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The character of the governess is that she is very much a girl of the time, in this case the late nineteenth century. Her personality is very much a mixed up one, at least our modern understanding of her shows her this way. It would be foolish of us to interpret her as, 'insane', or 'mad', straight away as we have to understand that this story is over a hundred years old, yet it would be even more foolish to totally disregard the idea that she could be mad, and so we must try to understand if she is 'mad' or if that is just how women in those days acted however I do still think that very few strangled young boys. I personally do feel that she is mad and I think that Henry James is trying to explore the idea of madness in this novel.
The governess was brought up at a time and in a society, which had very strong beliefs about class, education and very importantly gender. The governess grew up in a quite large family; she was the youngest of seven sisters. Her family was not lower class but nor was it upper class but it seemed that it was quite close to the lower-middle region. We also know that class is important as at one point in the story the governess describes Flora as, 'a pert little girl in the street,' this would have been a very unpleasant thing to say in those days as the higher classes really despised the lower classes. However the governess was educated. In those days not many girls had good education and the fact that she was educated puts her higher in the 'system', than people who were illiterate. Also in those days men were definitely thought of as being more important than women. So we have an educated, lower-middle class women. Then, this would have been a strange mixture. In this story she is put in charge of a large country house. She doesn't have the power to order everyone to do things for her but she is the most important person in the house, having the job of looking after the children. The fact that she was the only person in the whole house who could read gave her an even more important role in the house. The next most important person in the house was Mrs Grose.
In this story there is a very strong hierarchy. At the top there is The Master - He is educated, male and very rich.Then there is Miles - He is also male and is also educated; he is the most important person at Bly. Slightly lower down is Flora - because she is female she is educated. The Governess comes next - she is educated but female; she is really just a nanny. At the bottom is Mrs Grose she is not quite as important as the governess as she is not educated and she does not look after the children.
No one in the house can simply go and speak to the master. The distance is epistemic, an almost Godly relationship. The governess and Mrs Grose appear to only have a professional relationship. I think that the governess sees herself as above Mrs Grose. Mrs Grose plays an important role in the story; the governess needs someone to speak to and get help and advice from. Mrs Grose is this person, she knows the household, she knows the children. She is the only adult who knows all the truth, what happened to the previous governess and Quint. She is the only totally normal, sane person in the house who knows all the past who has an important role in the story and house. Mrs Grose even seems to have an admiration for the goveness, the way she speaks and what she says sounds like she actually loves the governess. However this could just be admiration for the governess's superior social position.
The actual personality of the governess is that she is extremely histrionic. The language that Henry James chooses to use is very melodramatic, and if anyone spoke like that these days they would be seen as strange. For instance, in many places in the book the governess describes things with words that would usually not be used to describe things. She often refers to the children as 'angelic', she even calls Miles 'Divine,' but this even seems strange to Mrs Grose and so this can't be natural language for those days. At one time she also describes someone as having, 'unutterable woe'. This really does sound extreme. In those days overdramatic horror stories had begun to appear and often as higher class women had nothing to do during the day (they were not allowed to work) they would spend large amounts of their time reading. Stories such as Dracula were so readily available, the women would read these and in doing so would widely expand their vocabulary but with very melodramatic language and so this is a possibility why the governess speaks like this. The governess is also extremely good at working herself up. This kind of character is always needed in ghost stories so that there is always someone to add excitement and someone who will always suggest the 'impossible,' in this case the idea of ghosts. The governess also appears to be extremely conceited. She says things like, 'I was fantastic,' 'I had so perfectly…', people would not normally say this. She could have gained her arrogance from the fact that she was simply carried away by her situation, the power suddenly given to her in the big country house and he infatuation for her wealthy employer.
The governess appears to have an almost obsessive love for the children. She describes them with words such as, 'heavenly,' and 'perfect', also she often refers to them as, 'beautiful'. To me it would seem wrong to describe the children in that way as there can never be a child who is perfect in every way. It is not physically possible. At points, the governess seems to idolise the children. In retrospect, this really does seem strange. Then moments later she describes a child as though it was evil, talking about it as though it was going to try to escape from its prison and rebel against her. This could just be caused by her being dramatic but this does not explain the idolisation of them and her obsession with them. This could be that she is just ignorant as she has no idea of how to look after them or it could be that she is actually ill and can't look after them properly. Maybe she is trying to impress her employer in the only way she understands how, but she could be psychologically imbalanced causing her strange ways.
At the time when this book was written, Sigmund Freud was writing. He was a psycho-analyst who based most of his work on the sub-conscious. Freud believed that in absolutely everyone's subconscious were sexual images. There is quite strong sexual imagery in 'The Turn of the Screw', normally when it is concerned with ghosts. When the governess sees a ghost one time the ghost is standing next to a lake. Freud always thought of water as a female sexual symbol and a lake as a very strong symbol. Another time the governess sees a ghost standing on the tower of the building. This could be considered as a phallic symbol. The ghost then rubs his hand on the 'undulating' top of the roof; this could be another strong sexual image. When the governess speaks of seeing the ghosts there does seem to be a strong sexual feeling. For example when the governess sees the ghost through the window, she uses quite powerful and sexual language, with words like, 'Intense', and 'intercourse'. Perhaps the second word simply gives me this impression because of its modern meaning but they do both seem to be strong words. It appears that through analysis the whole story could be based on sexual repression at the time of the story. Sex would never have been discussed and so writing The Turn of The Screw as it is written, always implying and never actually getting to the point is the only way that anyone could talk about sex.
Flora is the orphaned eight-year-old niece of the governesss employer. She possesses an unearthly, angelic beauty that charms the governess. This angelic beauty could be a sexual attraction. Miss Jessel is the childrens deceased former governess. It is implied that she became pregnant by Peter Quint but we are never really sure. Peter Quint is the deceased caretaker of the house. He had an extremely close relationship with Miles. It is implied that he either sexually molested the boy or otherwise gave him information about sex. The governess also falls in love with the master but this was supposedly the reason why she first became the governess, so that she could marry into wealth. Even when the governess smothers Miles at the end of the story it seems very sexual, smothering him to her breast with 'passion'. There are implications that Miles is gay. The reason that he got expelled from his school is never clear. In fact he must have done something homosexual because even the headmaster didn't write what he had done on the letter to the governess telling her of his expulsion. We know that he said things to other boys, most likely of a sexual nature, facts possibly given to him by Quint. The 'death' of Miles might not actually be him dying but it could be a symbolic death, the death of homosexuality. Henry James was trying to show the repression of homosexuality and sexuality in general in his society.
Another possible reason why James writes well so psychologically is that psychological problems in his life surrounded him. His sister was schizophrenic and his brother was thought to be one of the greatest minds on psychological matters at that time. Because these things surrounded him he could write about them with experience and in such depth. I don't think that this story has really got much to do with big country houses or even ghosts. These things are simply a cover for James to discuss sexuality and homosexuality indirectly in a society where it was considered taboo. On the surface it is a plain ghost story told at Christmas but underneath it is a deeply psychological discussion about sex and madness.
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