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Supposing the reader takes the narrator at her word, there is evidence to support that the red-headed lecher, Peter Quint, and his infamously beautiful paramour, Miss Jessel, are the hell raisers the Governess makes them out to be.
The Governess describes Miss Jessel in demonic terms when she spies her across the lake, "Another person -- this time; but a figure of quite as unmistakable horror and evil: a woman in black, pale and dreadful -- with such an air also, and such a face! -- on the other side of the lake. I was there with the child -- quiet for the hour; and in the midst of it she came" (James). According to this initial description, Miss Jessel fits the profile of an evildoer. It should be noted that this initial impression of Miss Jessel is later complicated, if not contradicted, by a later description where the Governess is the one doing the haunting, "I remained where I was, and while I waited I thought of more things than one. But there's only one I take space to mention. I wondered why she should be scared (James)."
As for Peter Quint, his initial description is like that of Miss Jessel. The Governess says he is "unnaturally white," a "silent horror." And she also believes he is hell bent on haunting Miles. But the biggest indictment for Peter Quint being a force of evil is a combination of Mrs. Grose's description of him, she says he was a hound that was "too free" with everyone, including Miles and Flora, and the fact...
'Whom do you mean by 'he'?' 'Peter Quint -- you devil!'" (James). Perhaps it was Peter Quint who corrupted the boy, but what it was that caused the boy to start telling the other children at school things that were inappropriate is still a mystery. Did Peter Quint molest Miles, did he expose the boy to his philandering ways or did the boy know about him and Miss Jessel? One can only speculate.
So in the end, what one has on his/her hands is a story with evil at every turn, but no one to pin it on; no one to blame for it. In Hamlet it's clear who the villain is (the dead King's brother), in the Turn of the Screw, everyone is a suspect. As a result, the story is a mindbender, not only for the characters; but for readers. We all want answers, however in James world he only gives us more questions.
Works Cited
James, Henry, and Robert Kimbrough. The Turn of the Screw. An Authoritative Text,
Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1966. Print.
Lane, Anthony. "Fright Nights." The New Yorker. 19 Feb. 2012.
.
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Lolita. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.
Shakespeare, William, Andre Gide, and Jacques Schiffrin. Hamlet. New York: Pantheon,
1945. Print.
Works Cited
James, Henry, and Robert Kimbrough. The Turn of the Screw. An Authoritative Text,
Backgrounds and Sources, Essays in Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1966. Print.
Lane, Anthony. "Fright Nights." The New Yorker. 19 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/02/13/120213crbo_books_la
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