James has said of the novel that we are to accept "the general proposition
of our young woman's keeping crystalline her record of so many intense anomalies
and obscurities--by which I don't, of course, mean her explanation of them, a
different matter" (Cranfill and Clark 72). Obviously, the author does not
expect us to accept all that the governess says as fact. From the very
beginning of the novel, James makes the character of the governess very clear.
He seems to take great pains to make her "unappealing and overly emotional"
(Mirin). Even supporters of the apparitionist argument cannot deny that the
governess displays many signs of instability and emotionality. She
demonstrates an urgent, pathetic need to be loved and attacks the children
with embraces and "spasms" at any opportunity. She becomes deeply infatuated
with the Master at their first meeting (further implications of this will be
discussed later) and is a clingy, possessive friend to Mrs. Grose and to the
children. She frequently speaks of her emotions in extraordinarily dramatic
terms. One example of this is when she agrees that she is quite "carried away"
by the beauty of the children. "Well that, I think, is what I came for--to be
carried away. I'm afraid, however . . . I'm rather easily carried away. I was
carried away in London . . . In Harley Street [when she met the Master]"
(James 339).
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The Flying Porqupine
