads to the schoolroom where she sees the ghost of the woman once more. She has a violent reaction to the ghost, no doubt a consequence of the trauma and anxiety caused by the apparition.
“It was as a wild protest against it that, actually addressing her—’You terrible, miserable woman!’—I heard myself break into a sound that, by the open door, rang through the long passage and the empty house. She looked at me as if she heard me, but I had recovered myself and cleared the air. There was nothing in the room the next minute but the sunshine and a sense that I must stay.”
Conclusion
We have more character building in these chapters and a continued building of suspense. We discover that Miles is quite precocious and is a conniving child. He makes plans to manipulate people into getting what he wants, such as convincing the governess that he is capable of being “bad.” We also learn that the governess has multiple motives for staying on at Bly and not alerting the master of the house. For one, her duty to the children is supreme, and her motherly protection seems to be paramount to her leaving; moreover, she understands that what she has seen at Bly is a little strange and that alerting anybody other than Mrs. Grose may make her seem insane.
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