ry: James’ use of imagery adds a personal, more tangible touch to the theme of the story so that readers can have more realistic images of the story. When the author creates the setting by describing the time of day, the weather, the season, and the sounds, readers are able to experience the text, and in turn the theme, where it’s reinforced, on a more personal level. Henry James described out the yard was large but was only occupied by her and Peter Quint, who was on the top of the castle. It was a chilly winter night, emphasizing the deadliness and foreshadowing bad outcomes from introducing Peter Quint in this light, hence, corrupting innocence.

Symbolism: The author’s use of symbolism develops the theme by creating nearly tangible apparitions that force the characters to progress and develop in their values and actions in order to deal with such an occurrence. Through the spirits (or debatably the illusion) of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint, the main characters are forced to interact with symbols that prompt them to realize and deal with the history that is behind them. Peter Quint symbolized the denaturing of Miles’ perfect youth and innocence by perverting his mindset through unmentionable means.

Diction: The author’s choice of diction in this book involved a lot of formal words that helped set the scene and time of the story. The author, of course, uses higher vocabulary to show class and manners of the characters. He also used a lot of punctuation, and italics to emphasize certain parts of the text, and to make the scenes more interesting and suspenseful. And with short chapters and a lot of dialogue, it helped readers use imagery to visualize the scenes.

Foreshadowing: Henry James uses foreshadowing by writing his narrator to reflect upon her past actions and suggest that worst events are to occur in the future. This foreshadowing contributes to the novel’s theme of the correlation between appearance and personality/character. Throughout the novel, the narrator (the governess) mentions how she was so captivated by the charms of Flora and Miles, describing how innocent and pleasant they seemed. Often after, however, she foreshadows that their outward beauty is a tool of manipulation and that they were hiding darker secrets that were soon to be revealed later in the book.

Style

Two words that can describe the author’s overall style are as follows: interpretable and complex. These two words encompass James’ style because it exemplifies the vagueness that he chooses to write with, combined with his choice of diction/syntax. Every occurrence or significant event in the book is left up to interpretation. For example, during the governess’ encounter with Peter Quint, an event ridden her with fear and questions, she commits the exact same scenario with Mrs. Grose: “I gave her something of the shock that I had receive