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The Turn of the Screw

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The Turn of the Screw The Turn of the Screw Alyssa, Caitlin, Kara, Kylie Intro Because these are the introductory chapters to the novel, there is a great deal of foreshadowing taking place. Some of the foreshadowing is easily detectable as such; however there are certain subtleties that are far less obvious unless one is aware of later happenings in the story. This passage also holds foreshadowing of the less blatant nature. One instance has been quoted above, the lines beginning with “a trap—“ and ending with the governess alluding to the fact that she is indeed “excitable.” This brand of foreshadowing plays to the question that readers often have at the end of this novel: whether the governess is sane or not. There are multiple instances in these beginning chapters when the governess refers to her own mental instabilities, but only in passing, brushing them off as if they were normal in discrepancies. Rereading this section of the text, however, gives emphasis to these understated moments of admitted mental stress and “excitability.” Chapter 1 Summary -C1: Through the viewpoint of the Governess, telling recollection of riding in a coach...riding to Bly: her newfound place of employment -C1: Meets Flora and Mrs. Grose and Flora right away "A little girl...a civil person who dropped me as decent a curtsy as if [she] had been the mistress." - C1: Getting acquainted with Mrs. Grose and is indirectly becoming acquainted with Flora. -C1: Allusion to Miles, Flora gives the governess a tour of Bly, ambiguity of conversations. "No; it was a big, ugly, antique but convenient house,embodying a few features of a building still older , half replaced and half utilized in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was strangely at the helm!" The most poignant example of this subtle foreshadowing is in chapter one, paragraph eight, during a conversation the governess and Mrs. Grose are having about the “little gentleman” and the master of the house. The governess says first that she came to the house to “be carried away,” which is an example of more blatant foreshadowing, but continues to say that she is “rather easily carried away.” This alludes to her possible unstable mental state, which comes more into question as the story gains momentum. As Mrs. Grose replies, "You are not the first, Miss." May imply that Mrs. Grose had a certain affection for the Master that was similar to the governess's. This scenario may open a gate for Mrs. Grose to be jealous of the governess. Two Days Later... C2: Governess receives letter from employer and another letter explaining Mile's ejection from his school. "This, I recognize, is from the headmaster, and the headmaster's an awful bore. Read him please; deal with him; but mind you don't report. Not a word." C2: Governess and Mrs. Grose converse about Miles. Mrs. Grose paints him in a positive light, and defends him but alludes a possibility for bad behavior. "See him, Miss, first THEN believe it." C2: Governess: "Then you have known him." Mrs. Grose: "Yes indeed, Miss, thank god!" Governess: "You mean that a boy who never is --?" Mrs. Grose: "Is no boy for me!" Governess: "You like them with the spirit to be naughty? So do I!" C2: The Next Day: Getting ready to pick up Miles. The governess randomly asks about her predecessor and what happened to her. Mrs. Grose openly relays the information regarding the previous governess. "But our young lady never came back, and at the very moment I was expecting her I heard from the master that she was dead." ... "But of what?" ... "He never told me! but please Miss...I must get back to my work." Mrs. Grose instantly seems flustered by the idea of the previous governess. Taking into consideration that class is an important motif throughout the story, the maid is clearly of lower class than the governess, or she is presented that way, she may not have the power to disagree with the governess. Therefore all of the assumptions the governess is making are reinforced with the confidence of the governess as Mrs. Gross unknowingly complies. Oh, awkward. C3: First encounter with Miles. "He was incredibly beautiful...everything but a sort of passion and tenderness for him was swept away by his presence. What I then and there took him to my heart for was something divine that I have never found to the same degree in any child--his indescribable little air of knowing nothing in the world but love" weird obsession. C3: Mrs. Grose and the governess speak of the letter again, and the governess decides not to say anything to anyone. C3: The governess is "speaking" to the reader: her interpretation of the situation at hand. "Oh, it was a trap--not designed, but deep--to my imagination, to my delicacy, perhaps to my vanity; to whatever, in me, was most excitable." No control, but excitable. C3: fourteenth paragraph in chapter three, which directly follows a conversation that the governess has with Mrs. Grose. In said paragraph, the governess breaks from the telling, or writing, of the immediate story line to express her feelings towards this period of time in retrospect. She conveys to her reader that she could not have known "They gave me such little trouble--they were of a gentleness so extraordinary. I used to speculate--but even this with a dim connectedness--as to how the rough future (for all futures are rough!) would handle them and might bruise them. Further, she explains that this brief period of contentment and false security was “a trap—not deep but designed—to [her] imagination, [her] delicacy, perhaps [her] vanity; to whatever in [her] was more excitable,” that it was not a time of simple happiness, but rather “that hush in which something gathers or crouches…like the spring of a beast.” C3: The governess's first encounter with Quint. Gives reader sight into her strange vulnerability, "An unknown man in a lonely place is a permitted object of fear to a young woman privately bred." Confronting the naiveness of "women privately bred." The ghosts seem to appear when the governess is attempting to understand who she is as a person, and who she must be in order for the children to be fulfilled from her 'acts of valor,' so to speak. “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” ― Abraham Maslow C4: The more you think you know, the less you actually do know. The governess's paranoia begins to set-in. "Was there a 'secret' at Bly--a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement?" The governess already begins to create very rash scenarios. C4: The governess begins turning the situation over more in depth. When speaking with Mrs. Grose she explains "Some one had taken a liberty rather monstrous." Miles is then quickly brought into the situation; "He was only too fine and fair for the little horrid unclean school--world, and he had paid a price for it." The change in tone during the conversation is meant to juxtapose the rather disturbing event with the governess with Miles's innocence. Which is ironic because he is later found to be corrupt. C4: The governess and Mrs. Grose are about to attend the church service. The governess then goes into the dining room and sees Quint a second time peering through the window hauntingly. The governess goes outside to check and reenacts Quints stance outside her window in order to understand what he was trying to see. Mrs. Grose encounters the governess watching strangely through the window. The governess relays to the reader: "I wondered why she should be scared..." Speculation as to why Mrs. Grose would be scared? -She has seen something similar -She is scared of the governess and this is a way to make it apparent in a literal/physical sense. Which may explain her natural dislike for the governess and why she feeds into her madness by not correcting her or speaking against the governess. There is speculation on whether Mrs. Gross's lack of speaking is intentional or not. Sparks of Intuition... C5: The governess contemplates the second sighting of Quint. Could he just be a projection of her mind? Uh oh. C5: Mrs. Grose begins to question the governess once again. The governess begins explaining her after- the-fact interpretation of what actually happened in full detail. Mrs. Grose asks, "Nobody from the village?" "No," replied the governess. The governess says she has checked and confirmed, but there is no evidence or explanation of how she did so. C5: The women talk of going to church and the governess decides that, "It won't be best for them..." alluding to the children's safety. Keep in mind she has no idea who this man ghost is yet, nor has he proved to be any sort of danger. C5: The governess has a certain epiphany regarding Mrs. Gross that is made to be subtle but convey a strong message. "A far-away faint glimmer of a consciousness more acute..." therefore the governess is picking up on the fact that Mrs. Grose just may be smarter than she initially seems. The governess first interpretation of someone that is not based on looks but looks are used to describe the inward quality of Mrs. Grose. The governess may be alluding to what she sees in Mrs.
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