The Governess In The Turn Of The Screw

One of the oldest sayings is that someone in love will do crazy things. This applies to the governess in The Turn of the Screw. One of the oddest actions is that she takes her first job under the condition that she will not contact him about any issues concerning the children. She did not even think the condition through though or else she would have understood how unusual it was, but her main thoughts are of how attractive the uncle is. Her thoughts throughout the entire book are that she needs to get the uncle’s attention. With that as her goal, she thinks that she can have no problems to prove her worth to the uncle. She has become too obsessed with the thought of being so perfect that she creates a problem that, in her mind, ruins everything.

The make-believe problem are ghosts that want to posses the children, and as a result it causes real problems eventually. The children take the brunt of the governess’s perfection, and they cannot handle all of the pressure of being perfect. They start to act up and play tricks on the governess worsening her problem of perfection. The only problem in the book is that the governess becomes overtaken with the thought of the uncle, and how the children do not like that and are trying not to become as anxious as the governess is. The governess believes that the ghosts are real, but they are only a manifestation of her anxiety about impressing the children’s uncle, an anxiety that is so powerful that it alters the children’s behavior as well.
In The Turn of the Screw the ghosts are a figment of the governess’s imagination.

When Mrs. Grose and the governess find Flora the governess points out the ghosts to them, but Mrs. Grose exclaims, “She isn’t there, little lady, and nobody’s there—and you never see nothing, my sweet! How can poor Miss Jessel—when poor Miss Jessel’s dead and buried?” (71). If the ghosts were real it would have been proven at that moment, but Mrs. Grose denies that they are there even when the governess, who is the only one who can see them, says that they are right there. The first time that the governess ever notices Miss Jessel she vaguely describes her as being, “a figure of quite as unmistakable horror and evil: a woman in black, pale and dreadful—with such an air also, and such a face,” (30). If the ghosts were real then the governess would have had a much more detailed description of what Miss Jessel actually looked like, and not have Mrs. Grose being the one to tell her who it was. When Miles and the governess were talking one day the governess notices Peter Quint, but Miles is so confused about what she is talking about, he thinks that it is Miss Jessel (86). If the ghosts were not a production of the governess’s mind, he would have seen Mrr. Quint as well, and his confusion over the whole event only proves that the ghosts are not

real.
The governess takes the job in the first place is because of how he charms (or would it be past tense) her and makes her feel like she is doing him a favor (4). She would do anything to please the uncle and is consumed with the thought of him. When she walks around the grounds one night she thinks, “Someone would appear there at the turn of a path and would stand before me and smile and approve,” (15). The someone who she is talking about is of course the uncle. Her wish is to get his approval for how well she performs her job. Since all the governess wants is the uncle’s approval, she wants to do such a good job that she makes herself anxious that something must be wrong. When everyone was around the lake Miles reads to Flora, but the governess cannot think of it being such an innocent act and must be them talking to Quint and Jessel (). She starts to show signs that she becomes paranoid with trying to fix something that is not there to impress the uncle, so that he can look at her differently that she is the right person for the job and that he needs to show more appreciation towards her. (how to restructure that sentence) The governess does not let the children out of her sight for anything, and believes that she needs to be around them at all times or else the ghosts will get to them. Her real reason for letting the children out of her sight is that they are a direct tie to the uncle, and if anything goes wrong with them it will seem as though she cannot handle her job. The governess states that, “I repeatedly sat up till I didn’t know when; I selected moments when my room-mate unmistakably slept, and, stealing out, took noiseless turns in the passage and even pushed as far as to where I had last met Quint” (42). She stays up all hours of the night waiting for another occurrence, but by doing this starves herself of needed sleep, and only making her become more paranoid about the ghosts. The governess love for the children’s uncle is what compels her throughout the entire book to make everything perfect without any problems, even though there are no real problems except her. While she does this she is driving a wedge between her and the children, and that wedge is what cause them to act up.
Children can sense many things and when something is not going the way they like it, they try to change it. That is what happens in The Turn of the Screw, the governess is getting too involved in the children’s lives to get close to the uncle that she starts to make things up. The first sign that the children are playing tricks with the governess is one night when Flora gets out of bed to stare out the window looking at a figure, and after investigating, discovers it is Miles looking up at the roof (42-43). The children already know that the governess becomes overprotective to the extremes, and like to make the governess think that something else is wrong with them. Of course the problem the children have are that they just want alone time away from the governess, but the governess starts to become disillusioned with the thoughts of the ghosts, and that she needs to save the children. When the governess was listening to Miles play the piano, it put her in a trance that made her forget about her duties, and it gave Flora time to get away finally (65). The governess believes that Flora is meeting with Miss Jessel, but really she is just getting as far away from the governess as possible. When the governess finally finds Flora and starts to question her about Miss Jessel, Flora has had enough and screams, “Take me away, take me away—oh, take me away from her!” and the governess replies, “From me?” in disbelief, and Flora wails, “From you—from you!” (71). All the governess has wanted is to do such a good job the uncle will be amazed with her, but she is still so caught up with the fabricated problem that she only blames someone who is not even alive, Miss Jessel. The children cannot stand the governess, and have gone to great lengths to get away, but it only caused the governess to pull them closer causing them to rebel even more. The whole situation has been a snowball effect all started with the governess’s infatuation with the uncle, and trying to get his attention, but now it has been taken to extreme lengths with the governess being too self-centered to know that all the children truly need is someone to be there for them only when they need it.
The governess thinks that the ghosts are real, but it is only caused by her restlessness about her captivation with the children’s uncle, that restlessness is so pronounced that it makes the children’s before to transform too.
Henry James makes the governess believe in the ghosts to show how far she would go to get the uncle’s attention. The governess has proven that she will do anything to get his love, that is has consumed her over the course of the book. To get his attention she makes up a huge problem to solve them hoping that the uncle will take notice and reward her. The ghosts gives the novel the theme of how far someone will go to get what they desire. That desire affects everyone though. The governess starts to become more and more anxious throughout the book, and she does not sleep for fear of the problem she has made up will worsen, and it does due to how obsessed and sleep deprived she has become. The children cannot handle how controlling the governess becomes so that she can prevent anything bad from happening. This causes them to act up more, and the governess to supervise the children more closely. Not everyone would start to imagine seeing ghosts though, but is an example of how extreme someone may go to reach their target. It is also an example of how without proper care and time away from the issue someone would start to become unstable, and it would have lasting effects on everyone around them. Everyone has a passion, and it may not be as complicated as the governess’s, a person cannot be dominated by them like the governess has. There is always another person that will be affected by someone else’s actions.