tion of innocence: In The Turn of the Screw, the theme of corruption of innocence strongly fuels the governess’ fear regarding the ghosts and the children. She wants the apparitions of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel to leave because she doesn’t want them to negatively influence Flora and Miles with immoral thoughts or behaviors. The governess focuses almost entirely on the corruption of the children and whether they were corrupted by Quint and Jessel (when they were alive), and whether they continue to be corrupted by ghosts. Even before the governess knew about Quint, she accuses Miles of corrupting other children. The governess doesn’t exactly tell us if she thinks the ghosts will physically harm or the children. But after Miles sudden death, they saw the ghosts as a real threat. For the governess, the children’s exposure to knowledge of sex (other types of information that children shouldn’t know) is a far more terrifying than the thought of ghosts haunting her or being killed by them. In her attempt to save the children, she began to find out what kind of information they knew to make them confess, rather than to predict and hope for the best for what might happen to them in the future. Her fear of innocence being corrupted seems to be a big part of the reason she was hesitant for the majority of the book. In the end, the governess’s fears are destructive and do not result in her saving the children.

Appearance reflects personality: The governess’s youth and inexperience suggest that the responsibility of caring for the two children and being in charge of the entire estate is more than she could possibly bear, yet she does not look for help. Her isolation is largely her employer’s fault because he chooses to remain absent and specifically tells her to deal with all problems by herself. However, the governess responds to her experiences at Bly by taking on, even more, responsibility like burying the headmaster’s letter and keep Miles at home; to be the one who sees the ghosts rather than the children and who attempts to screen them from any exposure to the ghosts; and to save the children from the ghosts’ corrupting influence. These decisions are all self-conscious and she wasn’t forced to make them because she couldn’t think of another way to respond. Instead, she deliberately chooses to view these challenges as “magnificent” opportunities to please the master and deludes herself into thinking that the master recognizes her sacrifices. Clearly, she is misguided on both counts.

Being a hero is harder than it looks: In The Turn of the Screw, this theme is demonstrated by the governess’ avid attempts to protect the children from the “ghosts,” but she only makes the situation worse by causing unnecessary grief in the children and Mrs. Grose. A more specific example is that in the final scene of the novel, the governess tries to warn Miles of Peter Quint’s ghost but her panic causes Miles to become overwhelmed and die. When Flora gets sick, she was forced to leave the estate and vowed to never speak to the governess again. Whether or not the governess was correct in thinking that the children were being haunted, she was definitely wrong in thinking she could be the hero who saves them. The fact that the governess was misguided in adopting a heroic stance suggests several interpretations. One possibility is that the forces of corruption are too powerful for one person to oppose. Perhaps the gover