This week type out one significant quote from Turn of the Screw and explain what importance it has to the text as a whole. Pick a quote that no one else does; make it intriguing. --Mr. S
Quote: "On the spot there came to me the added shock of a certitude that it was not for me he had come there. He had come for someone else." Page 20 IV
This quote has much significance to the book as a hold. It sets the direction of the governess to "protect" the children from the ghosts. She realizes that the ghosts aren't there to haunt her, but yet to "poison" and "corrupt" the children. She then tries her best to be their saviour and hero. I believe that her help is actually the reason for the cause of downfall throughout the rest of the book.
Quote: “I was in these days literally able to find a joy in the extraordinary flight of heroism the occasion demanded of me. I now saw that I had been asked for a service admirable and difficult; and there would be a greatness in letting it be seen—oh in the right quarter!—that I could succeed where many another girl might have failed.” (45, Chapter 6) This quote is an example of the governess’ desire to act as a savior to the children. She prides herself on the sacrifices she has made. Part of her joy probably comes from her efforts to comply with the master’s demand to be left alone, as well as her sense of righteousness in the matter, based on her religious upbringing. The governess, although she may not have the capability to do so, insists upon heroically safeguarding the children from the ghosts.
"We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped."
This quote is the last sentence of the book and it explains that Miles had died but he had also been dispossessed, which means that he was possessed at one point. This supports my thesis also because it means that the governess does perform an excorsism on Miles.
"Instead of it even--as a woman reads another--she could see what I myself saw: his derision, his amusement, his contempt for the breakdown of my resignation at being left alone and for the fine machinery I had set in motion to attract his attention to my slighted charms."
Page 81 (My version is a different book)
The governess, in my opinion, is suffering from a form of Paranoia Schizophrenia (yes i know that'll be hard to prove). This is a good quote of the paranoia sense of her disease, which I relate to hear Vanity. She is scared that Mrs. Grose and the Master are going to see her doing a bad job, and she fears that people can see right through her as Mrs. Grose seems to now.
Quote: "To see her, without a convulsion of her small pink face, not even feign to glance in the direction of the prodigy I announced, but only, instead of that, turn at me and expression of hard, still gravity, an expression absolutely new and unprecedented and that appeared to read and accuse and judge me- this was a stroke that somehow converted the little girl herself into the very presence that could make me quail" (page 70 ch. 20).
This quote is the governess's description of Flora after she has come out and asked her where Miss Jessel is when Flora is found by the pond. This quote is significant because here we see the governess's real fear that the ghosts have corrupted the children so much that they don't even admit to seeing them anymore. Also this quote is the first real concrete evidence in the book that could show that the children might not even see the ghosts, that they may only be images of the governess's imagination.
"'I don't do it!' I sobbed in despair, 'I don't save or shield them! It's far worse than I dreamed. They're lost!'" (40) This quote was said by the governess when she realized that Miss Jessel and Peter Quint might be after the children. And since the governess sees the world through a Christian's point of view she looks at Miss Jessel and Peter Quint as people who could corrupt Miles and Flora. She believes that she is the only one who can save the children from these beings or all is lost.
Quote: "There were exactly states of the air, conditions of sound and of stillness, unspeakable impressions of the kind of ministering moment, that brought back to me...the feeling of the medium in which...I had had my first sight of Quint" (p.50-51)
This quote is prevalent to the book because it shows that much of the governess' insight and perspective is based purely on feelings and "impressions" and not on actual fact. This makes the book more ambiguous and vague which leaves more up to the reader for interpretation.
"with the sense that, pale and ravenous demon she was, she would catch and understand it - an inarticulate message of gratitude" (70)
Even though Miss Jessel is torturing the Governess, the Governess is thankful that she can see her. She thinks that this time because Miss Jessel is in plain sight, not just a quick glimpse in the hallway, it is a good sign. Although this is really counterintuitive especially since the Governess later decides the ghosts are evil and wants them to go away and leave the children alone. This is the first step on the Governess's path to insanity.
“The moral of which was of coarse, the seduction exercised by the splendid young man. She succumbed to it” Page 6, Prolouge
This quote as much significance to the novel, and to myself while I am forming my paper on how the governess acts on her emotions. This is one of the first examples where the governess lets her emotions take over her body. This is done so when she falls in love with the Master after he chrams her into taking the governess position at Bly.
"I was so determined to have all my proof that I flashed into ice to challenge him. "Whom do you mean by 'he'?"" (XXIV pg86).
This quote is at the very end of the book and it shows how important it is to the governess to be able to prove her case and how caught up she had become with the ghosts through out the book. To me, this quote set up that something was going to happen between the governess and Miles because she had such great determination at that point and was willing to do anything to be right. When she got the chance to have Peter Quint and Miles in the room she took full control trying to prove herself right.
This is I think one of the most important quotes of the book. This is the quote that determines if the children can see the ghosts or not. It depends on who you think miles is calling devil. I personally believe miles is calling the governess devil and only says Peter Quint because he is freaked out by the governess and doesn't know what to do; so he tries to guess what she wants him to say.
Quote: At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied; and if I once more closed my eyes it was before the dazzle of the three or four possible ways in which I might take this up" (41).
This quote was when the governess asked Flora about seeing someone in the yard, and Flora denied seeing anyone, but the governess didn't believe her. I think this shows that the children know about the qhosts and are actually ghosts as well and are trying to show the governess that she is one too.
"to keep up the work of demons, is what brings the others back." pg. 48 (top of page)
This quote is describing how the children are bringing the ghosts back. It is saying that because they are conspiring against the Governess, and there for being evil or keeping "up the work of demons, they are the ones that are raving the "others", ghosts, back. If the children were behaving good than the ghosts would leave the house and the Governess alone and not come back. It is blaming the ghosts on the children.
"'Ah, you can't get off with that!' I was silent a little, and it was I, now, I think, who changed color. 'My dear, I don't want to get off!' 'You can't, even if you do. You can't, you can't!'...'If we do,' I returned with some spirit, 'you may be sure it will be to take you quite away'" (62).
This is the governess conversing with Miles. If you were to think about this novel sexually, this quote would be quite representative of the governess's sexual repression. The end of the novel would be like sex or the climax where the governess and Miles are orgasming. With an orgasm being referred to as the 'little death', Miles dies in the end, which is associated with the part in the quote where the governess says 'you may be sure it will be to take you away' or die or rather he orgasms in the end. With the orgasm his innocence is truly and absolutely obliterated and the governess has failed to protect the children's innocence. Molly Riegel
Quote: " Well i said things.... No; it was only to- .... I don't remember their names.....No- only a few. Those I liked" (pg 85).
This quote is important because I think it makes it obvious that Miles is possibly homosexual. This would not only explain how Miles is corrupt and why they ghost is after him but also why he got kicked out of school. Since it was an only boys school that Miles was at, he could have only said those things to boys that he liked.
Quote:"...my imagination had, in a flash, turned real. He did stand there!- but high up, beyond the lawn and at the very top of the tower.." (Page 15, Chapter III)
This passage signifies the idea that the governess conjures the images of the ghosts to satisfy her need of a relationship after she falls in love with the master but he fails to provide love back. She feels such strong emotions and wants to have a man in her life so badly, day dreaming about it so often that her dreams become real to her, in the sense that only she can see them. The tower as the first location of spying "Peter Quint" is a sexual reference in the way freud viewed relationships.
“A succession of flights and drops, a little see-saw of the right throbs and the wrong (p.122 chapter 1)”
This quote describes the view on the children, switching back and forth like a see-saw. The governess changes her mind many times throughout the book, between seeing them as good and innocent, and evil. This quote opens the frist chapter of the book (after the frame), so it foreshadows what is to come.
“—it made me drop on my knees beside the bed and seize once more the chance of possessing him. "Dear little Miles, dear little Miles, if you knew how I want to help you! I just want you to help me to save you!" Ch. 17 pg. 64 The Governess believes that the children are being possessed and corrupted by the ghosts. Through the story she tries to protect the children from the corrupting powers of the ghosts but it seems that the children seek out the company of the ghosts and that is what the Governess is afraid of. This quote refers to the Governess’ desire to protect Miles and save him from the ghosts. She had been talking to Miles about what happened at his school and why he had been expelled. The governess becomes hysterical in her desire to pull Miles out of his corruption.
Mrs Grose and the governess finally find Flora by the pond. The governess relveals to us how they met Flora. She explains, "She smiled and smiled, and we met; but it was all done in a silence by this flagrantly ominous." I found this quote to be interesting because James gives the impression through his word choice that Flora is almost devilish. The word flagrant means almost offensive, and ominous is like a threatening aspect. By his word choice, Henry James helps to create an idea in the readers mind of exactly what is going on in the governess' head. It can help the reader to conclude that the child is actually insane and doing evil works, or that the governess is insane and believes the child is taking over her subconcious mind.
"Mrs Grose considered as if it were perhaps a little a case for a sense of shades. "Ive never seen one like him. He did what he wished." "With her?" "With them all."
This quote occurs right when the Governess is questionoing Mrs. Grose about Peter Quint and how he was with the children. This passage is important because it can be interpreted in many different ways, and any one of them is just as viable as another because the way it is written leaves the meaning up to interpretation. If you read it from a Freudian viewpoint, you would think that Peter Quint had his way with them sexually. On the other hand, if you read it on the positive side, you would think she meant that he spoiled them too much or let them do what they wish. I've found much of the book is similar to this passage in that the book was written in a way that 5 different readers may come out with 5 different meanings after reading the same text.
" 'Dear little Miles'-oh, I brought it out now even if I should go too far-'I just want you to help me to save you!" (64, Ch. 17)
The governess says this to Miles after she questions him about why he was expelled from his school. This alludes to one of the central themes of the novel-religion and salvation, as it refers to the act of saving or redeeming oneself from an evil. The Governess, in her imagination, has this idea that both Miles and Flora are evil children and need proper training to be saved from the devil. It is her naivity coupled with her upbringing that causes her to believe this.
Quote: " I just want you to help me to save you." Chapter 17
This is a significant part of the story because the governess has finally expressed what she has been doing all along. She's been trying so hard to gt the children to confess to being evil so that she can help save them. Miles is now upset because she has been plotting against him since she arrived.
On page 15, the governess was stating that, "Much as I liked my companions, this hour was the thing in the day I liked most," "I could take a turn into the grounds and enjoy, almost with a sense of property that amused and flattered me, the beauty and dignity of the place. It was a pleasure at these moments to feel myself tranquil and justified; doubtless, perhaps, also to reflect that by my discretion, my quiet good sense and general high propriety, I was giving pleaure- if he ever thought of it!..."What I was doing was what he had earnestly hoped and directly asked of me, and that I could, after all, do it proved even a greater joy than I had expected."
This quote has much significance to the book as a whole. It sets the readers to understand that in everything that the Governess does is for the happiness of the master. She is doing everything that she thinks the master is earnestly hoped of her, which in turn, of all things she believed that the master has hoped of her, she begins to hallucinates and sees herself as a savior for the children, to be able to protect the children from the evil, the ghosts.
Quote: "We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped" (Pg. 87).
I believe this quote has much significance on the entire book. While you are learning throughout the book that the two ghosts have corrupted the children, and then that the Governess is crazy and wanting to know everything about the children you are also learning much more. This quote ties everything up in the book to end it with a good understanding. This quote helps to signify that the Governess was indeed crazy and had killed Miles because she was too self-absorbed in trying to pry through the children's past live herself.
"You do know, you dear thing, I replied; only you haven't my dreadful boldness of mind, and you keep back, out of timidity and modesty and delicacy, even the impression that, in the past, when you had, without my aid, to flounder about in silence, most of all made you miserable. But I shall get it out of you yet! There was something in the boy that suggested to you." (Pg 35, Chap 8)
I think this is a really significant quote, because it is when the Governess is suggesting to Mrs. Grose that she knows something about the ghosts. It also shows how determined the Governess is to protect the children's innocence that she will continue to threaten Mrs. Grose until she breaks and tells the truth. This quote also creates some ambiguity in the story, in that the reader must question whether or not Mrs. Grose is telling the truth when she (later in the page) tells the Governess that she hasn't seen Miss Jessel.
“Someone would appear there at the turn of a path and would stand before me and smile and approve.” (23)
This is when the Governess is walking out in the Garden before she sees Peter Quint for the first time. This is extremely important because this shows that the Governess is scared to fall the master. So this adds to my thesis by inferring that the Governess is scared of failing the Master and creates Peter Quint and Mrs. Jessel to place blame elsewhere.
"Stranger than I can express, certainly, was the effort to struggle against my new lights; it would doubtless have been, however, a greater tension still had it not been so frequently successful. I used to wonder how my little charges could help guessing that I thought strange things about them; and the circumstances that these things only made them more interesting was not by itself a direct aid to keeping them in the dark." -chapt. 9
This quote in chapter 9 described the governess' increasing infatuation with Miles and Flora. She is satisfied to know that they love her but wonders how they could be so sweet. To me, this chapter is the beginning of all of the bad things that are to come later on in the story.
"Peter Quint-you devil!" his face gave again, round the room, its convulsed supplication. "Where?"
I think that this is a very important quote because this is where the book really makes the reader decide if Miles really can see the ghost or not. It is a very controversial quote and could be interpreted both ways. Miles knows who the governess is talking about and then asks where he is. This could mean that he doesn't see him or that possibly he knows Peter Quint is haunting them and just wants to see where he is.
"After rising, in town, to meet his appeal, I had at all events a couple of very bad days--found myself doubtful again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake" (6, Chapter 1).
This quote, found in the beginning of the book, allows the reader to foreshadow what the governess may be like further into the book. She is doubtful and seems unsure of herself while on the way to the mansion. This quote makes it clear that there will be issues regarding the governess' place and duties within the household.
In Harley St., while the Governess is being interviewed for the job, she is being somewhat seduced by her employer, "The moral of which was of course the seduction excercised by the splendid young man. She succumbed to it," (James, 6). As a niave and inexperienced Christian young woman, the governess allows her curiosity of the sexual sort to overtake her sanity and force her to see this corruption portrayed onto the children.
Quote: "Never, truly, had a person "turned out" shown so little to explain it as this little person!" (pg. 85)
This quote has a lot of significance throughout the book because from the beginning there are some hints if you read the book in this manner that Miles could be gay. Especially since you never know 100% why he was kicked out of school but you assume that it was because of something he said that might have been sexual. At this point the quote starts to maybe give away a hint that in reality Miles could be gay. However, we never really know for sure. After doing some research about Henry James it was said that he might have been gay or bisexual back in his day but it is unresolved whether he was for sure or not. So this quote could even be a small symbol that it is how Henry James was himself.
Quote: "For the love of all the evil that, in those dreadful days, the pair put into them. And to ply them with that evil still, to keep up the work of demons, is what brings the others back." pg 48
This quote is said by Mrs. Grose in fear for Miles and Flora. You can tell that she seems truly frightened by the thought of there being a ghost/demons taking over the childrens actions. This quote stuck out in the book because there is nothing happy in these next couple of statements said by Mrs. Grose and the governess. This part seems to be the turning point for both women in this book between frightened and obsessed.
I find this quote to be significant to the text as a whole because it makes the idea of Miles being possessed more believable. If Miles being expelled didn't come as such a shock, his odd behavior once he returned to Bly would be no reason for the governess to believe that he was being haunted or possessed by evil.
"He [Miles] never spoke of his school, never mentioned a comrade or a master; and I [governess], for my part, was quite too much disgusted to allude to them. Of course I was under the spell; and the wonderful part is that even at the time, I perfectly knew I was" (19). Here, the governess is questioning Miles even though she claims to think of him as an angel and is clearly "disgusted" by the accusion of the school that expelled him. She cannot imagine a more perfectly angelic and unpunishable boy like himself, yet she contradicts herself in the quote above. She states that she knows that shes under a spell of some sort and that she knew all along that Miles had some other evil in him. Here is a central theme, for the governess really does NOT know what she thinks she knows. She's constantly thinking she knows more than she really knows and soon enough we get into metacognition, thinking about thinking or rather; knowning about knowing.
This quote said by Miles is a significant quote to the Turn of the Screw because the word bad can be used in a sexual way and since the governess and has some sort of sexual repression it shows that connection with Miles and the Governess. It also represents the possibility of corruption of innocence and good in Miles that could probably be caused by the ghost as the Governess might think.
"And what became of him?' she hung fire so long that i was still more mystified. 'he went, too,' sge brought out at last. 'Went where?' her expression, at this, became extraordinary, 'God knows where! He died... Yes. Mr. Quint is dead."(24) this quote is one of the most important moments in the book in my opinion. At this moment you find out that the people that the governess is seeing are ghosts and that she is either in a haunted mantion or she is crazy. Before this time the governess seemed completely credible. After this quote, everything that the governess says is taken with a grain of salt and needs to be looked at with scrutiny.
"At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied." Pg. 41
This quote is an example of the behavior coming from the governess at the middle of the book. The governess wants to believe the children are angels but knows they are not. The governess narates this after Laura gets up to, I believe to talk to Jessel, and when caught, Laura is able to take the blame off of herself and confuse the governess. It is just another mind game.
This occurs in the last scene of the book and it can be taken as Miles had never seen the ghosts at all and is asking where he is. Also 'you devil' could be directed at the governess. I believe that Miles has never seen the ghosts before and is just playing along with the governess and tries to make her go crazy.
“I used to speculate…as to how the rough future would handle them and might bruise them. They had the bloom of health and happiness…that of a romantic, a really royal extension of the garden and the park. It may be, of course, above all, that what suddenly broke into this gives the previous time a charm of stillness--that hush in which something gathers or crouches. The change was actually like the spring of a beast.”
This passage is significant because it foreshadows what is to come in the book. This is right at the beginning of the manuscript when the Governess meets the children and says that they seem like perfect angels, like royalty with their polite manners and charm. It ties in the belief that the fact that the children appear to be so perfect, so beautiful, so loving and so royal in the beginning was like a period of silence before an animal springs on its prey or even before a flash of lightening or a burst of thunder. Later on you find out that they are not so perfect and through Peter Quint and Miss Jessel become corrupt
Quote: "Prepared and on her gaurd as our pursuit had actully made her, she would repress every betrayl" Pg. 70 This quote is significant because it illustrates the attitude that the governess had throughout the whole story. The whole time the governess feels that the children are lying to her and that they will repress the truth in order to protect the ghosts. The governess says that "she would repress every betrayl" which illustrates the governess' nothion that the children are more attached to the ghosts than they are to her.
"...I held him -- it my be imagined with what a passion; but at the end of a minute I began to feel what it truly was that I held. We were alone with the quiet day and his little heart,dispossessed had stopped" (87).
I chose this quote because it is the ultimate conclusion to the novel, and, also, helps to support my thesis that the governess was attempting to protect the children from the evil of the world. From the novel, there are many other quotes showing that she wishes to protect them, but none shows it quite as strong as this passage, the ultimate price for the protection she attempts to give to the children.
"I came home, my dear, for a talk with Miss Jessel." This quote is important because after dissapearing from whome she was walking with, the Governess tells Mrs. Grose that she has spoken with the previous governess in the study room. It is weird because whether or not you beleive anyone else can see the ghosts, the governess says she's had a conversation with one. I actually beleive she thinks she had a conversation with Miss Jessel, but actually had a talk with herself. When the governess first walks in she sees miss jessel hunched over the table, but when mrs. grose walks in, the governess is in the same position.
"...within a dozen feet of me, stood there as my vile predecessor...she had looked at me long enough to appear to say that her right to sit at my table was as good as mine to sit at hers...I had the extraordinary chill of feeling that it was I who was the intruder...She looked at me as if she heard me, but I had recovered myself and cleared the air. There was nothing in the room the next minute but the sunshine and a sense that I must stay." Pg. 58 Ch. 15
I chose this quote firstly because no one else chose it and secondly because I feel it is a good way to end the chapter with first a note of horror and then a note of confidence. The governess meets face to face with her dead predecessor, and they have a sort of clash of wills at the able over who "belongs" and in the end the previous governess dispels the ghost with a sense that she belongs here.
I decided to go straight to the beginning of the book. I looked back to the exchange between Douglas and the narrator. He/She perceives that the governess is in love before the story is told. "'I see. She was in love.' He laughed for the first time. 'You are acute. Yes, she was in love. That is, she had been. That came out-she couldn't tell her story without its coming out.'"(3) This a great allusion to the governesses repressed and forbidden love for the "Master". This exchange puts the book into the perspective that the problems in all of the governesses relationships are fueled by that repression and that this "love" will come up again in the book. In my opinion this also shows a bit of flirting between the narrator and Douglas. The first thoughts to go through the narrator's head when Douglas implies that there is a special shared perception between the two of them is love.
"We were all alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped." (87)
I think this quote is significant because it shows how Miles and been exorcised in the end of the book. The governess thought he had been corrupted and that the devil was inside him, and she brought it upon herself to save him.
"My insistence turned him from me and kept him once more at his window in a silence during which, between us, you might have heard a pin drop." Page 137.
This quote helps to explain the whole book. She is reffering to one of the ghosts in the window, but this quote can infact mean more then the obviouse. The governess can be talking about all of the refferences to evil, along with all of her fears and challenges that face her. The ghost, and everything it stands for and represents, is starirng back at her. you dont quite know if it is doing it in fear, or if it is mocking her... that is left up to the reader to decide. this theme goes threw out the whole book.
"Both the children had a gentleness (it was their only fault, and it never made Miles a muff) that kept them- how shall I express it?- almost impersonal and certainly quite unpunishable." p.19
This quote vividly explains the governess's feelings about that children throughout the majority of the book. For example, she thought of them as perfect and she wanted nothing to hurt them. Thus, she wanted to protect them from corruption. Furthermore, she continuously referred to the children to things in the garden of eden.
48 comments:
Quote:
"On the spot there came to me the added shock of a certitude that it was not for me he had come there. He had come for someone else."
Page 20 IV
This quote has much significance to the book as a hold. It sets the direction of the governess to "protect" the children from the ghosts. She realizes that the ghosts aren't there to haunt her, but yet to "poison" and "corrupt" the children. She then tries her best to be their saviour and hero. I believe that her help is actually the reason for the cause of downfall throughout the rest of the book.
Quote: “I was in these days literally able to find a joy in the extraordinary flight of heroism the occasion demanded of me. I now saw that I had been asked for a service admirable and difficult; and there would be a greatness in letting it be seen—oh in the right quarter!—that I could succeed where many another girl might have failed.” (45, Chapter 6)
This quote is an example of the governess’ desire to act as a savior to the children. She prides herself on the sacrifices she has made. Part of her joy probably comes from her efforts to comply with the master’s demand to be left alone, as well as her sense of righteousness in the matter, based on her religious upbringing. The governess, although she may not have the capability to do so, insists upon heroically safeguarding the children from the ghosts.
"We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped."
This quote is the last sentence of the book and it explains that Miles had died but he had also been dispossessed, which means that he was possessed at one point. This supports my thesis also because it means that the governess does perform an excorsism on Miles.
"Instead of it even--as a woman reads another--she could see what I myself saw: his derision, his amusement, his contempt for the breakdown of my resignation at being left alone and for the fine machinery I had set in motion to attract his attention to my slighted charms."
Page 81 (My version is a different book)
The governess, in my opinion, is suffering from a form of Paranoia Schizophrenia (yes i know that'll be hard to prove). This is a good quote of the paranoia sense of her disease, which I relate to hear Vanity. She is scared that Mrs. Grose and the Master are going to see her doing a bad job, and she fears that people can see right through her as Mrs. Grose seems to now.
Quote:
"To see her, without a convulsion of her small pink face, not even feign to glance in the direction of the prodigy I announced, but only, instead of that, turn at me and expression of hard, still gravity, an expression absolutely new and unprecedented and that appeared to read and accuse and judge me- this was a stroke that somehow converted the little girl herself into the very presence that could make me quail" (page 70 ch. 20).
This quote is the governess's description of Flora after she has come out and asked her where Miss Jessel is when Flora is found by the pond. This quote is significant because here we see the governess's real fear that the ghosts have corrupted the children so much that they don't even admit to seeing them anymore. Also this quote is the first real concrete evidence in the book that could show that the children might not even see the ghosts, that they may only be images of the governess's imagination.
"'I don't do it!' I sobbed in despair, 'I don't save or shield them! It's far worse than I dreamed. They're lost!'" (40) This quote was said by the governess when she realized that Miss Jessel and Peter Quint might be after the children. And since the governess sees the world through a Christian's point of view she looks at Miss Jessel and Peter Quint as people who could corrupt Miles and Flora. She believes that she is the only one who can save the children from these beings or all is lost.
Quote: "There were exactly states of the air, conditions of sound and of stillness, unspeakable impressions of the kind of ministering moment, that brought back to me...the feeling of the medium in which...I had had my first sight of Quint" (p.50-51)
This quote is prevalent to the book because it shows that much of the governess' insight and perspective is based purely on feelings and "impressions" and not on actual fact. This makes the book more ambiguous and vague which leaves more up to the reader for interpretation.
"with the sense that, pale and ravenous demon she was, she would catch and understand it - an inarticulate message of gratitude" (70)
Even though Miss Jessel is torturing the Governess, the Governess is thankful that she can see her. She thinks that this time because Miss Jessel is in plain sight, not just a quick glimpse in the hallway, it is a good sign. Although this is really counterintuitive especially since the Governess later decides the ghosts are evil and wants them to go away and leave the children alone. This is the first step on the Governess's path to insanity.
Quote:
“The moral of which was of coarse, the seduction exercised by the splendid young man. She succumbed to it”
Page 6, Prolouge
This quote as much significance to the novel, and to myself while I am forming my paper on how the governess acts on her emotions. This is one of the first examples where the governess lets her emotions take over her body. This is done so when she falls in love with the Master after he chrams her into taking the governess position at Bly.
"I was so determined to have all my proof that I flashed into ice to challenge him. "Whom do you mean by 'he'?"" (XXIV pg86).
This quote is at the very end of the book and it shows how important it is to the governess to be able to prove her case and how caught up she had become with the ghosts through out the book. To me, this quote set up that something was going to happen between the governess and Miles because she had such great determination at that point and was willing to do anything to be right. When she got the chance to have Peter Quint and Miles in the room she took full control trying to prove herself right.
"Peter Quint-you devil!"(pg.86)
This is I think one of the most important quotes of the book. This is the quote that determines if the children can see the ghosts or not. It depends on who you think miles is calling devil. I personally believe miles is calling the governess devil and only says Peter Quint because he is freaked out by the governess and doesn't know what to do; so he tries to guess what she wants him to say.
Quote:
At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied; and if I once more closed my eyes it was before the dazzle of the three or four possible ways in which I might take this up" (41).
This quote was when the governess asked Flora about seeing someone in the yard, and Flora denied seeing anyone, but the governess didn't believe her. I think this shows that the children know about the qhosts and are actually ghosts as well and are trying to show the governess that she is one too.
"to keep up the work of demons, is what brings the others back." pg. 48 (top of page)
This quote is describing how the children are bringing the ghosts back. It is saying that because they are conspiring against the Governess, and there for being evil or keeping "up the work of demons, they are the ones that are raving the "others", ghosts, back. If the children were behaving good than the ghosts would leave the house and the Governess alone and not come back. It is blaming the ghosts on the children.
"'Ah, you can't get off with that!' I was silent a little, and it was I, now, I think, who changed color. 'My dear, I don't want to get off!' 'You can't, even if you do. You can't, you can't!'...'If we do,' I returned with some spirit, 'you may be sure it will be to take you quite away'" (62).
This is the governess conversing with Miles. If you were to think about this novel sexually, this quote would be quite representative of the governess's sexual repression. The end of the novel would be like sex or the climax where the governess and Miles are orgasming. With an orgasm being referred to as the 'little death', Miles dies in the end, which is associated with the part in the quote where the governess says 'you may be sure it will be to take you away' or die or rather he orgasms in the end. With the orgasm his innocence is truly and absolutely obliterated and the governess has failed to protect the children's innocence.
Molly Riegel
Quote: " Well i said things.... No; it was only to- .... I don't remember their names.....No- only a few. Those I liked" (pg 85).
This quote is important because I think it makes it obvious that Miles is possibly homosexual. This would not only explain how Miles is corrupt and why they ghost is after him but also why he got kicked out of school. Since it was an only boys school that Miles was at, he could have only said those things to boys that he liked.
Quote:"...my imagination had, in a flash, turned real. He did stand there!- but high up, beyond the lawn and at the very top of the tower.." (Page 15, Chapter III)
This passage signifies the idea that the governess conjures the images of the ghosts to satisfy her need of a relationship after she falls in love with the master but he fails to provide love back. She feels such strong emotions and wants to have a man in her life so badly, day dreaming about it so often that her dreams become real to her, in the sense that only she can see them. The tower as the first location of spying "Peter Quint" is a sexual reference in the way freud viewed relationships.
“A succession of flights and drops, a little see-saw of the right throbs and the wrong (p.122 chapter 1)”
This quote describes the view on the children, switching back and forth like a see-saw. The governess changes her mind many times throughout the book, between seeing them as good and innocent, and evil. This quote opens the frist chapter of the book (after the frame), so it foreshadows what is to come.
“—it made me drop on my knees beside the bed and seize once more the chance of possessing him. "Dear little Miles, dear little Miles, if you knew how I want to help you! I just want you to help me to save you!" Ch. 17 pg. 64
The Governess believes that the children are being possessed and corrupted by the ghosts. Through the story she tries to protect the children from the corrupting powers of the ghosts but it seems that the children seek out the company of the ghosts and that is what the Governess is afraid of. This quote refers to the Governess’ desire to protect Miles and save him from the ghosts. She had been talking to Miles about what happened at his school and why he had been expelled. The governess becomes hysterical in her desire to pull Miles out of his corruption.
Mrs Grose and the governess finally find Flora by the pond. The governess relveals to us how they met Flora. She explains, "She smiled and smiled, and we met; but it was all done in a silence by this flagrantly ominous." I found this quote to be interesting because James gives the impression through his word choice that Flora is almost devilish. The word flagrant means almost offensive, and ominous is like a threatening aspect. By his word choice, Henry James helps to create an idea in the readers mind of exactly what is going on in the governess' head. It can help the reader to conclude that the child is actually insane and doing evil works, or that the governess is insane and believes the child is taking over her subconcious mind.
"Mrs Grose considered as if it were perhaps a little a case for a sense of shades. "Ive never seen one like him. He did what he wished." "With her?"
"With them all."
This quote occurs right when the Governess is questionoing Mrs. Grose about Peter Quint and how he was with the children. This passage is important because it can be interpreted in many different ways, and any one of them is just as viable as another because the way it is written leaves the meaning up to interpretation. If you read it from a Freudian viewpoint, you would think that Peter Quint had his way with them sexually. On the other hand, if you read it on the positive side, you would think she meant that he spoiled them too much or let them do what they wish. I've found much of the book is similar to this passage in that the book was written in a way that 5 different readers may come out with 5 different meanings after reading the same text.
" 'Dear little Miles'-oh, I brought it out now even if I should go too far-'I just want you to help me to save you!"
(64, Ch. 17)
The governess says this to Miles after she questions him about why he was expelled from his school. This alludes to one of the central themes of the novel-religion and salvation, as it refers to the act of saving or redeeming oneself from an evil. The Governess, in her imagination, has this idea that both Miles and Flora are evil children and need proper training to be saved from the devil. It is her naivity coupled with her upbringing that causes her to believe this.
Quote:
" I just want you to help me to save you."
Chapter 17
This is a significant part of the story because the governess has finally expressed what she has been doing all along. She's been trying so hard to gt the children to confess to being evil so that she can help save them. Miles is now upset because she has been plotting against him since she arrived.
On page 15, the governess was stating that, "Much as I liked my companions, this hour was the thing in the day I liked most," "I could take a turn into the grounds and enjoy, almost with a sense of property that amused and flattered me, the beauty and dignity of the place. It was a pleasure at these moments to feel myself tranquil and justified; doubtless, perhaps, also to reflect that by my discretion, my quiet good sense and general high propriety, I was giving pleaure- if he ever thought of it!..."What I was doing was what he had earnestly hoped and directly asked of me, and that I could, after all, do it proved even a greater joy than I had expected."
This quote has much significance to the book as a whole. It sets the readers to understand that in everything that the Governess does is for the happiness of the master. She is doing everything that she thinks the master is earnestly hoped of her, which in turn, of all things she believed that the master has hoped of her, she begins to hallucinates and sees herself as a savior for the children, to be able to protect the children from the evil, the ghosts.
Quote: "We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped" (Pg. 87).
I believe this quote has much significance on the entire book. While you are learning throughout the book that the two ghosts have corrupted the children, and then that the Governess is crazy and wanting to know everything about the children you are also learning much more. This quote ties everything up in the book to end it with a good understanding. This quote helps to signify that the Governess was indeed crazy and had killed Miles because she was too self-absorbed in trying to pry through the children's past live herself.
"You do know, you dear thing, I replied; only you haven't my dreadful boldness of mind, and you keep back, out of timidity and modesty and delicacy, even the impression that, in the past, when you had, without my aid, to flounder about in silence, most of all made you miserable. But I shall get it out of you yet! There was something in the boy that suggested to you." (Pg 35, Chap 8)
I think this is a really significant quote, because it is when the Governess is suggesting to Mrs. Grose that she knows something about the ghosts. It also shows how determined the Governess is to protect the children's innocence that she will continue to threaten Mrs. Grose until she breaks and tells the truth. This quote also creates some ambiguity in the story, in that the reader must question whether or not Mrs. Grose is telling the truth when she (later in the page) tells the Governess that she hasn't seen Miss Jessel.
“Someone would appear there at the turn of a path and would stand before me and smile and approve.” (23)
This is when the Governess is walking out in the Garden before she sees Peter Quint for the first time. This is extremely important because this shows that the Governess is scared to fall the master. So this adds to my thesis by inferring that the Governess is scared of failing the Master and creates Peter Quint and Mrs. Jessel to place blame elsewhere.
"Stranger than I can express, certainly, was the effort to struggle against my new lights; it would doubtless have been, however, a greater tension still had it not been so frequently successful. I used to wonder how my little charges could help guessing that I thought strange things about them; and the circumstances that these things only made them more interesting was not by itself a direct aid to keeping them in the dark." -chapt. 9
This quote in chapter 9 described the governess' increasing infatuation with Miles and Flora. She is satisfied to know that they love her but wonders how they could be so sweet. To me, this chapter is the beginning of all of the bad things that are to come later on in the story.
"Peter Quint-you devil!" his face gave again, round the room, its convulsed supplication. "Where?"
I think that this is a very important quote because this is where the book really makes the reader decide if Miles really can see the ghost or not. It is a very controversial quote and could be interpreted both ways. Miles knows who the governess is talking about and then asks where he is. This could mean that he doesn't see him or that possibly he knows Peter Quint is haunting them and just wants to see where he is.
"After rising, in town, to meet his appeal, I had at all events a couple of very bad days--found myself doubtful again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake" (6, Chapter 1).
This quote, found in the beginning of the book, allows the reader to foreshadow what the governess may be like further into the book. She is doubtful and seems unsure of herself while on the way to the mansion. This quote makes it clear that there will be issues regarding the governess' place and duties within the household.
In Harley St., while the Governess is being interviewed for the job, she is being somewhat seduced by her employer, "The moral of which was of course the seduction excercised by the splendid young man. She succumbed to it," (James, 6). As a niave and inexperienced Christian young woman, the governess allows her curiosity of the sexual sort to overtake her sanity and force her to see this corruption portrayed onto the children.
Quote: "Never, truly, had a person "turned out" shown so little to explain it as this little person!" (pg. 85)
This quote has a lot of significance throughout the book because from the beginning there are some hints if you read the book in this manner that Miles could be gay. Especially since you never know 100% why he was kicked out of school but you assume that it was because of something he said that might have been sexual. At this point the quote starts to maybe give away a hint that in reality Miles could be gay. However, we never really know for sure. After doing some research about Henry James it was said that he might have been gay or bisexual back in his day but it is unresolved whether he was for sure or not. So this quote could even be a small symbol that it is how Henry James was himself.
Quote: "For the love of all the evil that, in those dreadful days, the pair put into them. And to ply them with that evil still, to keep up the work of demons, is what brings the others back." pg 48
This quote is said by Mrs. Grose in fear for Miles and Flora. You can tell that she seems truly frightened by the thought of there being a ghost/demons taking over the childrens actions. This quote stuck out in the book because there is nothing happy in these next couple of statements said by Mrs. Grose and the governess. This part seems to be the turning point for both women in this book between frightened and obsessed.
"Master Miles! him an injury?" (page 11)
I find this quote to be significant to the text as a whole because it makes the idea of Miles being possessed more believable. If Miles being expelled didn't come as such a shock, his odd behavior once he returned to Bly would be no reason for the governess to believe that he was being haunted or possessed by evil.
"He [Miles] never spoke of his school, never mentioned a comrade or a master; and I [governess], for my part, was quite too much disgusted to allude to them. Of course I was under the spell; and the wonderful part is that even at the time, I perfectly knew I was" (19). Here, the governess is questioning Miles even though she claims to think of him as an angel and is clearly "disgusted" by the accusion of the school that expelled him. She cannot imagine a more perfectly angelic and unpunishable boy like himself, yet she contradicts herself in the quote above. She states that she knows that shes under a spell of some sort and that she knew all along that Miles had some other evil in him. Here is a central theme, for the governess really does NOT know what she thinks she knows. She's constantly thinking she knows more than she really knows and soon enough we get into metacognition, thinking about thinking or rather; knowning about knowing.
"Think me - for a change - bad!"
pg 46 XI
This quote said by Miles is a significant quote to the Turn of the Screw because the word bad can be used in a sexual way and since the governess and has some sort of sexual repression it shows that connection with Miles and the Governess. It also represents the possibility of corruption of innocence and good in Miles that could probably be caused by the ghost as the Governess might think.
"And what became of him?' she hung fire so long that i was still more mystified. 'he went, too,' sge brought out at last. 'Went where?' her expression, at this, became extraordinary, 'God knows where! He died... Yes. Mr. Quint is dead."(24) this quote is one of the most important moments in the book in my opinion. At this moment you find out that the people that the governess is seeing are ghosts and that she is either in a haunted mantion or she is crazy. Before this time the governess seemed completely credible. After this quote, everything that the governess says is taken with a grain of salt and needs to be looked at with scrutiny.
"At that moment, in the state of my nerves, I absolutely believed she lied." Pg. 41
This quote is an example of the behavior coming from the governess at the middle of the book. The governess wants to believe the children are angels but knows they are not. The governess narates this after Laura gets up to, I believe to talk to Jessel, and when caught, Laura is able to take the blame off of herself and confuse the governess. It is just another mind game.
"Peter Quint-you devil!...where?
pg. 86
This occurs in the last scene of the book and it can be taken as Miles had never seen the ghosts at all and is asking where he is. Also 'you devil' could be directed at the governess. I believe that Miles has never seen the ghosts before and is just playing along with the governess and tries to make her go crazy.
“I used to speculate…as to how the rough future would handle them and might bruise them. They had the bloom of health and happiness…that of a romantic, a really royal extension of the garden and the park. It may be, of course, above all, that what suddenly broke into this gives the previous time a charm of stillness--that hush in which something gathers or crouches. The change was actually like the spring of a beast.”
This passage is significant because it foreshadows what is to come in the book. This is right at the beginning of the manuscript when the Governess meets the children and says that they seem like perfect angels, like royalty with their polite manners and charm. It ties in the belief that the fact that the children appear to be so perfect, so beautiful, so loving and so royal in the beginning was like a period of silence before an animal springs on its prey or even before a flash of lightening or a burst of thunder. Later on you find out that they are not so perfect and through Peter Quint and Miss Jessel become corrupt
Quote: "Prepared and on her gaurd as our pursuit had actully made her, she would repress every betrayl" Pg. 70
This quote is significant because it illustrates the attitude that the governess had throughout the whole story. The whole time the governess feels that the children are lying to her and that they will repress the truth in order to protect the ghosts. The governess says that "she would repress every betrayl" which illustrates the governess' nothion that the children are more attached to the ghosts than they are to her.
"...I held him -- it my be imagined with what a passion; but at the end of a minute I began to feel what it truly was that I held. We were alone with the quiet day and his little heart,dispossessed had stopped" (87).
I chose this quote because it is the ultimate conclusion to the novel, and, also, helps to support my thesis that the governess was attempting to protect the children from the evil of the world. From the novel, there are many other quotes showing that she wishes to protect them, but none shows it quite as strong as this passage, the ultimate price for the protection she attempts to give to the children.
"I came home, my dear, for a talk with Miss Jessel." This quote is important because after dissapearing from whome she was walking with, the Governess tells Mrs. Grose that she has spoken with the previous governess in the study room. It is weird because whether or not you beleive anyone else can see the ghosts, the governess says she's had a conversation with one. I actually beleive she thinks she had a conversation with Miss Jessel, but actually had a talk with herself. When the governess first walks in she sees miss jessel hunched over the table, but when mrs. grose walks in, the governess is in the same position.
"...within a dozen feet of me, stood there as my vile predecessor...she had looked at me long enough to appear to say that her right to sit at my table was as good as mine to sit at hers...I had the extraordinary chill of feeling that it was I who was the intruder...She looked at me as if she heard me, but I had recovered myself and cleared the air. There was nothing in the room the next minute but the sunshine and a sense that I must stay." Pg. 58 Ch. 15
I chose this quote firstly because no one else chose it and secondly because I feel it is a good way to end the chapter with first a note of horror and then a note of confidence. The governess meets face to face with her dead predecessor, and they have a sort of clash of wills at the able over who "belongs" and in the end the previous governess dispels the ghost with a sense that she belongs here.
I decided to go straight to the beginning of the book. I looked back to the exchange between Douglas and the narrator. He/She perceives that the governess is in love before the story is told. "'I see. She was in love.' He laughed for the first time. 'You are acute. Yes, she was in love. That is, she had been. That came out-she couldn't tell her story without its coming out.'"(3) This a great allusion to the governesses repressed and forbidden love for the "Master". This exchange puts the book into the perspective that the problems in all of the governesses relationships are fueled by that repression and that this "love" will come up again in the book. In my opinion this also shows a bit of flirting between the narrator and Douglas. The first thoughts to go through the narrator's head when Douglas implies that there is a special shared perception between the two of them is love.
"We were all alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped." (87)
I think this quote is significant because it shows how Miles and been exorcised in the end of the book. The governess thought he had been corrupted and that the devil was inside him, and she brought it upon herself to save him.
"My insistence turned him from me and kept him once more at his window in a silence during which, between us, you might have heard a pin drop." Page 137.
This quote helps to explain the whole book. She is reffering to one of the ghosts in the window, but this quote can infact mean more then the obviouse. The governess can be talking about all of the refferences to evil, along with all of her fears and challenges that face her. The ghost, and everything it stands for and represents, is starirng back at her. you dont quite know if it is doing it in fear, or if it is mocking her... that is left up to the reader to decide. this theme goes threw out the whole book.
"Both the children had a gentleness (it was their only fault, and it never made Miles a muff) that kept them- how shall I express it?- almost impersonal and certainly quite unpunishable." p.19
This quote vividly explains the governess's feelings about that children throughout the majority of the book. For example, she thought of them as perfect and she wanted nothing to hurt them. Thus, she wanted to protect them from corruption. Furthermore, she continuously referred to the children to things in the garden of eden.
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