What happens in Chapters XIII–XXIV of The Turn of the Screw?
The governess's suspicions grow into certainty in these final chapters. She confronts Miles in the schoolroom, pressing him about what he knows of Quint, and the boy's evasions only strengthen her belief that the ghosts have a hold on him. Mrs. Grose, growing more anxious, agrees to take Flora—who has been discovered at the lake, seemingly in communion with Miss Jessel—back to London and to the children's uncle. Alone at Bly with Miles, the governess sets up her final confrontation. She demands the boy identify the figure she claims stands at the window. Trembling, Miles finally shouts "Peter Quint—you devil!"—and then collapses, lifeless, in her arms. It's left painfully unclear whether he has been freed from a supernatural grip or simply scared to death by the governess's unyielding questioning. Flora, for her part, has already turned against the governess with surprising venom, denying any sight of Miss Jessel and begging to be taken away. The household falls apart: Mrs. Grose leaves, the children are separated, and Bly becomes devoid of everything except the governess's obsession and the ambiguity that James has so meticulously crafted.
Analysis
James weaves these chapters into a slow, suffocating tightening of the screw—his own metaphor made literally structural. The governess's narrative voice, always unreliable, becomes more feverish and self-justifying just as the events she recounts reach their most extreme. This craft choice compels the reader to engage in the interpretive work that James himself avoids. Flora's sudden venom—"I don't know what you mean. I see nobody. I see nothing. I never have"—acts as a tonal shock: the child who seemed most endangered turns into the most damning witness against the governess's version of reality. James uses free indirect discourse to blur the lines between narrator and protagonist, making it nearly impossible to find a stable external perspective. The lake scene and the final confrontation in the schoolroom mirror each other structurally: in both, the governess pushes a child toward confession; in both, the outcome is destruction instead of salvation. The motif of windows—frames that both reveal and distort—recurs at the climax, with the governess insisting that Quint stands at the glass while Miles's gaze finds nothing. Miles's final cry is the novella's most debated point: it can be seen as evidence of possession, as a child repeating the name he has been drilled with, or as a scream of sheer terror at the adult in front of him. James completely withholds any judgment, and that silence serves as the novella's most intentional and devastating effect.
Key quotes from Chapters XIII–XXIV
“We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped.”
The novella's closing sentence, delivered after Miles collapses in the governess's arms, suspending cause and the meaning of 'dispossessed' in permanent ambiguity.
“Peter Quint—you devil!”
Miles's final cry, uttered in the schoolroom confrontation; whether he names Quint or addresses the governess herself remains the novella's central interpretive fault line.
“I don't know what you mean. I see nobody. I see nothing. I never have.”
Flora's flat denial at the lake, spoken with a coldness that destabilises everything the governess—and the reader—has taken for granted about the children's knowledge.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapters XIII–XXIV
- perdition
- A state of eternal spiritual ruin or damnation; used to convey the sense that the children's souls are in mortal danger.
- abyss
- A deep, seemingly bottomless pit; used figuratively to describe an overwhelming depth of horror, moral corruption, or despair.
- exorcise
- To drive out an evil spirit from a person or place by means of prayer or ritual; here used broadly to mean freeing the children from the influence of the ghosts.
- impute
- To attribute a fault, quality, or action to someone; to assign blame or responsibility to a particular person.
- confound
- To cause someone to feel surprised and confused; to mix up or perplex so thoroughly that clear thinking becomes impossible.
- wrested
- Forcibly pulled or taken away from someone's grip or control; seized by a violent twisting or struggling motion.
- ineffable
- Too great, extreme, or overwhelming to be expressed in words; beyond ordinary language, used here for horrors or feelings that resist description.
- dispossessed
- Deprived of something one holds, especially a home, land, or in this context a body or soul; driven out and left with nothing.