Theme 2: Femininity and Sexuality
The Turn of the Screw additionally examines themes of women's sexuality and femineity, specifically through the dynamics between women characters. The governess narrator initially exists outside of sexuality, serving only as a mother figure and guiding hand for children, completely innocuous and domestic. The other women servants of the household including housekeeper Mrs. Grose fill this non-sexual role as well, their sole purpose to serve as guardians for the children’s. However, the story explores cultural fear of sexuality and subsequent perversion of accepted social behavior, as the governess breaks out of her submissive, motherly role by communicating with and speaking about the sexually "deviant" former governess.
The engagement with the "othered" female, sexually and mentally, that threatens the social order by indoctrination of the protagonist, through empathy of their plight and suffering, and questioning of acceptable roles and boundaries. The spectral women, such as Miss Jessel, are not purely predatory; moral ambiguity shines through here, in that they are perpetrators of violence, but also victims of it, which has shaped their monstrosity.
The two women never speak in the story--the communication is emotional, a sharing and exposure of trauma that threatens the politeness of their domestic gender roles. The governess and Miss Jessel are foils to one another. They have a bond and connection in social standing and position, both literally as caretaker, but also of women in an unsafe place.
This psychological and feminine connection is drawn out in the body language and figure relationships in the original serialized illustrations by Eric Pape. When the governess sees Miss Jessel's ghost over the water (Image 1), the protagonist is physically overwhelmed by emotion. This is brought on not only by the sight of the supernatural, but the unraveling of the truth about Miss Jessel's life, in that she was trapped in a violent sexual relationship with Peter Quint, and the abuse which she suffered led to her mental decline and eventual suicide by drowning.
The form of Miss Jessel is less physically menacing or threatening than that of Quint. Her appearance in the narrative serves as an omen to the protagonist, warning her of the events which occurred in Bly Manor. Eric Pape straddles this line between fear of the corrupting supernatural, and despair over her memory being discarded by the household. The governess is emotional on the ground, but not terrified. Miss Jessel stands higher in the composition, but both women are situated on the ground together, sharing the space as equals. Miss Jessel watches over the narrator in an non-predatory way. The more that Miss Jessel communicates with her living counterpart, the less interested the governess becomes in adhering to her station as a "mother". She becomes more involved and obsessed with unraveling her predecessor’s story in a perverse act of sisterhood.
The use figure relationships and composition to emphasize feminine communication, as established by Eric Pape's original illustrations, is continued in the film adaptation The Innocents (1961). Where the original story had a limited number of scenes it could visually portray, the film allows viewers to see the connection between governess and ghost grow and deepen over time through repeated encounters.
When the governess sees her predecessor’s ghost in the marshes around the pond (Image 2, top), the two women are once again on equal ground as they observe one another. Miss Jessel is still imposing, her unnatural black figure breaking the idyllic landscape, but she is seated, not encroaching. The women share a space, making eye contact--Miss Jessels appears not as a threat, but an omen. The governess in turn recognizes that danger is present, and is spurred to investigate the unsavory past of the manor Miss Jessel continues to engage throughout the narrative.
While the governess is initially frightened of the specter, this is complicated as the film continues. She becomes influenced by the ghost and the implications that its sexuality has had on the children. She takes on Miss Jessel's looming, dark form (Image 2, bottom) in confronting Flora, a mirror to the figure that originally appeared to her. Gone is the tender, motherly archetype, instead replaced by a woman who is paranoid and adversarial of the children she is trying to protect.
Similarly, the spirt of Miss Jessel appears before the governess in the children's classroom within the manor (Image 3). Rather than hostile, the ghost is weeping, trapped in the domestic space that these women share. The feminine influence and communication between the women further indoctrinate the governess to Miss Jessel's plight and cements their bond, with her immediately taking the ghost's seated position at the lectern. Miss Jessel is a danger in her ghostly influence on the children, but the governess recognizes her as a victim, and she too become disillusioned in her caretaker role. She serves as a mouthpiece for Miss Jessel, her foil, when she has been silenced, cracking the non-sexual and submissive role that she is meant to inhabit as a mother.
The dynamic female relationships work both ways in the narrative; as the protagonist becomes more othered, she is reviled by the establishment. Initially, the governess fits within the accepted norms for a woman, acting as a doting caretaker alongside the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, sharing the same values and goals. However, as she dives further into her connection with the deceased Miss Jessel, her engagement of the "distasteful" alienates her from those who remain in social acceptable roles. She is ostracized for discussing acts of sex and abuse, due to taboos of speaking or addressing it (Image 6). Mrs. Grose's condemnation of her seeking the truth represents social fears of sexual corruption and indecency. Conversely, the governess' determination to reveal it speaks to the desire to protect other women and break the cycle of silence that oppresses their gendered stations.
The trope of women contacting feminine specter has a storied basis in gothic horror, predating The Turn of the Screw.
The story of Carmilla, written by Sheridan Le Fanu, follows a young woman whose close companion and bond, Carmilla, is a vampire who has romantic desires for her. The novella is notable in that its tone is not hostile towards homosexuality--the narrative focuses on the companionship and emotional, physiological connections that form between the women as Laura unravels the mystery and danger surrounding her. While Carmilla is inherently a supernatural, dangerous entity as a vampire, and "othered" sexually, the story is defined by their bond to one another, as much as the ending is defined by the traumatic loss of this kinship.
The novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë similarly demonstrates the recurrence of feminine influence and traumatic bond between women in gothic horror. Jane and Bertha Mason recognizably share a sexual role, as the romantic partner to Mr. Rochester. Bertha's repeated visits to Jane serve as an omen to the protagonist, warning of the entrapment and emotional corrosion they both face as Rochester's wives. Bertha Mason is frightening to Jane, but her understanding and empathy for the abuse which Bertha has faced at Rochester's hand due to her mental illness causes Jane to abandon him and the social station he represents. Jane's respect for herself and for Bertha cement a "sisterhood", rejecting the sexual space that threatens their personhood.
The gothic horror format explores femininity and sexuality not just through sexual acts, but through sisterhood and shared trauma between women and their socially "monstrous" counterparts. The connection and understanding they forge by having to navigate the same domestic and social boundaries places them on equal footing--while Carmilla and Bertha are confrontational to their submissive counterparts (Image 2 and 3, illustrations by David Henry Friston and F. H. Townsend), they are not violent or threatening to them, merely trying to communicate and break their resolve in cultural norms.
This is reflected in the connection that is built between the governess and Miss Jessel; the monstrous apparition is morally ambiguous in its role, but also actively challenges the social boundaries that the protagonist exists in, and causes her in turn to question them herself.