You have been doing an excellent job in not repeating what others have already said. Keep up the good work.
Write out a quotation from the book that seems particularly hard to understand. Explain how it is ambiguous, how it develops some psychological aspect of the story, or how it adds to one of the themes that we have been discussing in class. What is it about the sentence that makes it difficult to interpret?
Kiera Wesley
ReplyDelete"They're not mine- They're not ours. They're his and they're her's." p. 79
This quote is ambiguous because the reader does not know what Quint and the woman are doing to the children or how they are controlling them and visiting them. We also still don't know for sure if the governess could be making it all up and just be paranoid and crazy. In all, every quote about the apparitions is ambiguous so the reader can not really be certain about the happenings until the author spells it out for us (if he ever does).
Breanna Taylor
ReplyDelete"It is you that is alone most" (135)
I thought this was confusing because you have to wonder... does he mean what we think he means? Or is implying that she's crazy? Or perhaps that Mrs. Grose and the children are plotting against her?
"My acquaintance with sheets of water was small, and the pool of Bly, at all events on the few occasions of my consenting, under the protection of my pupils, to affront its surface in the old flat-bottemed boat moored there for our use, had impressed me both with its extent and its agitation." (11)
ReplyDeleteI don't understand where "pool of Bly" comes in. Who is Bly? Also, is the governess referencing the boat to the same one that they figured out that the little girl, Flora had used to go out to see Miss Jessel?
Crystal Nybo...
ReplyDelete"I had said shortly before to Mrs. Gross that she was not at these times a child, but an old, old women. " pg 117
This comes into play about how Flora acted sometimes older then she was. We don't know why that is or how she has learned some of the stuff she has, which makes it confusing. Also, after Flora left with Mrs. Gross, she replied back to the Governess saying Flora had said horrible things a little girls should not know. Which also adds to the crazy mystery of how she knows what she does.
Laura Ahlrep
ReplyDelete"Peter Quint- you devil!" His face gave again, round the room, it's convulsed supplication. "Where?"". (144)
This quote near the end of the book I found hard to truly interpret because it can go in more than one way. The first time I read it I thought Miles was calling Peter Quint a devil meaning he can actually see the ghosts but after a second time I realized it could go towards the theme that the children are innocent and he is calling the Governess a devil. The sentence is only hard to figure out because you don't know which way you are to read the book therefore it can be changed to fit anyone's ideas making it hard to know what actually is going on.
Gina Chenoweth
ReplyDelete“He said it with admirable serenity, with positive unimpeachable gaiety… the unnatural childish tragedy, of his probable reappearance at the end of three months with all this bravado and still more dishonour.” (104)
This quote is from when the Governess is talking about Miles. I think it is kind of hard to understand because it is basically a paragraph long run-on sentence that contradicts itself. The governess clearly has some unresolved feelings towards Miles that seem highly inappropriate. She talks about him with a mix of admiration and maternal instict. It is confusing because it is hard to know if this is a part of the book to take seriously, or to write off.
Samielle Foltz
ReplyDelete“We continued silent while the maid was with us-as silent, it whimsically occurred to me, as some young couple who, on their wedding-journey, at the inn, feel shy in the presence of the waiter.”(pg 133)
I find this quote rather ambiguous because the young couple the governess is referring to is she herself and Miles. Miles is a little kid, maybe thirteen, and she's referring to him as her newly wed. In a way that can be referring to some sick desire. She could be using this description to describe the shyness among themselves in this situation now that they're alone but using “some young couple” is not suitable for their type of relationship. What makes it hard to understand is you just don't know what she's implying, like many of the other things the governess says, it isn't solidly interpretable.
Savannah Guillen
ReplyDelete“Well—I said things…” to “those I liked” (142).
This is what Miles says to the governess when she asks what he did to get himself expelled from school. It develops the psychological aspect of the story, because first of all, we never learn what horrible things Miles said, and secondly, the idea that he only said those things to the people he “liked” is really creepy. The way Miles says this suggests that it was probably sexually oriented (possibly from Peter Quint’s influence). I think that Henry James wanted this statement to be vague so that people could come up with their own ideas of what Miles said and did.
Christine Nafziger
ReplyDelete“The tricks been played, I went on, they’ve successfully worked their plan. He found the most divine little way to keep me quiet while she went off.”(110).
This quote is ambiguous because we don’t know what the trick is. The trick has been played could mean anything but it continues with the theme that the children are working with the ghosts. This continues to have the reader wondering whether the children are helping the ghosts. Another ambiguous part of this quote is what divine, the governess is referring to. Divine is a broad term that leaves the reader questioning the meaning of divine.
Bridget Cook
ReplyDelete"my thrill of joy at having brought on a proof. She was there, so I was justified; she was there, so I was neither cruel nor mad." (ch.20)
This quote show's that the governess is trying to convince herself that it is okay that she is seeing ghosts. The governess, Mrs Gross and Flora are on the lake shore when the governess spots Miss Jessel on the opposite side, she tells herself that because she can see the apparition, the others can also, so this means she's not crazy. As the paragraph continues, Mrs Gross denies the ghost and the governess says "She's as big as a blazing fire! Only look, dearest woman, look - !" The governess assumes that other people see the ghosts, but it turns out they cant...or dont want to admit it. This develops the theme that the governess is imagining the whole thing, or that Mrs gross and the children are playing games with her.
Katie Martens
ReplyDelete“As she stood there holding tight to her friend’s dress, her incomparable childish beauty had suddenly failed, had quite vanished.” (p129)
This quote is said by the governess after she believes that Flora saw the ghost of Jessel. The governess is seeing a different side to Flora that is not so innocent, and she believes that she is lying about not seeing the ghosts. What makes this quote ambiguous is as the reader, we do not know whether to believe the governess or Flora. I think that Henry James does a really good job at making it seem like both scenarios could be possible.
Leslee Fall
ReplyDelete"But he had already jerked straight round, stared, glared again, and seen but the quiet day. With the stroke of the loss I was so proud of he uttered the cry of a creature hurled over an abyss, and the gasp with which I recovered him might have been that of catching him in his fall." (Pg. 144)
This quote was hard for me to understand because at first i thought it ment that Miles saw the ghost the governess saw and he just screamed and fainted. But after reading the lines afterwards about him dieing it confused me because instead he had died. This showed the theme of how the governess felt the whole time she was taking care of the kids, confusion of what is going on and misinterpreting the things she saw with the children and the ghosts. She felt proud that Miles had cried because she thought he had seen the ghosts, but she was wrong.
Anna Billmaier
ReplyDelete"They had a delightful endless appetite for passages in my own history to which I had again and again treated them; they were in possession of everything that had ever happened to me..." (83).
This isn't necessarily a hard quote to understand, but it is left very open-ended. This really caught my attention when I read it because I thought it was very interesting how the governess' past is referred to as an inanimate object that is in the possession of the children. It is a very erie quote and I feel like it can lead to many different interpretations. A few sentences later the governess talks about how the children "pulled with an art of their own the strings of my invention and my memory..." To me I feel like Henry James was alluding to the idea that the children controlled the governess and somewhat forced stories from her past out of her. The more the children know about her, the easier it makes it for them to find her strengths and weaknesses and possibly manipulate and control the governess to get her to do what they want.
Jaina Shah
ReplyDeleteThis child, to my memory, really lived in a setting of beauty and misery that no words can translate; there was distinction all his own in every impulse he revealed; never was small natural creature, to the uninformed eye all frankness and freedom, a more ingenious, a more extraordinary little gentleman. (107)
This quote is said by governess and is describing the kids. About, the kid beauty and they are misery as well. This show how they are raised. Also, the part was very hard to understand was that how she describe his revealed as small natural creature. Not just as small creature but also she is describing him as a uniformed eye a gentleman.
Jenn Hergert
ReplyDelete"I caught him, yes, I held him- it may be imagined with what a passion; but at the end of a minute I began to feel what it truly was that I held. We were alone with the quiet day, and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped."
I chose this quote because of the word 'dispossessed.' That is what really makes the sentence ambiguous, or difficult to interpret. What does 'dispossessed' mean, exactly? 'Dispossessed' is most nearly defined as "to be deprived of possession, or to be denied the ownership of something," so as I see it there are two likely interpretations of the word in the context of the sentence: 1) Mile's heart could be dispossessed of his body- meaning simply he died and his heart no longer keeps him alive, 2) Mile's himself could be dispossessed of the ghosts- If his behavior was really being controlled by the ghosts (most likely that of Quint), then his death would mean the end of that control. Whichever way you choose to interpret the meaning of the word in context, it can drastically change the complete interpretation of the book. It could mean either, the governess was crazy because there were no ghosts, and Miles simply died; or it could mean that there were ghosts around the whole time, and the governess wasn't crazy at all.
Lexy Kaftan
ReplyDelete"If I had counted on what it would give me to find myself alone with Miles I quickly recognized that it would give me at least a measure."
This quote is very difficult to interpret because they aren't complete thoughts, just fragments put together. One could take it as her saying if i just spend time alone with miles it may give me a feeling about how he is.
Erik Enselman
ReplyDelete"I marked the firmness of his cool little hand. Of what queer business miles?" pg 102
There were a few quotes in this book that explained something using the word "queer". I reallyhad to think about these quotes and wasnt sure what the governess meant by queer. Im sure that she doesnt meen queer as in gay and it was hard to comprehend quotes that used this word.
Brody Hovatter
ReplyDelete"I was so determined to have all my proof that I flashed into ice to challenge him." (pg. 144)
This is what the governess says as she attempts to point out her vision of the Ghost Peter Quint to Miles. It seems that the Governess is trying to get a confession out of Miles that he sees Quint, and therefore have proof that the Ghosts do exist and that the Governess isn't crazy. This interaction between Miles and the Governess is another great example of the Governess' continuing attempts to prove to others living in the house that the Ghosts in fact exist.
Nik Toor
ReplyDelete"You can't, even if you do. You can't, you can't!"--he lay beautifully staring. "My uncle must come down, and you must completely settle things." (104)
I thought this was a kind of weird way for Miles to say this. He said his uncle must come to Bly, but he didn't say he would settle things he said "you", being the Governess, must settle things. This makes me wonder what he's talking about. He could be talking about his uncle solving the ghost problem, but then he would have said his uncle would completely settle things not the governess. Miles might have been talking about the governess and her fixation on the uncle and her "completely settling things" by telling him her feelings. Or, the choice I feel is most likely he could have been talking about his uncle coming to Bly and talking to the governess about the possibility of the ghosts being a figment of her imagination and her settling things this way.
"My face was close to hism and he let me kiss him, simply taking it with indulgent good humor." Pg. 63 (in my book)
ReplyDeleteI found this quote quite ambiguous because throughout the book there seems to be a slight sexuality between the Governess and Miles. One theory is that the Governess really did kiss Miles in good humor, and another is that there was legitimate sexuality between the two of them. Im my opinion this supports the theory that the Governess is crazy and that there really are no ghosts, because if the woman is mad enough to fall in love with a young boy she is supposed to be watching over, then she can be mad enough to be 'seeing' these ghosts in her head. This sentence is hard to understand not because of the complexity of the wording, but because of the idea behind the sentence. This book was a psychological trip for me, and this theme of the Governess being in love with Miles was merely one piece of the puzzle.
Brian Gleadle
ReplyDelete"...will let me go and come. Well, I 'come', you see -- but i don't go! There'll be plenty of time for that."
This quote is ambiguous because he is saying that she lets him come and go but he always comes and never goes. Which is technically impossible, but apparently at some point he will go, where I don't know, but he will go. It adds to the confusing aspect of the book as well. It was one of the quotes that first jumped out at me when i opened the book.
Denisse Manrique
ReplyDelete"They are in my ears still, his supreme surrender of the name and his tribute to my devotion. "What does it matter ? I have you," I launched at the beast, "but he has lost you for ever!" Then for demonstration of my work, "There, there!" I said to miles." (p.144)
I foun that this quote is very important not only because it is one of the last ones on the book. I like the emotion rumbling behind this quote and her desperation. I felt that it went really well to the discussions we had in class as to her imagining all of this and being crazy. I thought this quote was a little difficult to interpret because we don't really understand yet if she was crazy or not. I'm mostly excited to see what the director of the movie is going to do with the ending of the book in the movie.
April Dick
ReplyDelete"They are in my ears still, his supreme surrender of the name and his tribute to my devotion." (144)
After reading the ending the first time, it seems like the governess has cured Miles of his devil in a "supreme surrender" and has taken on some sort of heroic role because of her "devotion" to solving the mystery. When I read it again and took into account the fact that we witness this scene from her perspective, she could very well have imagined the ghosts and she could have killed Miles with her insanity. What makes this quote difficult to digest is that the reader has to filter out her perceptions to see what is actually happening but, as with the rest of this book, there really is no way of knowing.
Mark Galambos
ReplyDelete"I was so determined to have all my proof that I flashed into ice to challenge him. “Whom do you mean by ‘he’?” “Peter Quint—you devil!”
This quote is especially ambiguous because James never clearly lets us know who Miles is talking to, or about. It is hard to tell whether he is referring to Quint as the devil, or the governess. If Miles is referring to Peter Quint as the devil, then his death may imply that he is being dispossessed by the demon, but we never can really find out.
Craig Thomas
ReplyDelete"he stood there smiling; then at last he put into two words-"do you?"-more discrimination than i had ever heard two words contain."
this quote was a hard one for me to comprehend because i didnt quite get why he was feeling so dicriminated by that. but this quote did also make me laugh because i could relate to it exactly i do that same grin when i know ive beat someone at something and they're just starting to realize it
"Having to do with you?" I asked. "My dear child, how can I help minding? Though I've renounced all claim to your company-you're so beyond me-I at least greatly enjoy it. What else should I stay on for?" pg 136, Governess
ReplyDeleteI find this quote a bit confusing because it appears here as though the Governess is claiming to stay along at Bly with Miles for the sole purpose of enjoying Miles's company. The above quote wouldn't be as confusing if she were to be saying it to a young man a bit closer to her own age. The fact that Miles was a young boy she was hired to look after, and now with his sister gone, the Governess expresses the statement above to him, makes me question not only her integrity as his caretaker but whether the Governess sees Miles as more than a young boy, perhaps a lover. Miles's reaction to the Governess's statement supports my accusation, "You stay in just for that?" he asks, and almost intimidated, the Governess retracts her ambiguous words to explain, just as friends, she enjoys his company. Past experiences and happenings between the two, make the Governess's first declaration seem almost romantic, but her next response makes the first statement confusing to me because of the way she nervously retracts her previous words.
Tori Weisel
ReplyDelete“How could I even put a little of that article into a suppression of reference to what had occurred? How on the other hand could I make a reference without a new plunge into the hideous obscure?” (131)
This quote is when the governess is thinking of how she can get Miles on her side and she is thinking this to herself right before she talks to Miles about why Flora and Mrs. Grose left. This quote is a little confusing because the governess doubts herself and even she doesn’t know what she should say to Miles. It seems like she wants to be nice to Miles and not accuse him of making her seem crazy by making up the ghosts but at the same time she wants to bring that up or “plunge into the hideous obscure” so he will speak to her. This quote makes you think of what the answers to her questions might be. I think it also just shows that the governess is crazy because all she can think about is the ghosts that may not be real.
"It was not against the possible, re-entrance of miss jessel on the scene that she protested-it was conspicuously passionatly against mine". p.122
ReplyDeleteThis quote troubled me becuse I didnt understand at First how much Flora hated the Governess. This quote comes up when Flora wakes up sick in the middle of the night and it is becasue of how much she hates the governess and hoe mad Flora is that the governess met with miss jessel.
Will Quattlebaum
ReplyDelete"You're tired of Bly?"
"Oh no, I like Bly."
"Well then-?"
"Oh you know what a boy wants!"
~p. 103
This particular is the exchange between the governess and Miles when the governess is trying to talk to Miles about the letter she sent. This is in chapter 17 and around the middle of the chapter. I believe this quote fits perfectly into what Mr. Schindler wants us to find in an ambiguous quote from this half of the book. It is confusing to me exactly what Miles means by what a boy wants. Not being his age in his time period, and not knowing much information, I'm not exactly sure what a boy would want. They were talking about Miles' schooling and possibly about him leaving Bly, but he pulls a 180 on the governess and doesn't want to leave. All very confusing, which seems to be something that trails Miles a lot in this book.
Kirsten Zoba
ReplyDelete"'She's not alone, and at such times she's not a child: she's an old, old woman.'" (96, in my book)
This is challenging to interpret because of the psychological illusions within the text. It leaves you with questions as to who they're really talking about and what it's foreshadowing to in the future, or whether it really is foreshadowing anything at all. It is VERY ambiguous.
Maxx Forde
ReplyDelete"'His having lied and been impudent are, I confess, less engaging specimens than I had hoped to have from you of the outbreak in him of the little natural man. Still,' I mused, 'they must do, for they make me feel more than ever that I must watch.'"
(Governess, pg. 59)
I thought that this was pretty vague and thus, somewhat hard for me to understand. However, it's vagueness and complexity I thought added to the character of the Governess because it sort of shows how she thinks a little bit within the quote and the surrounding context. I just thought it gave a great inside look into the complex mind of the Governess.