The Turn of the Screw
Chapters 6-10
Dylan D-S, Molly A., and Victoria H.
Chapter 6
-The Governess and Mrs. Grose are talking about the ghost of Mr. Quint. The
Governess comes to a realization that the ghost was looking for Miles and
wants Miles to see him.
- The Governess has no basis for her conclusions, she simply feels or senses
something to be true.
- Mrs. Grose tells the Governess that Mr. Quint was “too free with everyone.”
This is ambiguous but there is a suggestion that Mr. Quint was a less than
agreeable character, in the least.
- The master has no care for the children and left Quint completely in charge.
Chapter 6
Continued...
- “I scarce know how to put my story into words that shall be a credible picture
of my state of mind,” suggest fallibility in the governesse's recollections and
story.
- Motivation for the battle for the souls of the children: ego-serving “able to find
a joy in in the extraordinary flight of heroism the occasion demanded of me,”
“I confess I rather applaud myself as I look back!”; or extreme sense of duty
“I saw my service so strongly and so simply.”
- The first awareness of the ghost is not through vision but through “sensing.”
She is absolutely certain, and admits to forming a vision of what she will see
before she even lifts her head.
- “There was an alien object in view—a figure whose right of presence I
instantly, passionately questioned.”
Chapter 6
Continued...
-The governess is first concerned that Flora will see the apparition, but
observes that she has stopped making noise to go along with her play, has
turned her back on the water, and "very markedly and intently attempting to
tighten" one piece of wood into another.
- Chapter ends with "I faced what I had to face" but then never details the
governess's actual encounter with the ghost.
Chapter 7
-The governess tells Mrs. Grose that she believes Flora was fully aware of Miss
Jessel. The governess states: “For the effect and the feeling she might
have been as close as you!” She had never seen Miss Jessel before,
“Never. But someone the child has. Someone you have.” How does the
governess know that the ghost was Miss Jessel?
-Because the governess thinks Flora saw the ghost and ignored it on purpose
to make her think that she didn’t see, the governess doesn’t want to prove
to Mrs. Grose by asking Flora because she thinks that Flora will simply lie.
-The more the governess thinks about the ghosts, the deeper her fear becomes
and the more confused her thoughts get. “I don’t know what I don’t seewhat I don’t fear!”
Chapter 7
Continued...
-Mrs. Grose tries to get herself and the governess to relax as she reassures the
governess that it may not be such a problem if Flora doesn’t mind it and
maybe she likes it; but the governess greatly disagrees and concludes that
Miss Jessel is a horror of horrors.
-The governess insists that Miss Jessel was “wonderfully handsome. But
Infamous,” and Mrs. Grose shockingly agrees that, “Miss Jessel-was
infamous.” The governess then tried to get information about Miss Jessel
out of Mrs. Grose.
- Juxtaposition with the original picture of Miss Jessel in the prologue--"She had
done for them [the children] quite beautifully--she was a most respectable
person." Why introduce this alternate view?
Chapter 7
Continued...
-Mrs. Grose informs the governess of the the way in which Mr. Quint was
associated with Mrs. Jessel, “I’ve never seen one like him. He did what he
wished...With them all.” But the governess immediately decides that, “It
must have been also what she wished!” (The governess constantly makes
conclusions with no real form of proof.)
-The governess finally concludes that the children are corrupt because she
feels, “a front of miserable defeat”. “I don’t save or shield them! It’s far
worse than I dreamed. They’re lost!”
Chapter 8
-The Governess and Mrs. Grose continue to trying to keep their heads straight
and not get carried away with wild ideas about ghosts. However, when they
both meet that evening to rehash the sightings, they confirm that it was
Quint and Miss Jessel that the Governess saw.
-The governess continues to ponder whether the or not the ghosts have
corrupted the children. She returns to check up on them and can't believe
that someone as pure as the children (Flora) could lie.
-The governess keeps trying to determine the truth and decides to question
Mrs. Grose for more information (especially about the housekeeper's earlier
assertion that Miles is naughty at times.)
Chapter 8
Continued...
-Mrs. Grose admits before Quint died, Miles was apparently with him very
often. Mrs. Grose approached Miss Jessel to complain. The former
governess suggested that it was basically none of their business. Mrs.
Grose admits that Miles did what the (current) governess fears Flora did
with Miss Jessel's ghost--simply denied that he had been hanging around
Quint.
-Mrs. Grose feared what Quint was doing with the boy but Miss Jessel showed
no opposition to their relationship. The governess wonders whether Miles
knew about the relationship between Miss Jessel and Quint.
-The governesses fears continued to be affirmed. Flora always seemed to be
around Miss Jessel when Miles was with Quint. This could suggest that they
are in cahoots with the ghosts.
-Governess says that she isn't going to accuse anyone yet, but that she's
going to be more conscious about everything around now.
Chapter 9
- The governess tells how her fears and suspicions are confirmed day after day
by unnamed "incidents."
-Her paranoia against her charges comes from them being too good--she
believes they are faking because they know she is suspicious of them.
-She says, "I used to wonder how my little charges could help guessing that I
thought strange things about them," leaving absolutely no room for a
thought that she might be wrong about something that she really has no
way of knowing for sure--what is going on in the children's heads.
- The governess admits that she often put things at their worst when she
thought about them.
- She is very concerned about not letting the children realize what she is
thinking.
Chapter 9
Continued...
- Once again, the governess spends much time detailing how perfect the
children were, which leads her to be suspicious of "understandings between
them by which one of them should keep me occupied while the other
slipped away."
- The governess again "senses" the presence of the ghost, sees the curtains
flutter slightly in the wind and knows that something is "astir in the house."
- When she comes upon the ghost in the hall, she instantaneously knows it is
Quint, and "dread had unmistakably quitted [her] and there was nothing in
[her] there that didn't meet and measure him." She is not afraid and
somehow determines that Quint knows this.
- They just stand there looking at each other for what the governess describes
as an extraordinary lengthy amount of time, the only thing notable being
how absolutely silent it was. Eventually the ghost just turns and leaves.
Chapter 10
-After the governess sees the ghost hunched at the bottom of the staircase,
she feels the ‘effect’ that he disappears. Did she really see him/the ghosts,
or is it just a feeling of a presence?
-The governess finds Flora looking out her bedroom window and asks her if
she thought there was someone out there. When Flora answers, “Well, you
know, I thought someone was” (this foreshadows Miles being outside and
how he set up a plan with Flora) and when asked if she saw anyone she
answers no. The governess immediately believes that Flora is lying and
eagerly wants Flora to confess seeing the ghost of Miss Jessel so that
together they can learn where they are and what it means.
-The governess tries getting Flora to confess to certain things, but, “She
absolutely declined to be puzzled...”. At this point, it is possible that Flora
has nothing to hide.
Chapter 10
Continued...
-After they both go to sleep, the governess awakens again to find Flora at the
window and makes a quick decision that she is, “face to face with the
apparition we had met at the lake, and could now communicate with it as
she had not then been able to do.” How is the governess positive of this?
Her conclusion has no proof.
-When the governess wonders what would happen if Miles catches her at his
window, she thinks, “What if, by risking to his boyish bewilderment and
revelation of my motive, I should throw across the rest of the mystery the
long halter of my boldness?” If Miles discovers her motives, she is afraid of
her brave adventure being ruined.
-The governess sees a figure outside who was staring at something above her
at the tower where she’d seen the ghost of Mr. Quint, then she discovers
that the figure is Miles.
TRENDS
- Conclusions drawn with no proof- an extreme sense of the governess' intuition
as opposed to concrete facts. Most notable are her perceptions of the ghost
before she actually become aware of them through any of her five senses,
and her conclusion about what is going on inside the hearts and minds of
the children and ghosts, things she cannot possibly know.
- A concern on the part of the governess with hiding what she "knows" from the
children--increasing suspicion as to how much they know and what they are
capable of.