discuss the character of governess in the turn of the screw, paying close attention to her motivations, desires and mental state

The governess is the primary narrator and central character in The Turn of the Screw. She is twenty years old and was raised in Hampshire, the youngest daughter of a poor clergyman. From the stories she tells her young charges, we know that she had many sisters and brothers, as well as a dog. She has just left home when she interviews in London for the position of governess to two children in a country house in Essex. From the prologue, we know that she is smitten with her employer, and throughout the novel, she hopes to gain his respect or affection by succeeding at her job. The governess may be a loving, strong woman, whose struggle against the evil ghosts she encounters for the souls of the children in her care show her to be a good person. Or she may be mad - sexually repressed and delusional, imagining ghosts and evil that is not there - responsible for the destruction of young Flora and Miles.