The main story is embedded in another story, namely that of a man who owns the diary of a woman who once lived and worked as a governess on the Bly estate. This man, Douglas, knew her as a governess to her sister when he himself was young and after the events of her diary. We readers learn about it when you read it to a group of friends.
It’s a very convoluted story of a high-strung young woman who presumably falls for her employer on their first meeting when he hires her as governess to his young niece and nephew, Flora and Miles. After the death of his parents they have been left in his care, but he shows no real concern or interest in them and the governess is not to bother him with news of his lives on his Bly estate. When he arrives, only eight-year-old Flora is home like Miles, as ten-year-old Miles is at school. However, two days later, he also goes to Bly because he has been expelled for corrupting the other students. Both he and his sister look like angels, so the government can’t imagine that he did anything wrong.
When he learns a little about the former governess, Miss Jessel, who is dead, he takes a great interest in her and her life. One afternoon, walking through the park, she sees a stranger in the tower. She decides not to tell anyone in the house about him, but then she too sees him through the window and she has to inform the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, about this incident. To her astonishment, this down-to-earth woman declares that the stranger is her employer’s dead valet, Peter Quint, and that he is most likely looking for Miles and Flora, who befriended him when he was alive. What she doesn’t say speaks volumes about the depravity that’s clear from the start. Shortly after this episode, the governess also sees what appears to be Peter Quint’s dead lover, i.e. Miss Jessel, who is looking at her and Flora. The boy seems to have seen her too, but surprises the governess that she pretends not to have noticed anything unusual.
From now on, all the children do or say that she sees as attempts not to tell or even acknowledge that they have seen these two “ghosts”. What was once charming childishness is now seen by her as a deceit and a lie. She perceives the children as two depraved souls whom she, as a governess, must save. Her passionate manner scares the children and they always deny having seen or heard the “ghosts”. Also Mrs. Grose, who used to be hers supports her, but slowly drifts away from her. This makes her more desperate to find witnesses to what she sees, so she leans even more on the children, which makes them resent and fear her. One day, after Mrs. Grose overheard little Flora, feverish in her bed, speaking a horrible language, she asks him to take her to her uncle. When she is alone with Miles, she becomes increasingly hysterical because she is determined to “save” him. All this is fatal for the child who dies in her arms screaming: “Peter Quint, devil!” The governess sees this as proof that she saw the apparition of the valet and that she has saved him. In reality, the comment can also be seen as an indication that he didn’t see what she expected and that he finds her to be an evil pestilence.
This story has its own logic and is very catchy, so to speak. Due to the literary technique that he dominates, the so-called “point of view” where the course is filtered through the consciousness of a few characters, it becomes a most entertaining tale since it ensures the logic of the story. Everything the governess presumably sees is realistic, it just gives it a metaphysical reading. Are they really two depraved ghosts that she sees? No one else seems to see them, except perhaps the children.
The psychology of this is the frustrations felt by the very young governess at being forced to live in the country and her immense youth. After all, she’s not much over 20 and in love with her employer, who lives the life she wants. If, on the contrary, we have to accept the idea of her encounter with depraved ghosts to snatch the souls of those children who have already been ruined, that is, made aware of sex and sexuality. In that sense, it’s an interesting story of a form of pedophilia.