The Ghosts In The Turn Of The Screw

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There is much speculation as to what happened in the novel, The Turn of the Screw. Some think that the ghosts and the children were connected while others think that it wasn’t even the children who influenced the ghosts but Mrs. Grose. The problem with many of these theories is that they don’t have much firm evidence in the novel. And much of the book doesn’t clarify the actual truth either. Throughout the story even the governess, who is the narrator and are expected to trust her words, repeatedly changes her mind. At first she thought that the kids were innocent and she needed to protect them. Then she felt that the kids were in cahoots with the ghosts and are out to get her. Either way, she believed that the ghosts were real and had some sort of connection with the kids. She tried to find that connection from them but there are signs that what she was trying to prove would…show more content…
The problem is that no one else in the Bly estate has actually seen the ghosts for themselves. Whenever the ghosts appear, the governess is the only one to see them. “She isn’t there, little lady, and nobody’s there-and you never see nothing, my sweet! How can poor Miss Jessel-when poor Miss Jessel’s dead and buried?” (103). In this scene, the governess tries to get Flora to admit that she sees the ghost of Miss Jessel across that lake. But the problem is that she doesn't see the ghosts. And neither does Mrs. Grose. The governess needs this to prove that the ghosts and the kids are affiliated with the ghosts. Without their confession, the governess shows Mrs. Grose that she is lying and making up the whole story. This would jeopardize whatever plan she had in mind. It would make the kids innocent of what the governess accused them of and her a liar. The governess is trying to materialize something that isn’t there but since no one sees the ghost on the Bly Estate, it reveals the flaws in the governess’
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