JAMES'S AIR OF EVIL
to observe how skillfully James goes about the process of construct–
ing
his
paradox. Again and again it is emphasized to the reader
that the beauty of these children (like that of Dorian Gray) is a
lie.
At the very beginning it is suggested that Miles's appearance be–
lies the suspicion which the governess (who has not yet seen him)
is beginning to form concerning the reasons for
his
expulsion from
school. "See him, Miss, first," Mrs. Grose tells her.
((Then
believe
it!" When the governess does see him, it is "in the great glow of
freshness, the same positive fragrance of purity, in which I had,
from the first moment, seen
his
little sister." She is struck, not only
by his beauty, but by something else too: "something divine that I
have never found to the same degree in any child- his indescribable
little air of knowing nothing in the world but love."
This
initial
impression, terrible in its irony, is confirmed and reinforced by many
later ones. And somehow the "rose flush of
his
innocence" is never
so intense as when he is most actively engaged
in
positive evil.
I have no illusions that this interpretation of
The Turn of the
Screw
exhausts the story's meanings.
It
does not exclude other inter–
pretations; it has the virtue of extreme inclusiveness, though I fear
there is no room in it for either Miss Kenton or Mr. Wilson. I think
it
does better justice to James's intention than certain narrower no–
tions and that it permits a wider and deeper appreciation of the
novel than any of these.
As
Mr. Rahv says,
in
James we are always
justified in assuming a maximum of intention: the task of the "jus–
tifying commentator," in the case of a book like
The Turn of the
Screw,
is indeed endless.
187
