Essential question
What does calling herself a 'screen' reveal about the role the governess has begun to assign herself?
Marked passage
- Passage location
- VI
- Start anchor
- I was there to protect and defend the little creatures in the world the most bereaved and the most lovable
- End anchor
- Proofs, I say, yes—from the moment I really took hold.
The governess becomes a screen
Ways to teach it
Listening
Listen to the exact passage; visual following is optional. Same question and evidence demand.
Solo
Read the exact passage independently.
Supported
Use narration and sentence highlighting while reading the same passage.
Teacher guide
Close
Name the single detail that most changed or sharpened your interpretation, and explain why.
Evidence
Use the screen/protection language, claims of the children's vulnerability, and any self-congratulatory or heightened language about her own courage.
Mark
Circle the screen or protection imagery. Underline the phrases that position the children as especially helpless and the governess as uniquely necessary. Star the sentence where protection begins to sound like self-dramatization.
Instructional move
Read a protective metaphor for signs of self-dramatization
Notice
• What does a screen do for the people behind it? • What assumptions about the children’s helplessness are built into the metaphor? • How can a sincere desire to protect also enlarge the protector’s sense of importance?
Strong answer
Calling herself a screen casts the governess as the necessary protector standing between innocent children and danger. The metaphor reveals care, but also a growing heroic self-conception in which the story requires her central role.
Think
Answer provisionally: What does calling herself a 'screen' reveal about the role the governess has begun to assign herself? Choose the strongest interpretation you can defend from this passage alone.
Watch for
Do not decide that protection is insincere. The passage can show genuine care and self-dramatization at the same time.
Why this passage
The governess describes herself as a 'screen' standing between the children and danger. The metaphor casts her as protector, but it also reveals how central and heroic she has begun to make her own role in the story.
Write
Write a short evidence-based response to: What does calling herself a 'screen' reveal about the role the governess has begun to assign herself? Use at least two details from the assigned passage and explain how they support your interpretation.
Student tasks
Mark
Circle the screen or protection imagery. Underline the phrases that position the children as especially helpless and the governess as uniquely necessary. Star the sentence where protection begins to sound like self-dramatization.
Notice
What does a screen do for the people behind it? What assumptions about the children’s helplessness are built into the metaphor? How can a sincere desire to protect also enlarge the protector’s sense of importance?
Think
Answer provisionally: What does calling herself a 'screen' reveal about the role the governess has begun to assign herself?
Write
Write a short response using at least two pieces of evidence from this passage. Use evidence from the assigned passage. Show what you noticed and how the text supports your interpretation.