Love and Governess Essay

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Possible Interpretations of Miles Death
There are many speculations to the death of Miles in The Turn of the Screw. Mahbobah’s interpretation for one holds great interest, stating: “The abuse and eventual murder of Miles is the inevitable outcome…This embrace however, is fatal, and Miles is dead. The ghost of the Master finally disappears as well, since the governess’s indictment of revenge against the Master, finally takes shape. As he seduced and stifled her at the beginning, so does she seduce and smother his two representatives in a fatal love embrace at the ending. The reversal is perfect in its symmetry.” This interpretation implies that it is the governess in fact that murders Miles. It seems that it was the governess’ forceful ‘embrace’ which brought Miles, as well as the novel to a sudden end. Mahbobah is stating that the Masters effect of the governess manifests into some sort of intense love for the children, which ultimately causes the death of Miles. The governess is seduced at the start of the novel, the prologue even, to her the Master is ‘this prospective parson proved a gentleman, a bachelor in prime of life, such a figure as had never risen, save in a dream or an old novel, before a fluttered, anxious girl out of Hampshire vicarage.’

In my opinion, Miles dies because of the governess’ possessiveness. To say his death was due to the Governess embracing him, is far-fetched In the least and not believable. To also infer that his death was due to Quint being expelled from his body is also rather vague. Instead, it is the Governess herself who kills Miles. Just as a sheep cannot fend off a lion, reason cannot fend off insanity. Her reason, so far locked away by her inexperienced mind, resurfaced briefly when she says in chapter XXIV ‘…for if he were innocent, what then on earth was I?’ But it is quickly locked away again when she sees Quint, the person who could potentially take Miles from her It is her possessiveness which results murdering Miles, she has realised that the Master and Flora are lost to her forever. Miles is the only person left in the
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