Wilson, 1934

                                  Apparitionists vs Non-apparitionists
Wilson, 1934
Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) was an American writer, literary and social critic.
In his essay "The Ambiguity of Henry James"Wilson favours the non-apparitionist perspective. He states that the ghosts are not real ghosts, but just the governess's hallucinations.
 He finds significance in the fact that only the governess sees the ghosts. Anybody but the governess admits seeing the ghosts. The governess thinks that the children also see the ghosts  but there is no proof that they actually do. The housekeeper, Mrs Grose, insists that she doesn't see them.
One of the arguments for an apparitionist interpretation is that when the governess gives a decription of what she saw to Mrs Grose, the housekeeper says that the description coincides with the appearance of Quint. Wilson's answer to this argumentation is that Mrs Grose has been inatentive to the governess's description and that she rapidely arrives at the conclusion that the apparition was Quint. Wilson suggests that the master and Quint may have been similar in appearance (in fact, Quint wore the master's clothes), so that the governess, in describing her daydream turned real, she might have described Quint.