Main Characters
The GOVERNESS is a
poor but educated young woman who has succumbed to the charming manners of a
young man who wants to employ her as caretaker of his niece and nephew in a
distant country estate. Loving but
possibly hysterical, the governess shows great firmness and courageous presence
of mind in fighting against what she believes are ghosts come to corrupt her
young charges.
MRS. GROSE is the
simple but good-natured and decent housekeeper at Bly, who listens to the
governess’ mounting fears for the children and attempts to soothe her.
It’s not fully clear for much of the narrative if Mrs. Grose believes
the governess or is humoring her. She
is close-mouthed, sensible, very loving to the children, kindly, illiterate, and
conscious of her lower class.
MILES and FLORA are
the children being cared for by the governess.
Miles is ten and has been expelled from school for unknown reasons (later
revealed as “saying things to boys he liked,”).
He is beautiful and precocious and has preternaturally good manners. He takes care of his sister and is affectionate to the
governess, but also demands his independence and the society of other boys by
the end of the novella. He also
steals a letter that she writes to his uncle.
The governess believes he has been corrupted by his association with
Quint, her employer’s dead valet. Flora
is eight, babyish and charming and beautiful.
The governess believes she has been corrupted by the dead former
governess, Miss Jessel.
PETER QUINT is the
uncle’s former valet, sent down to Bly to restore his health until he suddenly
dies there—his body is found by the side of the road with a wound to the head,
apparently caused by a fall. Villagers
speculate he had been drunk and walking alone at night.
Quint’s phantom—red-haired and always without a hat, that sign of
gentility—is seen by the governess around Bly in high places and on the other
side of windows, as if tempting the children to put themselves in physical
danger. Quint is rumored to have
been “infamous” with Miss Jessel (i.e. had an affair), and also to have
corrupted Miles by keeping him constantly in his society while alive.
MISS JESSEL is the
former governess whose sudden death has caused the uncle to seek a new
governess. She apparently had an
affair with Quint and died of a miscarriage during a holiday—all we know for
sure is that she left for a short period and then died under mysterious
circumstances. The new governess
sees her phantom dressed in mourning clothes, haggardly beautiful and full of an
unutterable woe. She appears in the schoolroom and on the opposite bank of the
lake, also as if to tempt the children into putting themselves into physical
danger. The governess believes she
wants Flora to share the torments of hell with her.
