Chapter 16--first few lines--she is disillusioned about her importance to the children! I think she is jealous of their Perfectness!
But chapter 17...Miles lies awake and thinks...of who else but our dear narrator? I think he may be playing into her fantasy. He is a bright little boy!
And she is beginning to sound desperate! "I just want you to help me to save you!" Sounds like an obsessive love affair.
Chapter 18--does she fall under Miles's spell when he plays the piano? She just "forgets"?
Oh! Poor Ms. Grose!!! The narrator is confounding the woman! How in the h$%* does the narrator know at the end of chapter 18 that the children are with the ghosts? What is she up to?
End of chapter 19--the narrator refers to Flora as an "it." "I'll be hanged," it said, "if I'll speak!"
Funny, often characterization happens in the simplest ways--in Lord of the Flies the boys become savages, in Frankenstein the creature becomes the daemon. Here Flora has become an it!
Oooh, your comment about chapter 19, Mina... It suddenly hit me.
ReplyDeleteRemember how we were discussing the other day that the narrator begins to think of Flora as disgusting and an "it?" But Miles remains beautiful and charming...
Could it simply be that the narrator--and the author--are drawn more to the male charms? Or is Miss Jessel secretly more evil and harmful than Quint?
By looking at James's background, I think we are definitely ok in asuming that the narrator was in love with Miles. I think it really was his way of releasing his sexual emotions. Being a celibate homosexual had to effect him for the worse.
ReplyDeleteChapter 16- I wondered that myself. Was she jealous of Miles? Or even Flora, which is why she pushed her away, later even calling her an it..
Sometimes I wonder whether novels like this are supposed to be a pyschological study of a woman lost in insanity or if he simply meant it to be a scary story and due to his background, put these other things in subconsciously. He did state that he meant it to be a traditional gothic story correct?
Well, these things do happen. We tend to make the assumption that authors put a lot of thought into making their stories symbolic and magical, but a lot of that just comes out when you put pen to paper. You can't really help but express some aspect of yourself...
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that he may well have realized the things he was hinting at. They are blantant, but subtle... and I believe that /that,/ at least, was on purpose. He didn't want to take it out, but to say it outright would have been disasterous... neh?
The author can' t help project himself into his work just as Basil Hallward could not help but put himself into his art!
ReplyDelete