Turning the Screw of Ordinary Human Virtue: The Governess and the First-Person Narrators

Turning the Screw of Ordinary Human Virtue: The Governess and the First-Person Narrators W.R. MACNAUGHTON Henry James undoubtedly would have been amused - devoted as he was in his fiction to recording the ironic split between intention and achievement - if he had lived to observe the success of "The Turn of the Screw." Soon after he had written a story called ,.,.TheNext Time" which seemed to mirror his acceptance of his own unpopularity (since the plot of the story centered upon the repeated failures of a "fine" but unsuccessful novelist to write a bad but popular novel), James published a ghost story which has become one of the most frequently read in the language and which has even inspired two movies based upon its plot. What intensifies the irony is that the article I have written is only the latest of dozens of attempts to fathom a story which its author referred to as a "mere jeu d'esprit" - a ,,.pot boiler." Yet the mystery which is the essence of the story's critical appeal continues to perplex and fascinate: are the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel objectively real and threats to the exquisite and archetypal children, Miles and Flora? Or are what the governess "sees" only hallucinations, products largely of her subconscious needs and desires? A reader sufficiently interested in the puzzle to skim the immense amount of material written about it may become extremely frustrated as he continues to discover arguments which seem to cancel each other out.1 The arguments of those (for example, the II apparitionist" or "antiFreudian " critics) who give weight to James's own refusal to describe .,.,TheTurn of the Screw" as other than a ghost story are countered by those (the "anti-apparitionists" or "Freudians.,.,) who point out that good reasons may account for James' s deception - the publishing conditions during late Victorian England (a story with strong sexual innuendo written for a general audience would not have been printed) or that James may have based his characterization of the governess upon his observations of his sister's neurotic behavior. The arguments of critics who focus upon the evidence of the story itself exhibit a seemingly similar incompatibility . The apparitionist critics, for example, point to the support which Mrs. Grose - the down-to-earth housekeeper at Bly - always THE CANADIAN REVIEW OF AMERICAN STUDIES VOL, V, NO. 11 SPRING 1974 eventually gives to the theories of the governess; the anti-apparitionists argue for the cumulative effect of Mrs. Grose's occasional hesitations. 2 The anti-Freudians make capital of Miles's supposed expulsion from school, interpreting it as a sign of evil influences. Yet, one could contend that "expelled" is too strong a word. Perhaps, as Douglas suggests, Miles may not return because he is too young; perhaps it is because his innocence is out of place in the "little horrid, unclean school-world." 8 The governess concludes that Miles and Flora secretly commune with the spirits of Quint and Miss Jessel- argues that the children's interest in her own life history, their desire to please her by mastering their lessons, are signs of their deviousness. Perhaps, however, the actions only show that these children who have lost their parents, their friends - in short, anyone close to them - have seen in the governess's protective zeal evidence of love, and have responded to it as best they can. Perhaps therefore they are neither malicious nor hypocritical, but trusting and affectionate. And so it goes. The apparitionists use such evidence (and there is much more., of course - the governess's ability to describe Quint and Miss Jessel without ever having seen them, for example) as proofs of the existence of the ghosts; the anti-apparitionists cast doubt on this evidence but are never quite successful in dissipating its force. The puzzle remains. 4 Perhaps, however, light may be shed on the problem by viewing it from another perspective, one requested by Hans-Joachim Lang when he suggests, "What literary scholarship wants toward a satisfactory interpretation of The Turn of the Screw is a context which makes the story less of a freak and more continuous with the stories of a...