What is the narrator point of view in the novel, The Turn of the Screw?

Although the main body of the story has been written down by the governess, it is unclear as to when she recorded her story, since she notes in the story that she has "not seen Bly since the day I left it" and gives some hypothetical observations that might appear to her "older and more informed eyes" if she were to see it again. For his part, Douglas merely says that when she was his sister's governess, "It was long ago, and this episode was long before." Nevertheless, the governess has written the story down and sent Douglas "the pages in question before she died." As noted in the introduction, Douglas then reads the pages to the narrator and other assembled guests. Later, before Douglas's death, the narrator notes that Douglas "committed to me the manuscript," which the narrator is now telling to the reader. Because the story is from an exact transcript, the story can be assumed to be exactly as the governess wrote it down.

Because it is told in the first person narrative mode, the reader is called upon to trust that what the governess is saying is true. However, the governess has all of the traits of a classic unreliable narrator, meaning that it is unclear as to whether the reader can trust her or not. For starters, there is the question of how much time elapsed between Miles's death and her recording of the tale, as mentioned above. In addition, because the governess sees things that others do not and poses the idea that her sanity is in danger, the reader has cause to believe that perhaps the governess's viewpoint is not accurate. In fact, at one point, she admits to herself—and the readers—that she is attempting to "retrace today the strange steps of my obsession." The fact that her fight between good and evil became an "obsession" may have clouded her ability to tell the tale accurately.