Ghost stories can often be conceived as ambiguous, frequently being distorted and misinterpreted with every additional narrator and every additional stance. In Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw, the story of the governess can be interpreted as strictly a ghost story or rational evidence surrounding the circumstances can be taken into account, which in turn questions the reliability of the governess. Once the governess’s dependability as the narrator falls under questioning, the audience can make inferences about the numerous obscure occurrences during the course of the novella such as the result of the repression that the governess experiences, Miles’ mysterious death, and the possibility of a hereditary mental illness.
The degree of the governess’s sexual frustration, due to her strict religious upbringing as “the youngest of several daughters of a poor country parson” (James 11) plays heavily on the interpretation of the narrative. Because of the social condition in the Victorian Era, women were inevitably repressed both sexually and fiscally; the governess experiences this repression to a larger extent because of the religious position that her father upholds. As the daughter of a parson, the governess is depicted as the epitome of piety and morality despite her natural feelings, insecurities and desires.
When examining the governess as whole, one cannot help but observe the governess’s attraction to every male that surrounds her. The governess is immediately wooed by the children’s uncle, which makes her accept a position that she is clearly unprepared for. Additionally, she imagines the ghost of Peter Quint to be remarkably attractive and handsome which illustrates her desire for any kind of male companion. She is undoubtedly attracted to Miles and is shown to be hugging him passionately and kissing him. She has been previously attracted to Douglass who is also ten years her junior. The sexual abnormality expressed by the governess can only be as a result of severe sexual repression or some kind of sexual trauma that she experiences at a young age. The fact that she is forced to work in order to help support her family instead of marrying contributes to her repression, as governesses often stay unmarried, which seems to be the opposite of what her internal desires are.
Furthermore, as the daughter of a parson and as a women in the Victorian Era in general, she is not allowed to express her sexual frustration or act on its behalf. The governess clings to an image of morality and godliness, as this is what she believes she should be conceived as. In reality, the governess understands that she is not the picture of innocence that she should be but instead of accepting it, she not only traumatizes Flora and Miles but by convincing herself of the apparitions, she traumatizes herself. Her Christian upbringing accounts for her eventual obsession with saving these children who, in reality, do not need to be saved that she provokes the mental illness that she could have inherited.
In addition to her sexual repression, the governess displays signs of mental illness that only grow more frequent with the progression of the novella. Even at the outset of the novel, the governess is portrayed as extremely nervous, insecure and anxious, as she “come[s] up to London, in trepidation” (James 11), which could be due to a mild mental illness such as neurosis, depression or anxiety which can be as a consequence of a number or reasons such as stress, heredity, or trauma. Apart from seeing apparitions, she is known to hear noises, which on one hand, can be accounted for, as the house is old, considerable in size and mostly vacant. Conversely, the combination of her limited knowledge and the ambiguous circumstances surrounding the death of her predecessor and her alleged love interest, her inexperience, her need for attention and her extreme neurosis cause her imagination to run rampant and escalate into extreme paranoia. She becomes suspicious of Flora and Miles without any rational justification and eventually exiles Flora when she refuses to adhere to the governess’s claim of seeing Miss Jessel, as if she is trying to eliminate anyone who questions the legitimacy of her claims, the state of her sanity and the goodness of her character.
Furthermore, the circumstance behind Miles’ death is also uncertain. From a rational perspective, the embrace of the governess is the only plausible possibility for his death. A small waif-like prepubescent boy can easily have been strangled to death by an overly passionate, physically powerful embrace. The ambiguous aspect of his death is the governess’s true motives, as it seems that she does not intend to kill him, but only to save him. The intentions of the governess seem to be pure but on the other hand, she could be trying to eliminate the possibility of her sanity being questioned, as she did by sending Flora away. Miles’ final words seem to be a cry for help rather than the confession that the governess was so eager to hear.
