The Preceptor in The Turn of the Screw: the Angel of the Home, the Whore and the Madwoman

Abstract

The term governess shows a social dislocation because, without a definite face, the woman does not find in the Victorian society a mirror that can identify her. Because of that, it is common to associate her with the mad woman or the prostitute, denying her entry in the feminine space. Labeling the woman in these terms means exclude her and disallow her as the Other who can not be in any position. In the novel, the protagonist goes through an existential crisis: sometimes she acts like a mother, sometimes she is a prostitute, sometimes she is completely crazy, the governess is between to want be a perfect home angel and to express her repressed sexual desires. The result of this inner battle is the lost of her conscience and it causes the adoption of a paranoid behavior. So, our intention is to discuss how these three functions – mother, prostitute and crazy women – noticed in the english governess of ninety century dominate the young governess of The Turn of the Screw.