As dawn approaches, she hears from her room what she thinks to be the sound of footsteps outside her door and a child crying. Dawn is known to be a time of transition. Night is turning into day, and it is a time of uncertainty. The governess first encounters Peter Quint during an afternoon stroll, where the atmosphere is pleasant at first, but quickly changes to one of danger. The governess also encounters Miss Jessel sitting on the lower stairs with her bowed in deep reflection. The atmosphere is alive with suspense. Reference to the eyes in the story also emphasizes the idea that sight in unreliable, but vision and language are used to describe each of the encounters the governess has with Quint and Miss Jessel. The reader gets an ambiguous phrase from the governess in an internal monologue, when she deems her first encounter with Quint as a "bewilderment of vision. " This supports the idea of the governess possibly being insane, due to her repressed feelings. She may see things that are not really there, and not seen by the people around her, either. Light and the written word are pervasive throughout the story. Candlelight suggests safety in the governess' narrative, while dawn and/or twilight suggest danger. On various occasions, the governess' lighted is extinguished. Eerie encounters happen right after this occurs. The lack of moonlight implies an absence of the supernatural, and the blow out of the candle indicates a loss of protection. The governess approaches the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose with her encounters with the ghosts and searches for answers. We are given small facts and details about the lives of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, but not enough to grasp the whole concept of the story. The governess however, is aware of the illicit sexual relationship between Quint and Jessel. Gothic literature often explores sexual taboos, which in this story represents the forbidden relationship between Jessel and Quint and because she was of a higher social ranking than he was, she was committing a crime.
