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Meredith Julia Muirhead (mmuirhead1@pride.hofstra.edu)

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Professor Bengels

22 April 2021

Mrs. Grose in “The Turn of the Screw”: Sweet Old Woman or Sneaky Old Villain?

So many creatives and critics find themselves intrigued by the more complex and

harder to read characters in literature, theatre, or film- from Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s

Hamlet to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird to Carrie White in Stephen King’s Carrie and

so on. Debates fly between those who insist that these characters are treacherous villains with

only evil intentions and those who believe that these characters are merely misunderstood and

hiding good intentions. The reason these debates are never-ending is because these characters are

not clearly defined by their authors. Their intentions are unclear, leaving the readers to interpret

them. The character of Mrs. Grose, a longtime servant of Bly Manor, in Henry James’ “The Turn

of the Screw” is certainly no exception to this debate. Numerous scholarly and academic journals

debate her function as a character in “The Turn of the Screw”, as well as her overall integrity and

reliability. On the surface, Mrs. Grose appears to be nothing more than a dull-witted elderly

woman who lives to care for the children and Bly manor itself, and she seems to be a mere

confidante for the governess. However, quite a few literary critics have delved deeper into their

analysis of her character, and they raise quite a few points that indicate a more sinister nature to
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her character. Could Mrs. Grose’s gentle manner be veiling rather cruel intentions? Or is this just

a negative way of viewing the story and Mrs. Grose herself?

In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Grose gives the initial impression of being rather

simple-minded, for example, she is illiterate. The governess gravitates towards her and uses her

as a confidante, and we as readers start to see Mrs. Grose as nothing more than a kindly old

woman who is innocent to the ghostly and mysterious goings-on at Bly. However, it can be noted

that there is a slight bit of friction between the governess and Mrs. Grose. In Helen Killoran’s

article The Governess, Mrs. Grose, and “The Poison of an Influence” in “The Turn of the

Screw,” she discusses how the master of the house holds a “sexual influence” over the governess,

so the governess feels compelled to outshine Mrs. Grose in caring for the children. (Killoran 4)

In this rivalry, Mrs. Grose again seems blank and not threatening, but her seeming blindness to

the ghostly events at Bly may suggest that she is well aware, and that she is okay with the

governess being scared and figuring this all out for herself. Mrs. Grose often hesitates when it

comes to fully disclosing the children’s past or the estate’s past. Her hesitation to discuss the

children’s past may come from her rather intense loyalty to the children, which Killoran goes on

to suggest is Mrs. Grose’s merely being possessive.

As Killoran’s article goes on, the question of Mrs. Grose’s villainy becomes the question

of the governess’ morals and intentions: is the governess doing everything right, and Mrs. Grose

is cruel for allowing her to witness these goings-on without so much as a warning? Is the

governess just a crazy, young, infatuated girl, and her obsession with the master of the house is

causing her to view Mrs. Grose as a terrible villain? Typically, in any story, the villain, or

antagonist, is seen as the one who impedes the protagonist’s ability to achieve their goals

throughout the story. However, in a reader’s moral sense, the “villain” isn’t necessarily a bad
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person, and the protagonist isn’t necessarily a good person, so not all readers perceive villains in

the same way.

Mrs. Grose’s simple-minded nature seems to create an ominous nature of uncertainty

in this story as well as cover her true intentions, which is noted in Arthur Boardman’s article

titled Mrs. Grose’s Reading of The Turn of the Screw. Boardman discusses the scene where Mrs.

Grose asks the governess two crucial questions about the figure she has seen, which indicates

that “she tests-and testing implies skepticism” (Boardman 8). In his zooming in on this small

action of Mrs. Grose’s, Boardman is implying that Mrs. Grose’s simple-mindedness is a disguise,

and her skepticism is an indication of astuteness. By hiding this astuteness, she is withholding

information from the governess, which gives her the image of a villain or antagonist in this story.

The asking of these questions could als be interpreted as Mrs. Grose further enabling the

governess in losing her sanity. Either way, Mrs. Grose is aware of what this asking is doing to the

governess and her sanity.

Additionally, Boardman notes the scene where the governess points to the figures of Peter

Quint and Miss Jessel and begs Mrs. Grose to just look at them, but Mrs. Grose tells the

governess, “She isn’t there...you never see nothing, my sweet!” (Boardman 12) By saying “never

see nothing,” she is using the negation to insinuate that the governess is having hallucinations,

acknowledging that the governess is seeing something, but what she is seeing isn’t actually there.

Is this Mrs. Grose being merely reassuring and kind, or does she say this because ghosts

technically are not there, and she knows that ghosts are what the governess is seeing? Or does

she just want to convince the governess that she’s hallucinating, knowing that that alone is

destroying the governess’ sanity? Throughout this article, Boardman utilizes scenes like this
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between the governess and Mrs. Grose to portray Mrs. Grose as an antagonist to the governess.

Unlike Killoran, Boardman is very set in his opinion of Mrs. Grose being a villain.

In Robert B. Heilman’s article The Freudian Reading of The Turn of the Screw, the

point is brought up that the governess’ visions of the ghosts could be examples of the governess’

repression of sexual desires, since, after all, the governess has taken this job because of how

infatuated she is with the master of the house. Heilman also addresses the similar idea that the

governess is seeing the ghosts because she is “in a psychopathic state originating from a

repressed passion for the master” (Heilman 4). In this case, Mrs. Grose would not be a villain at

all, just the governess’ nice old coworker who sits and listens to the governess rant on and on

about these befuddling visions. Heilman expresses the idea that Mrs. Grose, being “the plain,

domestic type who is a foil for the sensitive, acute governess,” would not be able to see the

ghosts because she is not the type to have strong sexual desires from a Freudian point of view.

John Silver agrees with these points in his shorter article, A Note on the Freudian

Reading of The Turn of the Screw. He claims that Mrs. Grose was the governess’ ally, and that

she figured out that Peter Quint’s ghost was the male ghost the governess had seen because the

governess gave a good description. This seems to be a rather weak argument, given the much

stronger evidence provided by Killoran and Boardman in the other articles that Mrs. Grose had

full knowledge of the ghosts’ presence. A Freudian angle could work for an analysis of the

governess, as it is very clear in the story that the governess is a young woman who has strong

feelings for the master of the house, but the Freudian angle hardly makes sense for Mrs. Grose as

a character.

These articles all come from slightly different angles, all of which portray Mrs. Grose

and “The Turn of the Screw” itself in different lights. While the Freudian angle, which is a more
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sexually focused angle, seems to almost dismiss Mrs. Grose as nothing more than a homely old

lady, Boardman staunchly sees her as a terrible person. Killoran is similar to Boardman, viewing

and providing evidence as to why Mrs. Grose is ill-intentioned, but she doesn’t necessarily see

Mrs. Grose as evil. After reading these four articles and thoroughly considering all of the points

made in them, the argument for Mrs. Grose being a villain, or at least an antagonist, is much

stronger than the argument that Mrs. Grose is nothing more than a simple-minded, slow-witted

old woman. If one is looking just on the surface of this story, they could try and conclude that

Mrs. Grose had no intentions whatsoever, let alone ill intentions, but this surface blankness she

has as a character raises countless questions about her.

As Killoran and Boardman dove deeper into analyzing her behavior towards the

governess in the story, such as the asking of questions and her staunch defense of the children,

the stance that Mrs. Grose was a villain became clearer. On another hand, all four articles agree

on how the governess is obsessed with the master of the house, and how her being an infatuated

young woman clouds her perception. Mrs. Grose, an old woman who has seen governesses come

and go, can easily see this, and after reading these articles, it can be concluded that Mrs. Grose is

taking advantage of this. The governess, despite being the protagonist, is not necessarily a good

person. She doesn’t so much as care for the children as she cares to get the attention of the

master of the house, and this selfish nature doesn’t make her the easiest protagonist to root for.

Again, with this idea of a protagonist not necessarily being a hero (and therefore the antagonist

not necessarily being a villain), the question of Mrs. Grose’s overall integrity and morals still

remains unanswered. As this is a literary work, there will never be a definitive answer to whether

or not Mrs. Grose is a sweet and simple woman or a sly villain, but her character will forever

remain a topic of analysis among numerous readers and literary critics over time.
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Outline

A. Introduction

I. Hook

II. Introduce book and character

III. Introduce articles

IV. Address general questions

B. Paragraph One

I. Address first article

II. Cite article and quote

III. Explain quote

C. Paragraph Two

I. Discuss opinion on quote

II. Discuss article

III. Address and explain ideas expressed in article

D. Paragraph Three

I. Introduce second article

II. Cite/quote second article

III. Explain and analyze quote

E. Paragraph Four

I. Introduce other article quote

II. Cite second quote

III. Explain and analyze quote

IV. Address and explain ideas expressed in article

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F. Paragraph Five

I. Introduce third article

II. Quote third article

III. Explain quote from third article

G. Paragraph Six

I. Introduce fourth article

II. Quote fourth article

III. Explain quote from fourth article

IV. Discuss connection between third and fourth article

H. Paragraph Seven

I. Synthesize all four articles

II. Discuss stronger and/or weaker evidence

III. Explain which arguments express which points and which articles’ arguments

are stronger or weaker.

I. Conclusion

I. Explain synthesis further

II. Review points made throughout

III. Restate ideas from introduction

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Works Cited

Boardman, Arthur. “Mrs. Grose's Reading of The Turn of the Screw.” Studies in English

Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 14, no. 4, 1974, pp. 619–635. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/449758.

Accessed 21 Apr. 2021.

Heilman, Robert B. “The Freudian Reading of the Turn of the Screw.” Modern Language Notes,

vol. 62, no. 7, 1947, pp. 433–445. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2909426. Accessed 21 Apr.

2021.

Killoran, Helen. “The Governess, Mrs. Grose and ‘The Poison of an Influence’ in ‘The Turn of

the Screw.’” Modern Language Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 1993, pp. 13–24. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/3195031. Accessed 21 Apr. 2021.

Silver, John. “A Note on the Freudian Reading of ‘The Turn of the Screw.’” American

Literature, vol. 29, no. 2, 1957, pp. 207–211. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2922108. Accessed

21 Apr. 2021.