Asking whether the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw exist is not a rich enough question. Throughout the novella, there are many hints as to whether the ghosts exist. There is one indisputable fact though. The governess, within the confines of the novella, could have no notion of what Peter Quint looked like unless she saw him herself. According to Mrs. Grose, the person the governess had seen with "red hair, very red, close-curling, and a pale face, long in shape, with straight good features and little rather queer whiskers that are red as his hair" was Quint (173). By the virtue of this one event, the ghosts had to have existed. Thus, a better question, and one with quite some substance, is what is the source of evil in the novella?
             It could be contested that the governess was a source of evil. Her actions had, in fact, through the course of the novella, become more and more neurotic. After all, the things she saw were never admittedly seen by anyone else. But, because of the above determination that the ghosts had to have existed, it seems justified that she would start to go a little crazy. She becomes neurotic; fearing the worst about what these images may mean. Some critics may attribute the evil in the novella to her constant insistence on the ghosts' existence, striking a mortal fear in the children, specifically Miles. As you will see, this has little credence. The governess's debated neurosis has very little, if anything, to do with the evil in the novella though.
             During the time that The Turn of the Screw was written, evil was equated with any sin. Peter Quint and Miss Jessel had been sexually corrupting the children when they were still alive and before the governess arrived in Bly. In this era, such carnal knowledge at a young age was attributed to sickness and even death. The ghosts were the personified evil of this knowledge. Because it was considered t...