Summary:
In Henry James' Turn of the Screw, the Governess narrates the majority of the book from her perspective. Her actions towards Miles, Flora, Mrs. Grose, and the Uncle prove that she cannot handle the job of taking complete care of the children has gone mad, therefore the Governess cannot be deemed a reliable narrator.
To be unreliable is to be not worthy of trust or reliance. An unreliable narrator interprets and foretells events in a misleading way. In Henry James' Turn of the Screw, the Governess narrates the majority of the book from her perspective. Her actions towards Miles, Flora, Mrs. Grose, and the Uncle prove that she cannot handle the job of taking complete care of the children has gone mad, therefore the Governess cannot be deemed a reliable narrator.
The governess describes the children as the most beautiful and precious in the entire world. She is constantly hugging Miles and Flora as if she is in love with them. Her love for Miles means that she will not send him back to school, claiming he is too good to be with the other boys. The governess' actions toward the children makes the reader question her sanity because she is so infatuated with them she may do anything to keep them with her and eventually be with their Uncle, which is why she makes up a lie of seeing Peter Quint and Miss Jessel.
The governess is possessed by the idea that there are two ghosts haunting the children, and in describing them to Mrs. Grose she is quick to believe that they are the ghosts of former house workers for the children. Mrs. Grose is an illiterate, uneducated, and seemingly unreliable woman, and the governess completely engulfs herself in the idea that Mrs. Grose knows that these ghosts are real and they are Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. The governess does not even question the fact that she truly saw ghosts, and jumps to conclusions of who they are and that children have contact with them even when she cannot prove that they do.
The children do not see the ghost, and therefore become frightened and ill when the governess brings the idea to their attention. At the lake with Flora, the governess cannot control her hysteria and instability. Flora is innocently playing with a stick and the governess scares Flora with her ambiguity and Flora falls ill and is sent away from the governess because she is apparently insane. Miles is not to lucky however, he dies in the governess' arms when she brings the ghost to his attention. In the governess' manuscript she writes that his "dispossessed" heart had stopped, as if proving to herself that the ghost was, in fact, real.
In conclusion, the governess is unreliable in that she will do anything to be with the children, and eventually get to the Uncle. Her ambiguity in relation to the ghost and Mrs. Grose prove that she cannot be taken seriously and therefore this ghost story is just that, ambiguous.
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