What are the similarities between the governess in Jane Eyre and the governess in The Turn of the Screw?

There are several similarities between the main characters of Jane Eyre and The Turn of the Screw, the most obvious being their job. Jane Eyre and the nameless woman in The Turn of the Screw are both governesses. This position means that Jane and the governess are also positioned similarly socially and financially.

Most women in this time period would live with their family and be provided for by a husband or father. Jane is an orphan, cast off by her remaining aunt. She has to make a living for herself, and therefore becomes a governess. The governess in The Turn of the Screw has family, but she is the youngest of several daughters of a clergyman, and her father can no longer support her (TOTS, Prologue). As educated, single women of no means, Jane and the governess occupy a unique social sphere. They are neither truly lower class, like most servants, but they are not quite on the same social level as their employers. This strange divide is emphasized in both books, through the women's friendships with the housekeepers, another employee who would bridge the gap between upstairs and downstairs. Mrs. Gross and the governess have "mutual esteem" for each other and "embraced like sisters" (TOTS, Chapter 3), and while Miles and Flora are permitted to fraternize with them, the governess must "fence about and absolutely save" from the "too free," presumptuous, and deceased Quint, a valet (TOTS, Chapter 6). Similarly, Mrs. Fairfax comments that she has been alone before Jane's arrival to Thornfield, and then specifies, "I say alone—Leah is a nice girl to be sure, and John and his wife are very decent people; but then you see they are only servants, and one can't converse with them on terms of equality: one must keep them at due distance for fear of losing one's authority" (JE, Chapter 11). 

So the nameless governess and Jane are trapped between two classes. Although they outrank servants like Quint or Grace Poole, almost all control belongs to their employers. Mr. Rochester has complete command over his interactions with Jane, telling her to where and how to sit, to "speak," and "reply clearly" (Chapter 14). He leaves Thornfield without explanations or goodbyes, while Jane must ask his permission to return to Gateshead (JE, Chapter 21). Likewise, the governess in TOTS is sent instructions from her employer, but has only seen him twice and is instructed that “she should never trouble him…neither appeal nor complain nor write about anything” (TOTS, Prologue).

Another similarity is the women’s relationships with their employers, though not entirely. Jane falls in love with Rochester, an older, Byronic man who employs her to mind his ward, but Rochester loves Jane in return. In TOTS, the governess loves her employer, but is never the recipient of her employer’s affection. In fact, the governess experiences almost exactly Jane’s infatuation, as Henry James the author clearly intends to evoke Jane Eyre and similar Gothic novels in his readers’ minds. For instance the employer is described as impressing the governess as  “vast and imposing,” “a gentleman, a bachelor in the prime of life, such a figure as had never risen, save in  a dream or an old novel before a fluttered anxious girl” (TOTS, Prologue). The governess is clearly familiar with Jane Eyre, suspecting a “‘secret’ at Bly” and wondering if it is “an insane unmentionable relative” (Chapter 4). To some extent, she convinces herself that Jane’s fate will be hers, that “it would be as charming as a charming story to suddenly meet some one” on her evening walk, much as Jane first meets Rochester (Chapter 3). Like Jane, she does become involved in a mystery of seemingly supernatural occurrences, but her story does not have as clear or as happy of a resolution as Jane’s.

The final similarity you should consider is that both women are presented as the authors of their own stories. Jane Eyre is subtitled “An Autobiography” and is written as Jane’s first person account of her life. Similarly, the governess’s story is framed as a manuscript that she has written and presented to Douglas who shares it in the prologue.

The many similarities between the governess of The Turn of the Screw and Jane Eyre actually enhance James’s novel, allowing his character’s and his readers’ knowledge of another text to shape their perceptions and suspicions throughout the story.