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Symptom number three that Parish discusses is "vivid expectation"
(Cranfill and Clark 38). Nearly all of the "visitations" the governess
encounters occur while she is thinking about, or even expecting to see, a
ghost. The first sighting occurs as the governess is walking in the garden,
dreaming of meeting the master there. Then suddenly, in "what seems a dream
made real" she encounters a figure on the tower (James 344). Perhaps her own
explanation is right, after all, and it is all a dream. After this first
sighting, there are many instances where the governess has decided she will
see a ghost just before she does. "I had an absolute certainty that I should
see again what I had already seen . . . that by offering myself bravely as the
sole subject of such experiences, by accepting, by inviting, by surmounting it
all, I should . . . guard the tranquility of the rest of the household"
(Cranfill and Clark 59). Notice her choice of word, inviting. She really is
inviting the spectre to visit her, and in so doing, she creates it for herself.
During the third sighting, (Miss Jessel at the lake) the governess "rejects
the possibility" that it could be a living person "without even looking." Her
senses have "little effect" on her "practical certitude." (Cranfill and Clark
60) She is obviously prepared to meet the ghost and will not be dissuaded from
her expectation.
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