James also repeats words used but with some variation so that the meaning is left unsettled and again the reader must fill in the gaps. What happened to Miles and his expulsion from school turns on the word 'obscurity', "deep obscurity continued to cover the region of the boy's conduct at school". Towards the end of the text, after the Governess sends away Mrs. Grose with Flora so she is left alone with Miles, she contemplates a new plunge into the, "hideous obscure.

             James also sets the reader on alert by the use of secrecy to build a sense of terror in the novella. The absent Master's unreasonable dictate never to contact him about the children is obscure as his motivations remain unknown. James never explains why the restriction was imposed and we are left to fill in the disturbing gaps ourselves. .

             Silence is also a powerful force. A pact of silence stops any real discussion of what exactly has gone on in the house and particularly around the nature of Peter Quint's relationship with Miss Jessel and their relationship with the children. .

             The Governess also notices the children's silence, which shuts her out and forces the Governess to construct her own story piecemeal. It's not until chapter 12 that she confronts the children directly about Peter Quint and Miss Jessel breaking the conspiracy of silence.

             Mrs. Grose adds to the impending tension as she is unwilling to be tale bearing". The Governess is "haunted with the shadow of something [Mrs Grose] had not told me". James also uses the Governess questionable sanity to explore the boundaries between reality of the horror at Bly and to build a deep sense of unease about her reliability as a narrator. She recognizes that she hovers on the uneasy fringes of sanity caught in her own, "cleft stick", between the ghosts and the children between innocence and experience. .

             For the evangelical Victorian readers, the idea of the children's innocence being corrupted by servants would have been terrifying.