Character guide

The Governess

major

Also known as Unknown, me, I, my friend

She is the daughter of a country parson, barely twenty, hired by an absent uncle who refuses all contact and leaves her wholly in charge. Her fierce devotion to Miles and Flora curdles into a desperate vigilance when she begins to see figures the children never mention. Her letters, her certainty, and her silences are the only record we have — and she is writing to be believed.

Miles

major

Also known as little Miles, Master Miles, Little Miles, Dear little Miles, dear little Miles, the boy, dear little Miles, Master Miles

Miles is the master's nephew, entrusted to Bly along with his sister and forbidden any mention of the school that expelled him. He is affectionate, disarming, and unnervingly self-possessed — a child who seems to be managing the adults around him. His charm is the governess's chief comfort and her deepest unease, and his silences push the story toward the questions she cannot ask.

Mrs. Grose

supporting

Also known as poor Mrs. Grose, poor scared Mrs. Grose

Mrs. Grose has kept Bly running through masters and mistresses, and she loves the children with a motherly, unlettered warmth. She is torn between her instinct to protect them and her dread of speaking ill of the dead — especially of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. Her half-confidences give the governess the shape of the past, and her silences give it its terror.

Flora

supporting

Also known as little Flora, Miss Flora, dear little Flora, Flora

Flora is Miles's younger sister, left at Bly with him under the governess's care and rarely mentioned by their uncle. She is sweet, obedient, and unnervingly composed — until she begins to slip away to the pond and to look at the governess with a stranger's eyes. Her distance is the first crack in the governess's confidence, and it turns a nursery into a place of watchfulness.

Miss Jessel

supporting

Also known as woman

Miss Jessel was a lady, hired to teach the children, who left Bly under a cloud and died soon after — of what, Mrs. Grose will not say. She is remembered as beautiful, proud, and fatally entangled with Peter Quint, a man far beneath her station. Her appearance at the pond, fixed on Flora, gives the governess her first proof that the past has not stayed buried.

Peter Quint

supporting

Also known as Quint, Mr. Quint, Peter

Quint was the master's own man — clever, spoiled, and, by Mrs. Grose's account, 'too free' with everyone in the house. He took a peculiar fancy to Miles, and the boy has never once spoken his name. His face at the tower window is the governess's first sight of the uncanny, and his hold on Miles becomes the thing she believes she was hired, unknowingly, to break.

Douglas

minor

Also known as Poor Douglas

The man who introduces the governess's manuscript to the house party in the prologue.

The Master

minor

Also known as the master, The master

The children's uncle and employer who hires the governess and forbids her from contacting him.

Luke

minor

A servant at Bly who brings the governess a letter about Miles's expulsion.

Griffin

minor

Also known as Mrs. Griffin

A member of the house party listening to Douglas's story in the prologue.