"I'm rather easily carried away."
I just finished my second reading of The Turn of The Screw, by Henry James =)
I love this story sooooooo much! Why? Because you never know if there were actually ghosts in the house or if the governess was insane and all the things that happened were only in her head. Gotta love it! XD
What I really love about the book is that is not scary... it's creepy. And very weird. You never know if the children are actually seeing the ghosts or if they are messing with the governess' head. The book doesn't scare you, but it will leave you with this weird feeling. The ending only increase that feeling, because the fates of the younger sister and Mrs Grose, and what happened after are never told.
There are plenty of movies about that story, and I found all of them creepy. I HATE that weird tension. I preffer to receive a fright of those ghosts on horror film. >.<
The story starts with an unamed narrator at a house party gathering where people are telling ghost stories. The guests agree that a story where a ghost visits a child is especially disturbing, and a man named Douglas says that he knows such story, because his sister's deceased governess, whom he was infatuated, experieced something of the sort and annotated her memories in a manuscript.
He asks for his servents to go to his home to pick up the manuscript and after it arrives, he starts to give some background to the story. The governess was hired by a man who was the uncle of two orphaned children: Flora and Miles; and who lived in a remote country house. Because of the isolation of the place, the uncle stipulated that the governess had to deal with all the problems by herself and never speak to him about it. Despite all of this, she accepts the job.
The account of what happens in the house lies in the hands of the governess. We read the story in the governess point of view, since she is, now, the narrator. Her account begins when she meets Mrs Groser, an illiterate housekeeper at Bly (the country home), and Flora, who is described as being completely wonderful, well behaved little girl, but everything points to her being the opposite of all that. Mrs Grose tells the governess of Flora’s older brother Miles, and that he is expected to arrive at the house on Friday. Miles is described as being an usually well mannered or a cunning and deceitful boy. Since the governess’ opinion of the children changes a lot on the course of the story we never get to know their real true character. Yeah, they’re very weird and creepy.
After the arrival of Miles, for some time, the governess is very happy. However things were going to change very soon. One evening when she was strolling around the grounds of the house, she saw a man in one of the house’s towers. At first she thinks it was the children’s uncle who might have come to visit, but she soon realizes that it is a stanger. The unkown man stares at her until she turns away. She is worried about that fact but thinks nothing of the matter, she instead concentrates on the children. Another evening she sees that same man staring at her outside the window and when she steps outside to confrontate theh man, he’s gone.
The governess described the man to Mrs Grose, and the housekeeper says that man is Peter Quint, the uncle’s former valet. Peter Quint is dead. The governess thinks that Quint was not looking for her but for Miles, and she finds odd that he never mentioned him.
Something similar happened to Flora, when she was playing by lake. The governess notice that there is someone observing them across the lake. The governess describes the person to Mrs Grose. The housekeeper says that the woman is Miss Jessel, the previous gorverness that was in an inapropriate relationship with Peter Quint. She is also dead. Mrs Grose doesn’t know the exact circumstances of her death. The governess starts to believe that both children are lost to those ghosts.
Strange things continue to happen with the governess and the two ghosts, till one day at the Lake. Miss Jessel (the strange woman) appears again at the lake, and the governess demands that Flora tell her where the strange woman is. The governess points her out to Mrs Grose, who cannot see her. Flora only looks at the governess who demands she admits that Miss Jessel is there. Finally, Mrs Grose takes the distraught girl home, and the governess collapses on tears on the bank.
The next morning, the housekeeper tells the governess that Flora is ferverish and she sents both of them to the care of the uncle, and plans to stay alone in house with Miles.
That night, when they’re dining, Peter Quint appears on the window. The governess struggles to keep Mile’s back to the window. She starts to panic with Quint still in the window. She tries to show him to Miles and then grasp the boy in her arms. After a few moments, she realizes the boy has stopped breathing and is now dead in her arms.