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Turn Of The Screw The Governess Character Analysis

1317 Words6 Pages

Within the Bly household as read in The Turn of the Screw, where the governess is the only person able to see ghosts, everything seems as it is falling apart. As the governess starts working at Bly, everything seems picture perfect, but is quite the opposite as the story progresses. As everything unfolds at Bly the governess seems to become progressively mentally incapacitated. As days pass by the governess believes she begins to see the ghosts on a daily basis, and she becomes so frustrated she accuses the children, Miles and Flora, of meeting with the ghosts. The children never admit to her accusations, which upsets the governess to sure a high degree that she even starts to blame the children of conspiring against her. All of the governess mental episodes is all just a lead up to prove that she is mentally insane. The governess believes she can see people that have passed away, and she views them as very dark and evil. There have been past caretakers involved with the uncle and children that were at the house frequently before her, and some have even passed away. The governess then had claimed to see some of the past workers, that have passed away. One of the people that had passed that had been mentioned Peter Quint, and the governess mentioned ¨a third encounter with Quint¨ (James 39). The governess claimed to have …show more content…

The governess progressively believes in things around her that are pseudo and assumed. Nobody else at Bly can see the ghosts that she claims even when the children tried to believe her, they just could not see the ghosts she could see. Things slowly but surely fell apart at Bly, and it seemed to start right when the governess made assumptions about the ghosts she had met. The governess had done many things at Bly, but proving her insanity is something she could not

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The Governess Insanity In Turn Of The Screw By Henry James

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According to Mrs. Grose, one of the maids who worked at Bly, the Governess described the ghosts as being Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. Miss Jessel was the former Governess and Peter Quint was a part of the help at Bly. Mrs. Grose also saw the Governess slip quickly away into insanity caused by the ghosts, and Mrs. Grose and the children wanted to escape from the Governess by leaving Bly household. There are several indicators that the children and Mrs. Grose wanted to escape from the Governess as a result of her mental instability and possibly even the ghosts. Miles says “Then when am I going back(to school)?”

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

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In the book, The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James, the mental state of the main character, the governess is questionable and often argued by the audience. The governess reports several sighting of two ghosts, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, however, the strange events degrade the credibility of the governess and readers must decide if they were real or fake. The governess is insane because she imagines the ghosts, displays excessive fear and anxiety and is extremely paranoid over the safety of her charges. All of this reasons are symptoms of insanity which lead us to logically believe she has a mental illness.

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