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The Governess, Mrs. Grose and "The Poison of an Influence" in "The Turn of the Screw" Author(S): Helen Killoran Source: Modern Language Studies, Vol

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The Governess, Mrs. Grose and Modern Language Studies The Governess, Mrs. Grose and "The Poison of an Influence" in "The Turn of the Screw" Author(s): Helen Killoran Source: Modern Language Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), pp. 13-24 Published by: Modern Language Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3195031 . Accessed: 04/02/2015 08:52 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Modern Language Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Language Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 216.125.168.2 on Wed, 4 Feb 2015 08:52:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TheGoverness, Mrs. Grose and "thePoison ofan Influence"in TheTurn of theScrew HelenKilloran In a well-knownessay, Eric Solomonargues convincingly that Mrs.Grose, so ofteninterpreted as the"solid, kindly, housekeeper,"' is actuallyan evil influencewho deliberatelyencourages the governess's nervousimpressions of apparitions. Her motive is to drivethe governess fromBly and regainher position as guardianof thechildren, especially Flora.2Other revealing essays demonstrate how Victorian readers would haveunderstood in the story the "conventional wisdom" that promiscuous sexualbehavior of all varietieswas commonplaceamong Victorian servants:"the motives of [James's] servant-ghosts overlaps with a general Victorianblank, the 'open secret'that connected servants to thesexual initiationof their master's children."3 Paradoxically, while "servants were corruptersof children,"4a governess, also a servantthough a highone, was expectedto stand in loco parentis--delegate ofthe parents to protect thechildren from such corrupt influences. In fact,that the children are susceptibleto evil influencesfrom servants like Peter Quint (and, ironically,governesses like Miss Jessel) is one of theassumptions of the governessbehind her own attemptto protectthe childrenfrom the demon-ghosts. In complementto thesearguments, this essay shows that the evil is not ghostly,but human,emanating from the rivalrybetween the servants,a conditionthat, as WalterHoughton has explained,aroused in Victorianreaders an "unmistakablenote of horrorand fear"of unrestrainedsexuality. As Jameswrote to F. W. Myers,"the thing ... I mostwanted not to failof doing... was to givethe impression of the mostinfernal imaginable evil and danger-thecondition, on theirpart, of being as exposed as we can humanlyconceive children to be"5 [emphasismine]. Houghtonhas writtenthat the Victorianfear of unrestrainedsexuality stemmed from a beliefthat sexual misconduct can destroysociety.6 Furthermore, the subtle intricacy of the rivalry between thegoverness and Mrs.Grose for control of the children is compounded by bisexualattractions that result in disastrousconsequences. Unnoticed by criticsas faras I havebeen able to learn,misbehavior resulting from bisexual rivalryamong servantsreinforces the non-apparitionist interpretationof The Turnof theScrew based on thesexual repression of thegoverness. Thosewho accept the non-apparitionist interpretation ofthe story agreein generalthat the governess displaces her passion for the master in sucha way thatit emergesas a visionof PeterQuint, and thatshe laterswitches that passionate attraction to Miles.'Nothing of thatneeds to be repeatedor refuted.Everything here is in addition,but slightly refined,to suggestthat even thougheach ghost'sappearance is ex- plainedas "comingfor" the child of thesame gender,the male ghost 13 This content downloaded from 216.125.168.2 on Wed, 4 Feb 2015 08:52:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions is alsoa projectionof the governess's attractions to themaster and Miles, and thefemale ghost a reflectionof herattraction to, and competition with,Mrs. Grose. Accordingto Freud's definitionof the "uncanny,"repressed psychologicalmaterial can emergein one or anynumber of apparently unrelatedways at unexpectedtimes.8 Interestingly, at one pointthe governesscomments, "I cropped up in anotherplace" (12), and immediatelyin the frameDouglas gives his word thatthe storyis "uncanny"-especiallydreadful for "general uncanny ugliness and horror andpain."' Just how uncanny the story is, Douglas deliberately does not say,refusing to reveal with whom the governess was in love, about whom shewas repressed: "The story won't tell," he says,"not in any literal vulgar way" (3). Since James'slanguage does not excludethe possibilityof sequentialor evenmultiple attractions, itneed notbe assumedthat the sexual odditiesalready identified in the tale representthe whole."' Consider,for instance, the possibility of bisexuality in Mrs.Grose. The attributionof solid wholesomenessto Mrs. Grose is the perceptiononly of thegoverness, an unreliablenarrator, reinforced in theframe by theadmiring Douglas. Victorian servants like Mrs. Grose usuallyentered service (often in thekitchen) while still children, age fifteen.Mrs. Grose may have been evenyounger since the point made of herilliteracy shows that no timewas spenteducating her. She had workedup theservant hierarchy to personal maid to the master's mother, butthe master at HarleyStreet is describedas stilla "youngman" (6). So in spiteof hernow responsibleposition in theBly household," Mrs. Grosemight be as youngas thirty,even thoughmany readers assume herto be a mucholder woman. Thus, like Douglas and thegoverness, and likethe governess and Miles,the two womenare aboutten years apartin age, and Mrs.Grose probably not much older than the master, certainlywithin ten years of him. The young masteris described as "pleasant, offhandand gay ... ," buthe also has "charmingways with women" and a "house filledwith the . trophiesof thechase" (4, emphasismine).'2 Hence, theimplication is thatthe master is bisexual.Moreover, as an observer of themaster, Mrs. Grose would have been awareof theyoung man's bisexuality.Mrs. Grose's observation of, and possiblevictimization by, themaster's bisexuality issuggested when she responds to the governess's comment,"He seemsto likeus youngand pretty,"that "it was theway he likedevery one" (14, italicsmine). The commentcan includeboth genders.If she had been hissexual victim, as servantsoften were, she wouldhave been corrupted by him. By Victorian logic, that "corruption" consistedof an introductiontoan evilpleasure so attractivethat its victim wouldbe compelledto continueits practice.'3 Added to theVictorian convention that associates servants with sexualevil, is James'schoice of the housekeeper'sname. The name "Grose"aligns the housekeeper with the forces of evil,for one of the meaningsof "gross" is "inconcord with sbs [substantives]of evilimport and servingas an intensiveof theirmeaning: Glaring, flagrant, monstrous."'4It is importantto recall,too, that the closeness between 14 This content downloaded from 216.125.168.2 on Wed, 4 Feb 2015 08:52:14 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the governessand Mrs. Grosewas far fromusual since governesses normallyoccupied a classabove servantsbut below family,and were oftenisolated and lonelyas a result.'5 Douglashas furthersaid thatthe governess was a womanwho "wouldhave been worthy of any whatever," again a termthat can include bothgenders (2, italicsmine). If one is willingto accept,if only for the sakeof argument, the proposition of the master's bisexuality and hisevil influenceon Mrs.Grose when she was his mother's young maid, it follows thathe couldeasily influence the nervous, naive governess, scarcely more thana childherself. Douglas provides another hint about bisexuality when he tellsher story in responseto a taletold about "a visitation. .. fallen on a child"by one of thefew guests identified by name-"Griffin"(1), a mythicalcreature, half eagle, half lion. Like the griffin, the governess is "half and half";her confusedand repressedsexuality has been influencedby themaster in sucha way thatit can now "cropup" half of thetime in attractionsto men,and halfof thetime in attractionsto women. The master'sbisexual influence can be inferredfrom the governess'sthoughts about her journey from London to Bly,when she recallsa "see-sawof the rightthrobs and the wrong"(6), and the "swingingcoach" that carried her to themaster's country house. Besides "half,"all throughthe evidentialpassages cited below, Jamesuses ambiguoussexual slang such as "queer,""straight," "climax," "spasm," "go all theway," and "makeit out" in discussingthe governess's various interactions. Therefore,James has createda cause-and-effectsituation. The masternegatively influences Mrs. Grose, then the governess, places them in chargeof thechildren, fails to clarifytheir responsibilities so that a rivalryresults, then completely neglects servants and children.This type of sexualinfluence combined with the neglect of guardianshipmakes possiblean attraction and a rivalrybetween the governess and Mrs. Grose, thatcan, and does,harm the children. Because of that,the atmosphere at Blybecomes permeated by a "poisonof an influence"(63). Ironically, thegoverness feels required to withhold this information from the original sourceof thatchain of influence,for there is no reasonto suspectthat he
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