The novel The Turn of the Screw represents life in a manor
house in the nineteenth century, during the height of the Victorian
era in the United Kingdom. During this period in history, domestic
service was a popular, although difficult, trade. There were social
levels of domestic jobs, and two of the most sought after female
positions were that of governess and housekeeper. These positions
were governed by strict behavioral codes in Victorian Britain. The
book, The Turn of the Screw accurately represents these female
roles accurately in many areas, but inaccurately represents the
Victorian code of social interaction between housekeeper and
governess.
Life as a servant in Victorian England was a difficult and, for some,
degrading work. The English population at this time was divided into
four distinct classes, nobility and aristocracy, the emerging middle
class, the upper working class, and the lower working class. These
classes were very similar to castes, in that it was a serious offense
to take on the appearance of another class (Ray). The position of
governess fell into the upper middle class, while the housekeepers
role placed her ambiguously between the upper and middle classes. The
upper middle class was composed of “any who were employed in
jobs that took skill or thought, as opposed to physical labor”
(Allingham). The life of the governess and housekeeper were arguably
more difficult than the lower-class women working in the increasingly
popular field of factories and office situations. Nevertheless,
working as a servant in a wealthy family was an outwardly respectable
position, as by 1841, 18% of the English work force was engaged in
domestic service. (Buhr). Working in a respectable house was actually
considered to be “bettering oneself” Some contemporaries
even considered them to be members of whatever class they served,
thus a maid serving the household of a Duke might be considered to be
the lowest possible rung of nobility! (Buhr) According to Landow,
“the life of a domestic servant was very lonely, while factory
workers were allowed to socialize as they performed their tasks.
Domestic servants worked seven days a week, twelve hours at least
each day, while factory workers worked only six days and ten hours”
The working class did indeed begin working at an extremely young ago-
charity schools prepared girls to enter service at twelve, but many
children took cleaning roles as young as six. In many cases, the role
of a servant was an inherited job passed from
parent to child. (Buhr) The majority of domestic servants were
female, since there was a servant tax on male servants, leaving them
available only to very wealthy homes. (Women of Hastings)
The position of governess was often one of
disillusionment and disappointment. Most governesses were of
upper-class breeding who “who had fallen into poverty
through the death of a father or some other tragedy”(Allingham)
The most sought after governesses were clergymens orphans, officers’
widows, or other well-born women who (through no fault of their own)
had need to support themselves (Roth). Girls from such a background
were actually favored as governesses, particularly in upper-middle
class homes. It was believed that their upper class education had
prepared them better, and as middle class tutors, employers felt they
would bring class to their family and also enjoyed deriding a person
of better breeding than themselves. “The definition of a
governess, according to a nineteenth-century magazine called The
Quarterly Review, was a person ‘who is our equal in birth,
manners and education, but our inferior in worldly wealth. . . there
is no other class which so cruelly requires its members to be, in
birth, mind, and manners, above their station, in order to fit them
for their station.’” (Roth) “This position was a
deplorable one, as the governess was found a worthy scapegoat in the
eyes of everyone, from the master and mistress to the house-maid”
(Allingham).
The position of a governess in a Victorian home was a difficult one.
Forced to become asexual, the governess was not allowed to associate
intimately with the family nor to grow to comfortable with the
servants. Her status was vague, since she was not part of the family
or the servants (Roth). Her meals were typically served in the
schoolroom where she ate alone or with the children. Regardless of
her child’s aptitude for learning, the governess was
responsible for teaching the child to the parent’s standards.
Often the governesses’ only companions were her pupils.
Although she was sometimes invited to join the family after dinner in
the drawing room, she likely felt an intruder in their company
(Roth). However “she felt no more comfortable in the servants'
sitting room, especially if some of them resented her education and
class standing” (Roth).
Perhaps, given these conditions, we shouldn’t be so surprised
at the breakdown of the governess in A Turn of the Screw since
the social isolation of the governess bred loneliness and neurosis.
Indeed, the proportion of former governesses in lunatic asylums at
the turn of the century was disproportionate to other occupations
(Allingham). “Peculiar relationships could be built up between
a governess and her pupil, as explored by Henry James in The Turn of
the Screw, and these could have tragic outcomes for both instructor
and instructed alike“ (Allingham).
Unfortunately, the governess’s pupils were not always the
charming, willing children represented in A Turn of the Screw.
Instead, it was common for the children to deride their governesses
and in the case of older boys, even to sexually harass her.
An additional complication, and perhaps one that James drew upon in
the novel A Turn of the Screw, is the intimate but
uncomfortable role the governess played in the family. As the primary
woman in her pupils’ lives, she played a rival mother figure.
Additionally, she was a sexual creature forced to be asexual by her
surroundings. Yet she was surrounded by men- not the least available
being her master (Ward). Basically, because of the governess’s
precarious family role, she represented a dangerous threat to family
dynamics. Her behavior was considered an utmost priority, since her
conduct was exemplary for the young ladies in her care. Not
surprisingly, given the dangerous yet intriguing role of the
governess, she was the subject of much interest, particularly by
novelists in such works as a Turn of the Screw and Jane
Eyre. As a working woman whose femininity was extolled in a world
where the typical woman was exemplified by domesticity, the governess
was the idea female heroine for progressive thinkers. (Roth)
The role of housekeeper, although technically lower in rank, may have
been a position with less hardship than that of governess. The
housekeeper, usually partnered with a butler, was responsible for
hiring, firing, training, and disciplining the female staff. The
housekeeper was expected to be a "steady middle-aged woman . . .
morally exemplary and assiduous to the harmony, comfort, and economy
of the family" (Horn 54 quoted by Cluesman). It was not uncommon
for a housekeeper to stay on for years and form a close relationship
with the family she served (Horn 57). Occasionally housekeepers were
widows or unmarried daughters of the family they served (Horn 119)
Although the housekeeper was responsible for some intellectually
related tasks, it was not uncommon for the housekeeper to be unable
to read or write—as was Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw.
In the book, The Turn of the Screw, the governess and the
housekeeper are often in one another’s company and on more than
a handful of occasions confide in one another. (James 67, 95). This
sort of intimacy would not have been enjoyed in a typical Victorian
home. In most homes, in an attempt not to associate herself with a
lower class, the governess would not speak on intimate terms with the
housekeeper. The housekeeper, on the other hand, might take every
opportunity to deride the governess-- the one person of a higher
class to which that it was acceptable for her to do so. Additionally,
had there been a true Victorian family at Bly, neither the governess
or the housekeeper- or the children for that matter- would have been
allowed to dine in the home’s dining room. Although the
governess might occasionally be invited to dinner and the children
might make practiced appearances in the after dinner hours, their
dinners were usually taken separately. The Turn of the Screw
does accurately represent the physical distance between the
housekeeper and the governess. While the governess remains extremely
close to the children- sharing a room with the female child and
sleeping across the hall from the male child, the housekeeper resides
in unknown, undescribed quarters in another area of the house, likely
in the basement with the other working class servants. True to
Victorian society, James tells his story while blending the other
servants almost imperceptibly into the background, writing almost as
if the downstairs didn’t exist at all. This is precisely how
Victorians preferred their servants: if a maid was cleaning a hall
and her master walked by, the servant was to avoid eye contact and
turn with her back towards her master until he or she had passed.
Masters believed ignoring them was good form
since it would “spare them the
shame of explaining their presence” (PBS) It
was not uncommon for the lady of the house to have never been into
the kitchen and servant’s quarters.
Overall, although Henry James misrepresents some general Victorian
social conventions in The Turn of the Screw, the novel is
largely historically accurate in its representation of the roles of
housekeeper and governess. Reading The Turn of the Screw can
help the reader better understand what life must have been like under
the strict social conventions and domestic economy of the nineteenth
century.
Works Cited
Allingham, Philip V. “The Figure of the
Governess, based on Ronald Pearsall's Night's Black Angels”. 18
October 2003. <http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/pva50.html>.
Buhr, Megan. All Things Bright and Beautiful: A Search for Sustenance
Among Victorian Society. April 29th, 1998. 18 October 2003.
<http://www.historyspark.com/
serving_class.php>.
Horn, Pamela.
The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Servant.
New York: St. Martin’s, 1975. quoted by Cluesman, Carissa The
Essential Role of Victorian Servants, Especially the Housekeeper and
Nursemaid. 18 October 2003.
<http://www.umd.umich.edu/
casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/cluesman4.htm>.
Manor House.
PBS. April 2002.
Ray, Cindy. “Women of Victorian England”. 18 October
2003. <http://craray.tripod.
com/clpage/writings/other/victorian_women.htm>.
Ward, Selena. SparkNote
on The Turn of the Screw.
18 October 2003. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/screw/section1.html>.
Women of Hastings.
18 October 2003. <http://members.lycos.co.uk/HastingsHistory/19/
