MÉTODOS ANALÍTICOS PARA EVALUAR LA VULNERABILIDAD

Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898) is a story of desire. To read it in terms of the governess’s desire is hardly new; when Edmund Wilson introduced the Freudian interpretation of the novella, he described it as the story of the governess’s frustrated erotic desire,76 and if we read it according to Jacqueline Rose’s paradigm, we might say it is the story of the governess’s nostalgic desire for the children.77 The text is susceptible to both these desire-centered readings, but I will argue that, first and foremost, The Turn of the Screw is the story of the children’s desires, how their desires are inhibited by the governess, and how the children perform childhood and adulthood in an effort to gain what they want.

When the governess decides that the children’s innocence is not genuine but performed, she is appalled:

‘Their more than earthly beauty, their absolutely unnatural goodness. It’s a game, …it’s a policy and a fraud! …They haven’t been good—they’ve only been

76 _{“The story is primarily intended as a characterization of the governess: …her inability to admit to herself her}

natural sexual impulses” (Wilson, “Ambiguity” 121).

77 _{Rose’s great contribution was to direct attention to adult desire in relation to children’s fiction: portrayals of child}

characters, she argues, construct a nostalgic innocence which is meant to satisfy the desires of adults rather than to benefit children. “Suppose, therefore,” Rose writes, “that Peter Pan is a little boy who does not grow up, not because he doesn’t want to, but because someone else prefers that he shouldn’t. Suppose, therefore, that what is at stake in Peter Pan is the adult’s desire for the child” (3). Adults desire the child because it seems to restore them to their own childhood (re-imagined nostalgically as a life of “innocence” in an “unmediated” version of the world and of language/culture); that is, Rose argues that some children’s fiction conceives of “a primitive or lost state to which

absent… they’re simply leading a life of their own. They’re not mine—they’re not ours. They’re… Quint’s and that woman’s’ (TS 181; ch. 12).

I will argue that this passage summarizes James’s fuller account of the governess’s script for childhood innocence, her motives for wanting to possess the children, the details of what the children do when they deviate from the governess’s planned activities, and the way the children use the performance of innocence to fulfill the governess’s desires in pursuit of their own.

In the first place, I will argue that the children’s desires are all perfectly ordinary, and may be summed up by the desire to live for themselves rather than for the governess. In particular, I will show that they demonstrate the following desires: they want to amuse themselves (including, on occasion, amusing themselves alone), they want to avoid the less pleasant forms of schoolwork, they want the dignity belonging to their social class, and Miles in particular wants the socialization (school) that will enable him to mature into the social role associated with his gender and class.

The governess’s desires, I will argue, are opposed to the children’s desires. She craves the children’s presence, not for their benefit, but for her own (they soothe her emotional pain), which leads her to monopolize their time beyond what her duties require of her—not allowing them time to amuse themselves alone. Her desire for Miles’s company even prevents her from dealing with the question of his long-term education—preventing Miles from the path of maturation and socialization which he desires and which is, as even the governess admits, his right. Moreover, the governess is so anxious to prove her interpretation of events that she is sometimes quite insensitive and even rude to the children, wounding their dignity.

The children are very much in the governess’s power and have to use performance to influence her in pursuit of their own desires. I will argue that the governess makes it clear that she has three separate sets of expectations for the children, three possible scripts they might

follow: “good” child, “spirited” (mildly naughty) boy, and miniature adults of their class (little lady or gentleman). The children, in my reading, play each of these roles in turn in an effort to get what they want. By playing the part of “good” children (“innocent” of evil but also

affectionate companions and enthusiastic students), the children are able to satisfy the

governess’s desire for their company so fully that she ignores the fact that one child will shirk schoolwork and get some time alone while the other child amuses the governess. By playing the part of a “spirited” boy, Miles attempts to convince the governess he belongs with other boys at school rather than under a governess with his cherubic baby sister. Finally, in desperation, the children play the part of a little lady and gentleman in an effort to assert the rights of their class. Unfortunately, the governess misreads their performances and concludes that both children adhere to a fourth script—the evil child—with fatal consequences.