The Turn of the Screw - Setting - Ms. Sandford's Website
Prologue:Time: Mid 19th (1840s). Evening of Christmas Eve. Unusual as Christmas Eve isn’t considered the most optimal time of year to tell ghost stories. The time of day, being in the evening, matches a ghost story setting. Place: An old house. Very conventional setting for a ghost story as it is often around a fire or in a cabin.Atmosphere: Very cozy atmosphere is implied from the fact that it is Christmas eve and that it is around a fire.“The story had help us round the first, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as on Christmas Even in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment…”Few other details about the prologue setting are provided.The Turn of the Screw:Bly, Essex:Time: Most of the story takes place well before the narration time as it is a recollection of a now dead governess’ experience. Takes place in the summer, specifically in June.Place: “No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half-replaced and half-utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!” (Last line of Chapter 1) House in Bly, Essex, with vast greenery and no urbanisation. ? Atmosphere: Sets an isolated mood, much like a haunted house in the middle of nowhere. However, our first initial description of the atmosphere around the house is also very warming (ex. "I remember the lawn and the bright flowers and the crunch of my wheels on the gravel" (Chapter 1)). The governess says that she expected a something much worse than what she saw. Whereas the Governess' initial description of the house and setting is warming, the geographical setting of the house and later description of the Governess encourages a darker, more isolated mood.The sense of isolation is enhanced by the fact that the governess is told to “never trouble him…neither appeal nor complain nor write about anything” (10)The estate can be interpreted as a symbol of PurityIt has white halls, but is tainted by ghostsThe governess doesn’t want to speak of the ghosts in the houseThe ghosts often appear outside; they appear inside when the governess’s sanity appears to deteriorate. Ghosts are seen outside windows clarityWindows Quint is seen through the windowThe setting is described as “vast and imposing” she’s swept away. Foreshadows the immense size of her job but also how distracted she will be, by the people that come with it. Harley Street had provided the governess with “a narrower notion of the place (Bly)” Outdoor Settings:The lawn: Peter Quint is first seen here.This is also where the children walk when the governess first calls them “frauds” (74).A place of deception: amazingly beautiful and romantic scenery marred by the apparition of an evil ghost and the acts of the children touched by two ghosts.Lake/Woods:Miss Jessel is first seen here while Flora is building a boat. The day was first described as “the sun was still high and the day was exceptionally warm.” When they found shade, the governess notices a third presence, but here the author does not provide an description of this presence. A suspenseful atmosphere is established as readers don’t know who this presence is until the next chapter. This is where the governess is shocked as Flora fixes her with a look of reprobation and Grose cannot see Jessel. After this, Flora takes ill and appears to lose her mind.Toy boat and actually rowing boat can be taken as a representation of crossing safe water to get to the dark side (where Jessel is at first and where Flora is found later).Church (change of setting) (conversation in a graveyard):Miles speaks of returning to school for the first time. He seems really grown-up in this situation (much more than for a ten-year old). He comments on how he wishes for change and new things (85) at the point where the reader is seeing change and new things in this chapter (ch. 14). “You know what a boy wants!”The governess is so shocked, she sits on a grave later described to be her own grave (87) – foreshadowing. Miles is acting unnatural and this is an unnatural place to have such a conversation.Indoor Settings:Old Tower/New Tower:This is where the governess first encounters a ghost, which is later reveled to be Peter Quint. “He had stand there!-but high up, beyond the lawn and at the very top of the tower to which, on that first morning, little Flora had conducted me” (25). This ghost siting occurs in the evening during the governess’ private hour. A very intense and then eerie mood is established as the two exchange intense glares. Even more creepy is that Quint keeps his eyes fixed on the governess even while turning away from herVery significant because this is the area in which Flora brought the governess on her tour and it is at the top of the tower that the governess sees the ghost and it becomes the only place in the entire house in which a ghost appears. The distinct description of the towers add to the significance of seeing the ghosts as the tone is very ambiguous “This tower was one of a pare- square in congruous crenellated structures- that were distinguished for some reason, though I could see little difference, as the new and the old” (25). The significance of the description of the towers is that there is no clear distinction as to where the governess saw the ghost is the old or the new tower. This adds to ambiguity of her narration as it can be questioned as to whether or not she saw the ghost. In addition, it further highlights whether or not the narrator is reliable. Further description of the towers is seen “They flaked opposite ends of the house and where probably architectural absurdities redeemed in a measure indeed by not being wholly disengaged nor of a height too pretentious, dating in their ginger bread antiquity from a romantic revival that was already a respectable past” (25). The House/ Window: The second encounter of the ghost is made again next to the window of the house however; the governess also describes the house “he was the same, and seen, this time, as he had been seen before, from the waist up, the window, through the dinning-room was on the ground floor, not going down to the Terrance where he stood” (32). The description of seeing the ghost through the window emphasizes the clarity to which the governess has seen the ghost this is evident here “the day was grey enough but the afternoon light still lingered, and it enabled me, on crossing the threshold, not only to recognize on a chair near the wide window, the closed, the articles I wanted, but to become aware of a person on the other side of the window looking straight in” (31). Furthermore, through the inside window the setting outside is further described showing a distinction between what happens outside and what happens inside “The terrace and the whole place, the lawn and the garden beyond it, all I could see of the park were empty with great emptiness” (32). Church (Inside):“I walked round the church, hesitating, hovering: I reflected that I had already, with hurt beyond repair” (88). “As I paused beneath the high east window and listened to the sound of worship I was taken with an impulse that might master me” (88). Significant as the governess seeks redemption for her sins and wants to be forgiven. The tie to confessing ones sins can be associated with Miles not confessing why he got expelled from school.The Staircase:“Tormented, in the hall, with the difficulties and obstacles, I remember sinking down at the foot of the stair case. Suddenly collapsing on the last step and then recalling that it was exactly where more than a month ago before in the darkness of night and just so loved with evil things. I had seen the spectra of the most horrible women” (89). The staircase in addition to the tower and the windows is another place in which the governess sees a ghosts. Very significant as this is the only time in which a ghost appears in contrast to the many times Peter Quint appears next to a window. Also, the governess finds herself in the same position as Miss Jessel on the staircase, which startles her and causes readers to consider their similarities. The School Room:“I should have taken at the first blush for some house maid who might have stayed home look after the place. Rare observations of the school room table and my pens, ink and paper” (89-90). The governess encounters Miss Jessel and talks to her, which is very significant because this is the only verbal interaction she had with ghosts. Rooms:Miss Grose’s Room:“Where in the twilight amid a smell of lately baked bread, but with the place all swept and garnished, I found her sitting in pained placidity before the fine” (91). “I see her best: facing the flame from her straight chain in the dusty shinning room, a large clean picture of the “put away” (91). The significance of seeing her in the light is symbolic of the knowledge that she gives the readers as to what the governess is going through. Governess’s Room:“He weather had changed lack, a great wind was abroad, and beneath the lamp, my room with Flora at peace beside me, I sat for a long time before a blank sheet of paper and listened to the lash of the rain and the batter of the gusts” (94). In contrast to the weather Flora sits next to the Governess in peace, in addition she displays qualities of a school teacher despite not teaching and being in the privacy of her room. Miles’s Room:“Therefore you can fancy how much I am in the dark” (96). This is exactly how I felt when reading this section as Miles continuously refused to answer questions that were significant to the development of the story. “I just want you to help me save you!” (98). “The answer to my appeal was in instantaneous, but it came in the form of an extrodinary blast and chill a gust of frozen air and a shake of the room as great as if the wild wind, the casement had crashed in” (98). “It was I who blew it dear!” (99).This aspect of the setting introduces the creepiness of Miles and sheds a new perspective on his character. Last Scene in the Dining room with the Window:“White face of damnation” (128). “As the white as the face on the glass” (128).“Meanwhile the glare of the face was again at the window, the scoundrel fixed as if to watch and wait.” (129). Throughout this scene the tension between Miles and the governess increases as she continues to demand answers. This is further increased with the governess sees the ghosts through the window as she keeps on seeing it.In addition, it is the glass and the clarity of the glass that is emphasized as proving that the governess can see the ghost. Ambiguity in this chapter plays a significant role in not answering the important question with the confusion of pronouns and the use of caesura the reader is left to come their own conclusion. ................
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