The Vestigial Visitant's Vexatious Veneer: TotS Post 2

     A slow but steady broil of the ingredients of classical horror/mystery begins to cleave together in chapters two through four. There are two fantastically angelic children( a neoclassical favorite) by the names of Flora and Miles, the newly acquainted yet marvelously supportive friend, in this case Mrs. Grose, and of course the iconic and omnipresent specter: all of these elements culminate very nicely to vivify the sense of mystery so subtly placed in the first few sections of the novella. Each chapter is painstakingly placed-with a tinge of teasing- to siphon off the other's momentum. Chapter two continues to intensify the mysterious dichotomy of Miles in chapter one. Continuing on, Chapter three introduces Miles while also masterfully intermingling his, and to a lesser extent his sister's, inherent duality with an apparition. Chapter four combines the previous two and animates a new interest in Mrs. Grose, all the while still paradoxically being more ambiguous then ever.  

     The mystery of young Miles is elaborated upon in the second chapter. It is clear from a letter that he is a mischievous and troubled young boy. Mrs. Grose, however, pleads that such is not the case. Indeed, the air of ambiguity is further collaborated by the indefinite replies of Mrs. Grose to contradictions to her sworn descriptions of the children. In fact, the letter itself is open to interpretation as it simply states that young Miles regrettably cannot be kept at school grounds, a statement that Mrs. Grose vehemently swears off to the governess. Evidently, the secretive nature of the novella is displayed more and more openly. Everything, from the children to letters to even the narrating governess are called into question. Most importantly, the children, and more specifically Miles, are shown to have a dark side to their outwardly pristine image that makes the reader yearn for more details in what is to be inevitably a hopeless and self-defeating struggle that ends with no real satisfaction.

     As expected, the much-exaggerated arrival of Miles occurs in the subsequent section. Also as expected, Miles exhibits the exact traits of celestial remark as his sister Flora: a beautiful appearance, a solemn expression, and an innocent veneer. Through all this reassurance, however, the reader is also incredibly left more curious than ever as to the true nature of the children. A comparative affect can be imagined by how one wishes for the good guy to win, but yet secretly wants them to suffer as such a story is somehow more memorable. Similarly, some intrinsic human emotion desperately wants the image of the children to stay perfect and innocent, and yet craves for a dreadful corruption of said image. Henry James obviously knows of such an effect, and thus emulates it in his writings which beg to be read, a sentiment grandly supplemented by the following tidbit of the novella, a sentiment amplified with the uneasy feeling of being under a spell just like the one the governess expresses she is under.  

     In the fourth part of the actual story, the ghost aspect of the novella finally becomes plain. When the governess is wandering, she sees in an inconspicuous tower a peculiar man. It seems to the governess as if the man has always known her. After a long and mutual stare, the stranger turns sharply and disappears to the corners of the tower in the governess's new residence. What is most interesting is that a feeling of relatability  is expressed similar to what the governess experienced with the children and, to a lesser extent, Mrs. Grose. Just like the previous relationships, the governess conveys universal human emotions that the reader is no doubt supposed to likewise exhibit, albeit in a more limited and less profuse spectrum. Thus, the characters can be seen more as representations, with their actual names of no special import, of beings that make the titular ghost story exciting for many. To top the heightening feeling of mystery off, the visitant once again appears, prompting the governess to follow; when Mrs. Grose asks what has occupied the governess so, the revelation of the spectator shocks the former. Next is chapter five. 

     Evidently, James can be seen as the ideal writer for the modern horror genre. His stories contain all the typical elements that characterize what scary has come to mean in present times. In a deeper sense, his tales are supremely psychological. The bountiful ambiguity plays off the previous chapters, the questionable cast of characters, and most of all  the dichotomy of primal human emotion. It is always a background thought that the tale is being told by someone else around a fire, therefore making the story more irrelevant. At the same time, the fact that it is more or less a ghost story due to its oral retelling by a dramatic source invigorates a want to figure out the truth as finding the truth out of a fictional story is far more arduous and ingrained in the subconscious than a fact as stories were told in such a mannerism for hundreds of years prior to the modern age. Even today, parents tell their children of fantasies that remain unsolved to this day. James's intricate method of packing every passage with a great amount of detail while also paradoxically making his narrative more ambivalent serves to accentuate the problem. By delving further into the novella, one plunges deeper into an expansive abyss of mystery all the while knowing that one is only exacerbating their dilemma. Such contradictions and their incremental divulgement in relation to the psyche are at the heart of why humans continue to be drawn to the horror genre.