JAMES'S AIR OF EVIL
Observe how immeasurably the effect of horror here is height–
ened by our conviction that the child is in league with those super–
natural forces which, momentarily, and doubtless of his own voli–
tion, have become translated into natural ones.
I tend to agree with the late Ford Madox Ford when he says:
"If
you will take
The Turn of the Screw,
with its apparent digres-–
sions, its speculations, its twists and its turns, you will see that the
real interest centres round the proposition: 'Is the narrator right or
wrong in thinking that
if
the little boy can only disburden himself
of a full confession, he
will
be saved for ever from the evil ascend–
ancy of Peter Quint?'" By "real" interest Ford here means narra–
tive interest, and on the subject of James's narrative technique Ford
was particularly well informed. Without the possession theme, which
necessitates the reality of the ghosts, there is simply no conflict, no
drama, no
story.
That James was thoroughly conscious of this is
proved by the artistry with which he focuses on those details which
sharpen the conflict and thus intensify the drama of the situation.
Take for example the above-mentioned bedroom scene, and note
how skillfully it is suggested to the reader (always through the me–
dium of the governess, to whom the impressions occur in appropriate
images) that little Miles is
sick,
spiritually sick: "His clear, listening
face, framed
in
its smooth whiteness, made him for the moment as
appealing as some wistful patient in a children's hospital; and I
would have given, as the resemblance came to ' me, all I possessed
on earth to be the nurse or the sister of charity who might have
helped to cure him."
I agree
also
with Mr. Philip Rahv in his opinion that the sense
of
evil
which James sought to communicate is to be conceived of
largely in sexual terms. The horror of the situation is heightened,
moreover, by the fact that the boy has been corrupted by the male
servant; the girl, by the female. Peter Quint's abnormality is hinted
at ("There had been matters
in
his life . . . secret disorders, vices
more than half suspected"), and Mrs. Grose says in so many words
that he had been "much too free" with little Miles, who had "gone
off with the fellow, and spent hours with him." Then there is the
unambiguous dialogue between the governess and Mrs. Grose:
"At all events, while he was with the man-"
"Miss
Flora was with the woman. It suited them all!"
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