n for leaving, she says,She couldn't have stayed. Fancy it here -for a governess! And afterwards I imagined- and I still imagine. And what I imagine is dreadful.'This interchange illustrates perfectly James' technique of the unsaid'. Mrs Grose doesn't say exactly why Miss Jessel couldn't stay and she doesn't say exactly what she imagines. The reader is left unsure whether it is just Mrs Grose's manner of speaking or whether she is deliberately driving the governess to despair. In which case, why?Does Mrs Grose want sole control of the children and the house? Did she drive the previous governess away with wicked gossip about the nature of her relationship with Quint? Is she trying now to lead her successor to believe there is some evil presence pervading their lives to drive her away too? James creates this uncertainty by painting the governess as somebody articulate and credible, but also someone who irresponsibly stirs up panic and distress in Mrs Grose with questions about Quint and Miss Jessel. In the narration we see how complex, exaggerated and intense her thinking is. Her very behaviour and speech suggests she is an obsessive personality, but she talks about the apparitions as one who has never experienced this sort of thing before. She does not claim to be sensitive or perceptive to the paranormal, and unless she is suffering from paranoia and her narrative is unbalanced, the odd, secretive and conspiratorial behaviour of the children is not explained.Part of the essence of James' success with the novel is the governess seeming so plausible in her thinking and analysis of the children's behaviour when it is linked with Mile's dismissal from school, and what history of her predecessors she has got from Mrs Grose. Together with the matter of fact' account of her confrontations with Quint and Jessel, it might all seem to make some sense. Yet she is like a detective working with circumstantial evidence when she makes assumptions a...
