UNIVERSITATEA AUREL VLAICU ARAD

FACULTATEA DE TIINE UMANISTE I SOCIALE

LIMBA I LITERATURA ROMN LIMBA I LITERATURA ENGLEZ

LUCRARE DE LICEN

NDRUMTOR TIINIFIC Prof. Univ. Dr. Monica PONTA Lect. Univ. Drd. Claudiu MARGAN ABSOLVENT

ARAD

2012

UNIVERSITATEA AUREL VLAICU ARAD

FACULTATEA DE TIINE UMANISTE I SOCIALE
LIMBA I LITERATURA ROMN LIMBA I LITERATURA ENGLEZ

LUCRARE DE LICEN
USED AND ABUSED: JAMESIAN WOMEN CHARACTERS IN THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, DAISY MILLER, THE GOLDEN BOWL AND THE WINGS OF THE DOVE

NDRUMTOR TIINIFIC Prof. Univ. Dr. Monica PONTA Lect. Univ. Drd. Claudiu MARGAN ABSOLVENT

ARAD
2

2012

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.. 5 1. SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON HENRY JAMESS LIFE AND LITERARY ACTIVITY.. 8 1.1. Family background and early writings.. 8 1.2. The first major novels and short stories 11 1.3. The middle period of Jamesian creation... 14 1.4 The final stage of literary activity.. 16 2. ISABEL ARCHER AND THE OBJECTIFICATION OF THE WOMAN 19 2.1. The Portrait of A Lady aesthetic principles and reactions.. 19 2.2 Setting, plot and characters. 20 2.3 Oppressed by the setting: the American woman in Europe 25 2.4 Losing innocence and resisting abuse. 29 2.5 Women as objects... 32 3. DAISY MILLER AND THE AMERICAN INNOCENCE................ 35 3.1 American vs. European and the international theme 35 3.2 Innocence and corruption 37 3.3 Open personality and social constraints.......... 39
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4. INFIDELITY OR THE CRACK IN THE GOLDEN BOWL................. 42 4.1 From realism to the impressionism of the character... 42 4.2 Plot and characters in The Golden Bowl. 44 4.3 Cheated women or the flaw in the golden bowl.. 47 5. PURITY AND ABUSE IN THE WINGS OF THE DOVE................. 49 5.1 Narrative techniques and character construction 49 5.2 Story-line in The Wings of the Dove.. 50 5.3 Milly Theale the mysterious victim..... 55

CONCLUSIONS 58 BIBLIOGRAPHY.. 60

INTRODUCTION

Henry James is considered by criticism as a transition author, bridging the gap between realism or Victorianism and Modernism. That is why the reader will find a combination of realist and modernist elements, both in terms of narrative techniques and of the themes and characters he uses. Therefore, we should not be surprised if the character, and especially the women characters that make the object of our study, will present both realist and modernist features, because their personality is made up of details drawn from the objective reality, but also from their inner consciousness. Our interest in the topic was triggered, first of all, by the complexity of Jamesian women characters and by what we considered to be an indeterminism of their actions. We were puzzled by Isabel sacrificing her freedom to enter and remain trapped in an unhappy marriage in The Portrait of A Lady, by Maggies acceptance of her husbands infidelity in The Golden Bowl, by Daisys innocence and predestined fatality in Daisy Miller, or Milly Theales hidden thoughts, mysterious illness and slow disappearance in The Wings of the Dove. Without trying to erase their individuality, we tried to find some common patterns that could facilitate the reading of Henry Jamess novels and the understanding of his women characters. Although the author himself was not a supporter of type and typology, we will try to prove that there are some common features that unite his women protagonists because of the thematic choices and the narrative techniques that he uses. The first chapter of our thesis will take into account the background of the author and his literary activity. Born in the United States, James lived most of his life in Europe, mainly in England, and his writing presents elements from both continents. That is why his works frequently put together characters from different worlds the Old World (Europe), both creative and corrupting; and the New World (the United States), where people are often hostile, open, and straightforward and explore how this conflict of personalities and cultures affects the two worlds. An extremely productive author, James wrote 22 novels, hundreds of short stories, and dozens of volumes of non-fiction including biographies, travel writing, art
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and literary criticism, and memoirs. In the second chapter we will deal with the first of the women characters who make the object of our study, Isabel Archer from The Portrait of A Lady. We will discuss such general issues related to Henry Jamess novels as his aesthetic principles, character construction and the international theme, but also an analysis of Isabels transformation throughout the book. We will not omit the importance of the setting on the development of the character, the deception and abuse that Isabel has to face, as well as the problem of freedom, corrupted innocence and the treatment of women as objects. The third chapter will focus on Daisy Miller and her story of innocence and fatality. Like all the other American girls, Daisy becomes the victim both of the Old Continent and of the other protagonists who want to take advantage of her. But more than that of the other women characters in Jamess novels, Daisys downfall is tragic as it ends in a symbolical death. Thus, the author goes beyond the idea of corruption, abuse and loss of innocence and takes his idea of the irreconcilable worlds represented by Europe and America to its final consequences. The study of the abused women continues in the fourth chapter with the story of Maggie Verver in The Golden Bowl, where the innocent American becomes the victim of a couple she meets in Europe, Prince Amerigo and Charlotte Stant. She is pushed into a marriage not only by the two conspirators who try to take advantage of her wealth, but also by her father, who is delighted to add the noble title of Prince to his family. As the crack in the golden bowl that Amerigo and Charlotte want to buy at the beginning of the novel suggests, even apparently happy marriages such as Maggie and Amerigos can hide significant flaws. In this particular case, the infidelity of the Prince and his adulterous relationship with Charlotte become the most relevant abuse that Maggie becomes victim of. The last chapter of our thesis deals with one of the most obscure of Henry Jamess novels, The Wings of the Dove, and, probably, his least accessible woman character, Milly Theale. Suffering from a mysterious and apparently incurable disease, this young American is deceived by yet another couple, Kate and Merton Densher, into marrying the second. The situation is a bit more complicated that in The Golden Bowl, because here the schemers are not only after the victims money, but also Kate is prohibited a relationship with Merton in order to receive an inheritance from a rich aunt. Therefore, she basically pushes her lover into Millys arms, to gain some time and a position for him, which will enable them to marry when
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Milly dies. Kate loses everything in the process, because, even if Milly dies, she does not accept marrying Merton, and furthermore, Merton apparently falls in love with Milly and finally rejects Kate. Taking into account the four women characters dealt with in our thesis, we will try eventually to find some common features that would confirm the existence of a type of abused women in the Jamesian novels studied and not only , to explain the pattern behind such a typology and to identify the reasons that made the author operate with this typology.

1. SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON HENRY JAMESS LIFE AND LITERARY ACTIVITY

1.1. Family background and early writings Henry James (April 15, 1843 February 28, 1916) is considered as one of the greatest writers in both in American and British literature. We say both American and British as it would be impossible to make a definitive judgment on his belonging to either one of them. His American background and his British maturity recommend him as rather an international author of English expression. Henry James spent most of his late life in Europe, and his fiction often addressed both the European and American culture, making it difficult for many critics to locate James works in the American and British literary traditions. Jamess fiction is extraordinary for its psychological insight, as well as its realistic portrayal of European and American society. An extremely creative writer, James wrote 22 novels, hundreds of short stories, volumes of non-fiction including biographies, travel writing, art and literary analysis, and autobiography. His evolving literary style and artistic intentions witnessed the transition from the Victorian to the Modern era in English literature. The early fiction followed the realistic conventions of the French and Russian novelists, while his later work became more complex. James was one of the first major novelists to use modernist, stream-of-consciousness techniques, and he proposed an aesthetic approach that avoided a conventional omniscient narrative voice, arguing that the novelists craft required a revelatory process of showing rather than a didactic act of telling. Henry James was born in New York City into a wealthy, intellectually inclined family and is considered today as a key writer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the son of a millionaire businessman and philosopher, Henry James Sr., and the younger
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brother of a psychologist and philosopher, William James. In his adolescence, James travelled with his family back and forth between Europe and the United States. He studied in Geneva, London, Paris and Bonn. At the age of 19 he briefly attended Harvard University Law School, but he discovered that he preferred reading and writing fiction to studying law. From an early age, James read, criticized and learned from the classics of English, American, French, Italian, German, and Russian literature. In 1864 he anonymously published his first short story, A Tragedy of Error, and from then on devoted himself completely to literature. Throughout his career he contributed extensively to magazines such as The Nation or The Atlantic Monthly. From 1875 to his death he dedicated himself to a variety of genres: novels, short story collections, literary criticism, travel writing, biography and autobiography. Henry James was an eager reader of English novels but, because he was an American who lived in Europe was also passionate of French novels. Henry James was a factor of change and innovation in English literature at the time and a detached observer. The writers fascination with consciousness and the workings of the mind owed much to his remarkable family. In addition to his sister, Alice, who was an accomplished diarist and prose stylist in her own right, his older brother, William James, was a famous American philosopher and psychologist. Their father, the philosopher and theologian Henry James Sr., was a close friend of Ralph Waldo Emerson and a well-known New England Transcendantalist. The James family was one of the most productive intellectual families in the history of the United States, and Henry James was its most gifted literary stylist and innovator. Henry James never married, and it remains unknown whether he ever experienced a relationship. Many of his letters are filled with expressions of affection, but it is never been shown conclusively that any of these expressions were acted out. James enjoyed socializing with his many friends and acquaintances, but he seems to have maintained a certain distance from other people. After he settled himself in London he called himself a bachelor 1 and he rejected any thought of getting married. After a brief attempt to live in Paris, James moved permanently to England in 1876. He became a British subject in 1915, one year before his death and was soon very well known for its novels in which he reveals the encounters of Americans with Europe and Europeans. He settled first in a London apartment and then, from
1

Cheveresan, C. T. College British Literature. Editura Universtatii Aurel Vlaicu, 2008, p. 90. 10

1897 on, in Lamb House, a residence in Rye, East Sussex. He revisited America on several occasions, most notably in 1904 - 1905. The beginning of World War I was a profound shock for James, and in 1915 he became a British citizen to declare his loyalty to his adopted country and to protest against Americas refusal to enter the war on behalf of Britain. James suffered a stroke in London on December 2, 1915, and died three months later. As far as his literary career is concerned, he started out as a dramatist having modest success. He is best known for his stories which dealt with the international scene. 2 His literary activity can be divided into 4 periods: The period of the 1870s, which included: Roderick Hudson (1876), The American (1877), The Europeans (1878), Daisy Miller (1879), Washington Square (1881), The Portrait of a Lady (1881) dealt with the international theme and the dilemma of the artist. Between 1882 and 1897 there was a period of confusion and concern about the relationship of the artist to life. The works of this period were: The Bostonians (1886), The Princess Casamassima (1886), The Tragic Muse (1890) and The Spolis of Poynton (1897). From 1897 until 1904 a period of perfection and over-refinement of his art followed: What Maisie Knew (1897) and The Awkward Age (1899). At the end of this period James produced his three most ambitious novels: The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl. The final period during which he revised his novels for a definite edition also included two experimental novels, The Ivory Tower (1917), impressionistic and The Sense of The Past (1917), expressionistic, and the collection of short stories The Finer Grain. Jamess evolution from conventional, realistic novel to a psychological and moral novel determined him to organize his narratives around a central intelligence or consciousness or a lucid reflector, to use the point of view narrative technique, and to stage a dramatic development of the characters psychology. As the author himself states, experience is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spider-web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue. It is the very atmosphere of the mind.3 The first major novels and short stories
2 3

Cheveresan, C.T. op. cit., p. 91. In Partial Portraits. Westport, Greenwood Press, 1970, p. 388. 11

In the first period of Jamesian creation that we have mentioned before, the author showed his interest in the international theme, dealing with transcontinental stories. Criticism commonly considers the writer as one of the major figures of trans-Atlantic literature, which is to say that his works frequently put together characters from different worlds - the Old World (Europe), both artistic and corrupting; and the New World (the United States), where people are often aggressive, open, and assertive - and explore how this clash of personalities and cultures affects the two worlds. It is not difficult to explain Henry James preoccupation with the international theme. As a historian of his times, James found considerably more meaning and interest than his contemporaries in the spectacles of international marriages and American tourists in Europe. Furthermore, James habitually saw human experience in terms of countries. Through his repeated use of the international theme he gave cultural and national embodiment to the oppositions of innocence and experience, self and society, and good and evil which provide the dramatic tensions in all his works. The international theme offered James an inherent contrast between the most significant and extensive realities of his time.4 Jamess earlier work is considered realist because of the carefully described details of his characters physical surroundings. But, throughout his long career, James maintained a strong interest in a variety of artistic effects and movements. His work gradually became more impressionistic and symbolic as he entered more deeply into the minds of his characters. In its intense focus on the consciousness of his major characters, Jamess later work prefigures extensive developments in twentieth century fiction. As a result, the author seemed to change from a fairly straightforward style in his earlier writing to a more elaborate manner in his later works. The writer considered that good writing should be similar to the conversation of an intelligent man. His friend Edith Wharton, who admired him greatly, said that there were some passages in his works that were all but incomprehensible. His short fiction, such as The Aspern Papers and The Turn of the Screw, is often considered to be more readable than the longer novels, and early works tend to be more accessible than later ones. We must understand that for much of his life James was an expatriate living in Europe. Much of The Portrait of a Lady
4

Ward, J. A. The Imagination of Disaster: Evil in the Fiction of Henry James. University of Nebraska Press, 1961, p. 18

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was written while he lived in Venice, a city whose beauty he found disturbing; he was better pleased with the small town of Rye in England. This feeling of being an American in Europe came through as a recurring theme in his books, which contrasted American innocence (or lack of sophistication) with European sophistication (or decadence), as described in his major novels The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Golden Bowl. In spite of his apparent wealth, he made only a modest living from his books; however, he was often the houseguest of the rich. James said he got some of his best story ideas from dinner table gossip. He was a man whose sexuality was uncertain and whose tastes were, according to the prevailing standards of Victorian era, rather feminine. William Faulkner once referred to James as the nicest old lady I ever met. Similarly, Thomas Hardy called James and Robert Louis Stevenson virtuous females when he read their unfavourable comments about his novel Tess of the dUrbervilles. Theodore Roosevelt also criticized James for his supposed lack of masculinity. However, when James toured America in 1904 - 1905, he met Roosevelt at a White House dinner and called him Theodore Rex5 and also a dangerous and ominous jingo. The two men chatted amiably and at length. In most of his early novels, James presents the portrait of an American. The American is usually placed in Europe or a Europeanized society, where he is examined with the interest of an observer, not of a commentator. America and Europe, innocence and experience, are brought in confrontation. In more detail, he presents offensiveness versus refinement, barbarity versus culture, social chaos versus precise order, idealism versus skepticism, individualism versus conformity, honesty versus deceit. James never took a stand for or against either side but he carefully pointed out advantages and disadvantages of both continents. Corruption in the old society is accompanied by beauty and grace, honesty and integrity, fine moral soundness, accompany simple and provincial Americans. Roderick Hudson (1875) is a bildungsroman that follows the progress of the protagonist, an exceptionally gifted sculptor. Although the book shows some signs of immaturity, this was Jamess first serious attempt at a full-length novel and it has attracted positive remarks due to the vivid presentation of the three major characters: Roderick Hudson, superbly gifted but unstable and unreliable; Rowland Mallet, Rodericks narrow-minded but
5

Bosanquet, Theodora. Henry James At Work. Ed. by Lyall Powers, University of Michigan Press, 2006, p. 275. 13

older friend; and Christina Light, one of Jamess most enchanting women. Although Roderick Hudson featured mostly American characters in a European setting, James made the Europe America contrast even more explicit in his next novel. In fact, the contrast could be considered the leading theme of The American (1877). This book is a combination of social comedy and melodrama concerning the adventures and misadventures of Christopher Newman, an essentially good-hearted but rather clumsy American businessman on his first tour of Europe. Newman is looking for a world different from the simple, harsh realities of nineteenth-century American business. He encounters both the beauty and the ugliness of Europe, and learns not to take either for granted. James did not set all of his novels in Europe or focus exclusively on the contrast between the New World and the Old. Set in New York City, Washington Square (1880) is a tragicomedy that presents the conflict between a dull but sweet daughter and her brilliant, domineering father. The book is often compared to Jane Austens work for the clarity and grace of its prose and its intense focus on family relationships. Criticism often considered many of Jamess stories as psychological experiments. Indeed, The Portrait of a Lady may be considered an experiment to see what happens when an idealistic young woman suddenly becomes very rich. Isabel inherits a large amount of money and becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. Set mostly in Europe, notably England and Italy, and generally regarded as the masterpiece of his early phase, this novel is not just a reflection of Jamess absorbing interest in the differences between the New World and the Old. The book also treats in a profound way the themes of personal freedom, responsibility, betrayal and sexuality. This treatment of cross-cultural issues explains Henry Jamess uniqueness in fiction. He alone created the cosmopolitan novel in English and made of it a rich study of people, manners and morals on two continents. Even more important, he was able to treat both as comedy and as a tragedy, his transatlantic vision of the New Worlds relation to the Old. Besides his efforts in novel-writing, James was particularly interested in the longer form of short narrative, the novella. Still, he produced a number of very short stories in which he achieved notable compression of complex subjects. Just as the contrast between Europe and America was a predominant theme in Jamess early novels, many of his first tales also explored the clash between the Old World and the New. In A Passionate Pilgrim (1871), the
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earliest fiction that James included in the New York Edition, the difference between America and Europe erupts into open conflict, which leads to a sadly ironic ending. James manages to craft an interesting and believable example of what he would call the Americano-European legend. James published many stories before what would prove to be his greatest success with the readers of his time, Daisy Miller (1878). This story portrays the confused courtship of the title character, a free-spirited American girl, by Winterbourne, a compatriot of hers with much more sophistication. As James moved on from studies of the Europe - America clash and the American girl in his novels, his shorter works also explored new subjects in the 1880s.

The middle period of Jamesian creation Because Henry James wrote so much and experimented so widely and was such a complex literary case, criticism has found it difficult to write about him as a whole. As one of the first modern psychological analysts in the novel his influence has been extraordinary. Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Graham Green, Dorothy Richardson are among the many novelists who admitted using technique or aesthetic ideas expressed by Henry James. There was no accident that even during his lifetime certain of his fellow-novelists abroad addressed him as Master. In the 1880s, James began to explore new areas of interest besides the EuropeAmerica contrast and the American girl. In particular, he began writing on political themes. The Bostonians (1886) is a tragicomedy that centres on an odd triangle of characters: Basil Ransom, an inflexible political conservative from Mississippi; Olive Chancellor, Ransoms cousin and a zealous Boston feminist; and Verena Tarrant, a pretty protg of Olives in the feminist movement. The story line concerns the contest between Ransom and Olive for Verenas commitment and affection, though the novel also includes a wide panorama of political activists and newspaper people. The political theme is also present in The Princess Casamassima (1886), the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The book is unique in the Jamesian writing for its treatment of such a violent political subject.

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But it is often paired with The Bostonians, which is concerned with political issues in a less tragic manner. The Tragic Muse (1890) offers a wide, cheerful panorama of English life and follows the fortunes of two would-be artists: Nick Dormer, who hesitates between a political career and his efforts to become a painter, and Miriam Rooth, an actress striving for artistic and commercial success. The book reflects Jamess consuming interest in the theatre and is often considered to mark the end of the second or middle phase of his career in the novel. Another fine example of the middle phase of Jamess career in short narrative is The Pupil (1891), the story of a bright young boy growing up in an unstable and dishonourable family. He makes friends with his tutor, who is the only adult in his life that he can trust. James presents their relationship with sympathy and insight, and the story reaches what some have considered the status of classical tragedy. Further than his fiction, James was one of the more important literary critics in the history of the novel. In his classic essay The Art of Fiction (1884), he argued against rigid proscriptions on the novelists choice of subject and method of treatment. He maintained that the widest possible freedom in content and approach would help ensure narrative fictions continued vitality. James wrote many valuable critical articles on other novelists; typical is his insightful book-length study of his American predecessor Nathaniel Hawthorne. When he assembled the New York Edition of his fiction in his final years, James wrote a series of prefaces that subjected his own work to the same searching, occasionally harsh criticism. James also cultivated ambitions for success as a playwright. He converted his novel The American into a play that enjoyed modest returns in the early 1890s. In all he wrote about a dozen plays, most of which went unproduced. His costume drama Guy Domville failed disastrously on its opening night in 1895. James then largely abandoned his efforts to conquer the stage and returned to his fiction. In his Notebooks he maintained that his theatrical experiment benefited his novels and tales by helping him dramatize his characters thoughts and emotions. James produced a small but valuable amount of theatrical criticism, including perceptive appreciations of Henrik Ibsen.

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With his wide-ranging interests, James occasionally wrote on the visual arts. James also wrote sometimes charming, sometimes gloomy articles about various places he visited and lived in. His most famous books of travel writing include Italian Hours and The American Scene. James was also one of the great letter-writers of any era. More than ten thousand of his personal letters still exist, and over three thousand have been published in a large number of collections. Jamess correspondents included celebrated contemporaries like Robert Louis Stevenson, Edith Wharton and Joseph Conrad, along with many others in his wide circle of friends. Very late in life James began a series of autobiographical works: A Small Boy and Others, Notes of a Son and Brother, and the unfinished The Middle Years. These books portray the development of a classic observer who was passionately interested in artistic creation but was somewhat reticent about participating fully in the life around him.6

1.4 The final stage of literary activity In the later part of his career James became more and more interested in his characters consciousness, an interest which had been announced by The Portrait of a Lady. His style also started to grow in complexity to reflect the greater depth of his analysis. The Spoils of Poynton (1897), considered the first example of this final phase, is a novel that describes the struggle between Mrs. Gereth, a widow of perfect taste and iron will, and her son Owen over a houseful of precious antique furniture. The story is largely told from the viewpoint of Fleda Vetch, a young woman in love with Owen but sympathetic to Mrs. Gereths suffering over losing the antiques she patiently collected. The author continued the psychological approach to his fiction with What Maisie Knew (1897), the story of the sensitive daughter of divorced and irresponsible parents. The novel has great contemporary relevance as an account of a dysfunctional family. The book is also a notable technical achievement by James, as it follows the title character from earliest childhood to maturity.

The Henry James Review, retrieved on March, 18th, 2012, from http://henry-james.co.tv/ 17

The third and, probably, most important period of Jamess career reached its most significant achievement in three novels published just after the turn of the century. Although it was the second-written of the books, The Wings of the Dove (1902) was the first published. This novel tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress suffering from a serious disease, and her impact on the people around her. Some of these people look after Milly with honourable motives, while others are more self-interested. James stated in his autobiographical books that Milly was based on Minny Temple, his beloved cousin who died at an early age of tuberculosis. He said that he attempted in the novel to wrap her memory in the beauty and dignity of art. The following to be published of the three novels, The Ambassadors (1903), is a dark comedy that follows the journey of the main character Louis Lambert Strether to Europe in search of his widowed fiances disobedient son. Strether has to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third - person narrative is told exclusively from Strethers point of view. In his preface to the New York Edition text of the novel, James placed this book at the top of his achievements, which has brought some critical disagreement. Finally, The Golden Bowl (1904) is a complex, intense study of marriage and adultery that completes the major phase and, essentially, Jamess career in the novel. The book explores the tie of relationships between a father and daughter and their spouses. The novel focuses deeply and almost exclusively on the consciousness of the central characters, with obsessive detail and powerful insight. During this period, James became more and more interested in the position of women in society and all his novels tackle this issue: In the late nineteenth century women attested to the transformation of female consciousness as they appropriated such public space, repudiating the domesticity of patriarchal settings s development which James incorporated into writings such as What Maisie Knew, The Awkward Age, and The Wings of the Dove.7 The final phase of Jamess short narratives shows the same characteristics as the final phase of his novels: a more involved style, a deeper psychological approach, and a focus on his central characters. Probably his most popular short narrative among todays readers,
7

Despotopoulou, Anna. The Price of Mere Spectatorship: Henry Jamess The Wings of the Dove in The Review of English Studies. Vol. 53, No. 210, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 230. 18

The Turn of the Screw (1898) is a ghost story that challenges the reader to determine if the protagonist, an unnamed governess, is correctly reporting events or is instead an unreliable neurotic with an inflamed imagination. The Beast in the Jungle (1903) is almost universally considered one of Jamess finest short narratives, and has often been compared with The Ambassadors in its meditation on experience or the lack of it. The story also treats other universal themes: loneliness, fate, love and death. The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar destiny speaks to anyone who has speculated on the worth and meaning of human life.

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2. ISABEL ARCHER AND THE OBJECTIFICATION OF THE WOMAN

2.1. The Portrait of A Lady aesthetic principles and reactions When The Portrait of a Lady was published, James was a well-known and appreciated author whose story Daisy Miller was enjoying great popularity. The Portrait of a Lady was widely reviewed, and most reviews, including those in the leading American publications, were positive. Horace E. Scudder reviewed The Portrait of a Lady for Atlantic, in which the novel was serialized before its book publication. Scudders review focuses almost exclusively on what he calls the storys consistency, by which he means that the novels characters, the situations, the incidents, are all true to the law of their own being.8 Scudders single complaint is that he does not like the novels ending. Simply put, he objects to Jamess sending Isabel back to Gilbert. Isabel deserves better than this, Scudder insists, and when one reads of her return to the dastardly Gilbert, ones indignation is moved. Furthermore, an anonymous review for Harpers, the other leading American literary magazine of the day, calls The Portrait of a Lady a long and fragmentary but profoundly interesting tale. The Portrait of a Lady shows James in the fullness of his powers. The absolute beauty, grace, and assurance of the writing, almost shocking in the opening description of Gardencourt, and sustained for five hundred pages, reveal James at a new level of achievement as a prose stylist. The novel experiments with the different points of view of the narrative, as the characters become involved in the narration through their perception of the surrounding world. Many critics take into consideration Jamesian perception, but only a few actually examined what James characters actually see. There isnt a clear distinction between literal and figurative visions; like a first perception, it is like these two characteristics are brought together. In James literature, visual perception is not a detached or ambiguous intellection. Perceptions are immediate, physical points of connection between the individual and the
8

Powers, Lyall. The Portrait of a Lady: Maiden, Woman and Heroine. Boston. Twayne Publishers, 1991, p. 243. 20

surrounding environment. The ability to see is an active mean of adapting to the world; even though its primary, it isnt a simple, crude sensation. One interesting aspect is the fact that the narration in The Portrait of a Lady is internal, psychological, personified, the characters become the dominant authority from whose point if view is seen. In a broadened way this is a characteristic of Henry James realism. The title of the novel has generated many critical ideas, and we found that of E. Klevan extremely interesting: The title The Portrait of a Lady - suggests a fixed, arranged image, framed and contained, the subject of which is a generically familiar type (a Lady). The work offers the prospect of something complete a Portrait, and not a Sketch (The Europeans) or a Study (Daisy Miller). But the novel itself counteractively describes the efforts of painting (the attempt to sketch, He drew a caricature, what design upon fate, the service of drawing her out) without achieving anything so finished as a portrait.9

2.2 Setting, plot and character in The Portrait of A Lady The novel opens and closes at Gardencourt, the Touchett familys English country estate. This place is particularly significant to our characters, and to our understanding of the novel as a whole. Isabels entrance is quite a dramatic one: Ralph Touchett wandered away a little, with his usual slouching gait, his hands in his pockets and his little rowdyish terrier at his heels. His face was turned toward the house, but his eyes were bent musingly on the lawn; so that he had been an object of observation to a person who had just made her appearance in the ample doorway for some moments before he perceived her. His attention was called to her by the conduct of his dog, who had suddenly darted forward with a little volley of shrill barks, in which the note of welcome, however, was more sensible than that of defiance. The person in question was a young lady, who seemed immediately to interpret the greeting of the small beast. He advanced with great rapidity and stood at her feet, looking up and barking hard; whereupon, without hesitation, she stooped and caught him in her hands, holding him face to face while he continued his quick chatter. His master now had had time to follow and to see that Bunchies new friend was a tall girl in a black dress, who at first sight looked pretty. She was bareheaded, as if she were staying in the house a fact which conveyed perplexity

Klevan, Edward. Smiling and Hiding: The Earlier Novels and Tales of Henry James in The Cambridge Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1996, p. 168. 21

to the son of its master, conscious of that immunity from visitors which had for some time been rendered necessary by the latters ill-health.10 By framing the dramatic events of Isabels European adventures with the two Gardencourt sections, James makes this space reflective and calm. However, both Gardencourt sections are darkened by death: first Mr. Touchetts and then Ralphs. When Isabel arrives in England from her trans-Atlantic voyage, Gardencourt is a kind of restful middle-ground; its a very English landscape with American inhabitants, and provides a space for her to adjust to her new life. By the time she returns to Gardencourt at the end of the novel, it again plays the role of a retreat Ralph himself has returned to the house to die in peace, while Isabel flees to it to escape from her imprisonment in Osmonds house. Between these two Gardencourt episodes, we see Isabel in a variety of more exotic European settings most importantly, in Italy. First, she goes for a short while in Florence at the home of her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, then Isabel and Osmond move to Rome following their marriage. Italy is a problematic and fascinating setting it is neither England nor America, and our characters are strangely foreign in it. Isabel, most importantly, is in a kind of exile in her Roman castle; shes removed from her friends and family, and, although she is something of a famous hostess, shes still outside of Italian society. Interestingly, the characters that feel the most at home in Italy, Mrs. Touchett and Osmond, are both the most removed from society as a whole. Finally, Albany, New York, is a setting that is briefly seen, but quite significant we first meet Isabel at her grandmothers house here, and, for the rest of the novel, the shadowlike presence of America is very important. We are constantly reminded of the fact that Isabel is an American, and Henrietta Stackpole and Caspar Goodwood both bring an aura of Americanness with them wherever they go. From the point of view of the plot, the novels and novellas of Henry James are well structured, some are narrated by the author himself or by one of the characters in the story. One such story that has some elements of the latter is The Portrait of a Lady. The plot can be simply focused on some major key points in it. We shall study its constitutive elements in order to draw some conclusions on the architecture of the Jamesian novel:

10

The Portrait of A Lady, p. 13. 22

- Initial Situation: Isabels first few months in England set us up for her European adventures beyond the Channel; we get to know more about her past and her hopes for the future, as well as her perspective towards Europe on the whole. Our curiosity about what Isabel will actually do once shes loosed upon the world builds and builds, as does Ralphs. - Conflict: Ralph is certain hes doing the right thing, and has almost boundless confidence in his cousins abilities and potential. Others are less enthusiastic; Mr. Touchett worries that shell be besieged by gold diggers, while Henrietta fears that becoming rich will remove Isabel from the real world and allow her to live in the artificial, illusive microcosm of the very, very wealthy. Madame Merle, on the other hand, sees the opportunity for personal gain in Isabels windfall, and decides to introduce Isabel to Osmond. - Complication: Madame Merle skilfully uses everything she knows about Isabel to engineer the relationship between Osmond and the girl. The complaints of her friends and family only egg Isabel on, and, once she decides to marry Osmond, she wont listen to anybodys warnings about him. Isabel believes that she acts completely independently, but fails to see Madame Merles hand in all of this. - Climax: In the intensely psychological, deeply personal musings of Chapter Forty - Two, we see exactly what Isabel is thinking; she is horrified by what has happened to her, and now begins to wonder who is really to blame for the misery in her life. While she blames herself for some aspects of it, she is suspicious of the oddly intimate relationship of Madame Merle and Osmond what can the other woman really have to do with everything? - Suspense: Osmonds dictatorial rule over Isabel rears its ugly head, and, in her weakened state, Isabel is vulnerable to Countess Geminis own machinations. The latter reveals the true nature of Osmond and Madame Merles relationship, and Isabel realizes that shes just a rung in their social ladder they simply wanted to ensure a better future for

23

Pansy. Isabel faces a choice: does she stay in her chosen life, newly revealed as a total lie, or does she return to Gardencourt to be with those who really love her? - Denouement: Isabel finally comes clean with Ralph about her utter misery, and the two cousins reconcile completely. Isabel realizes that love is still out there she understands the full extend of Ralphs love for her, and hers for him (she loves him like a brother), and acknowledges the fact that life is all about love. Something changes here in Isabel; she reasserts herself and her beliefs, and, even though Ralphs death is tragic, they both attain a certain kind of happiness in knowing that they are together, at least for now. Isabel, removed from the dark influence of Osmonds mind, seems to have regained some of her old clarity and strength. - Conclusion: In one of the most infuriating conclusions of all time, Caspar Goodwood makes a passionate appeal to Isabel, saying that Ralph entrusted him with her happiness. They share an unforgettable kiss, but Isabel runs away from him as soon as its over. Her decision to return to Rome comes as a shock both to him and to us we dont see what her mental process is (we can imagine that Henrietta must have put up some kind of fight), but, in the end, its in keeping with her sense of personal responsibility and duty. The main innovation in the field of character construction developed by Henry James is what we use to call the psychological analysis. The characters are all different, which is why they are set apart, the originality that James used to characterize his characters is amazing. James wrote fiction in an era before the modern technique of the stream-ofconsciousness was established. In the modern era, the author feels free to go inside the mind of the character. But in James time, this was not yet an established technique. In order to keep as objective as he could, James as a novelist wanted to remain outside the novel that is, wanted to present his characters with as much objectivity and realism as possible and, therefore, created the use of a confidant. The confidant is a person of great sensibility or sensitivity to whom the main character reveals his or her innermost thoughts. This character is basically a listener and in some cases an adviser. This technique of having a confidant to whom the main character can talk serves a double function. First of all, it allows the reader to see what the main character is thinking, and second, it gives a more
24

rounded view of the action. For example, after something has happened to the main character, the confidant hears about it and in the discussion of the event, we, the readers, see and understand the various subtle implications of this situation more clearly. The confidant is also a person who is usually somewhat removed from the central action. For example, Henrietta Stackpole in The Portrait of A Lady never meets many of the characters in the story, but this does not stop her from giving advice or commenting on other peoples actions. Thus, essentially the confidant observes the action from a distance, comments on this action, and is usually a person of some exceptional qualities who allows the main character to respond more deeply and subtly to certain situations. Henry James has probably one of the most diverse, unique, original universe of characters from all of authors. In The Portrait of a Lady we can see, as it is often the case in Jamesian novels, the Americans struggle to fit in the European society. The novels central character, Isabel is a young American woman who embodies all the best of what James depicts as American qualities, especially vitality, sincerity, and independence. As the novel opens, Isabel is arriving at the English home of her aunt and uncle. Her father has recently died. Her aunt, who travelled to the United States after Isabels fathers death, feels that Isabel has more potential than her circumstances in America will allow her to fulfil, and so she brings Isabel back to England with her. Isabel wins the admiration of everyone she meets, including her cousin Ralph. Ralph convinces his dying father to leave half his estate to Isabel so that she can be free to do as she pleases. In addition to this benefactor, Isabel also has suitors. Caspar Goodwood travels from America to urge Isabel to marry him. Lord Warburton, a wealthy friend of the Touchett family, also wants to marry Isabel. But Isabels independent nature leads her to reject both men. She finds Caspar boring and turns down Warburton partly because she is not ready to marry and partly because she fears life with him would be too easy. She longs for some adventure even for some difficulty that will test her resourcefulness and determination. Isabels independent spirit is the driving force in her personality, and it is what urges her into an unhappy marriage. When she falls in love with Gilbert Osmond, her friends and relatives almost generally warn her against him. But she refuses to take anyones advice but her own and learns too late that she completely misjudged her husband. Her failure to
25

correctly judge Gilberts character comes from an innocence that is characteristic of youth and also, in Jamess view, of Americans. Isabels direct, trusting nature is contrasted to that of the books European characters, who have secret pasts and hidden motives for everything they do. Obviously, we cannot omit the interpretations according to which Isabels apparently unexplainable attitude towards a disastrous marriage is generated by fear. Writing on Isabels various fears (of her sexual passion, her wealth, her freedom), Tony Tanner notes that beneath all these specific apprehensions there is, she admits, a deeper, radical fear fear of herself11. Although she makes a bad marriage, Isabel is not a tragic character. Once she realizes that she made a mistake in marrying Gilbert, she is decided to live with the consequences of her actions. By refusing to leave her marriage, Isabel refuses to adopt the corrupt ways of her European circle. Instead, Isabel intends to decently and courageously accept the consequences of her unwise decision and to make the best life she can.

2.3 Oppressed by the setting: the American woman in Europe Henry James was the first novelist to write on the theme of the American versus the European with considerable success. Almost all of his major novels may be read as a study of the social theme of the American in Europe, in which James contrasts the active life of the American with the mannered life of the European aristocracy or he contrasts the free open nature of the American with the more formalized and inflexible rules found in Europe. Embodied in this contrast is the moral theme in which the innocence of the American is contrasted with the knowledge, experience and corruption of the European. One of the great differences that is emphasized is the difference between the Americans spontaneity and the Europeans insistence upon form and ceremony. Isabel likes to react to any situation according to her own desires. Even though people tell her that certain things are improper, Isabel likes to do what she thinks is free and right. On the contrary, Mrs.
11

Tanner, Tony. The Fearful Self: Henry Jamess The Portrait of a Lady in Henry James: Modern Judgements. Ed. Tony Tanner. London, Macmillan, 1968, p. 143.

26

Touchett would never act in any manner except that approved by all society. The American than acts spontaneously, while the Europeans have formalized certain rituals so that they will never have to confront an unknown situation. Thus, there is a sense of sincerity in the Americans actions, whereas the European is more characterized by a sense of extreme urbanity. Throughout the novel, except for her final decision to return to an awful husband, we never see Isabel perform any action but that which is natural and open. At the beginning, Isabel is fascinated by the Touchetts estate and by England: a comprehensiveness of observation easily conceivable on the part of a young woman who was evidently both intelligent and excited. She had seated herself and had put away the little dog; her white hands, in her lap, were folded upon her black dress; her head was erect, her eye lighted, her flexible figure turned itself easily this way and that, in sympathy with the alertness with which she evidently caught impressions. Her impressions were numerous, and they were all reflected in a clear, still smile. Ive never seen anything so beautiful as this.12 James was in two minds about the American character. By temperament, he was more sympathetic with the European way of life, with its emphasis on culture, education, and the art of conversation. Like most Europeans, he saw his compatriots as ill-mannered, undereducated, and ridiculously provincial, unaware of a vast and centuries-old world outside their own new and expanding dominions. However, he was also fascinated by the touching innocence of the American national character, with its emphasis on sincerity rather than artifice. In later novels, such as The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl, James would continue to explore the moral implications of an openness that, like Isabels, cannot defend itself against the worldliness and cynicism of a decadent society based on hypocrisy. Certainly, The Portrait of a Lady is as timeless today as when it was published. With its themes of oppression versus freedom, free will versus destiny, the role of women in society, and the clash of American and European cultures, The Portrait of a Lady dealt with many of the crucial issues of its day. In The Portrait of a Lady, James presents us with a tragic tale of a woman choosing her own destiny and learning to live with it despite the consequences. Isabel, who at the beginning of the book is referred to by her aunt as a clever girl with a strong will and high temper, is a young woman of enormous possibility like the modern America for which she is a metaphor. Isabel desires nothing more or less than
12

The Portrait of A Lady, p. 20. 27

freedom. By the conclusion of the novel, Isabel has come to the realization that freedom and maturity are perhaps best defined as the acceptance of ones destiny. As time goes by, she does nor regret her European experience, which seems to have formed her: Grave she found herself, and positively more weighted, as by the experience of the lapse of the year she had spent in seeing the world. She had ranged, she would have said, through space and surveyed much of mankind, and was therefore now, in her own eyes, a very different person from the frivolous young woman from Albany who had begun to take the measure of Europe on the lawn at Gardencourt a couple of years before. She flattered herself she had harvested wisdom and learned a great deal more of life than this light-minded creature had even suspected. If her thoughts just now had inclined themselves to retrospect, instead of fluttering their wings nervously about the present, they would have evoked a multitude of interesting pictures.13 Charming, confident, nave at the start, yet inquisitive-minded, Isabel discovers evil, error, she loses her innocence and gains the mature power of accepting self-knowledge and admitting limitation and loss of illusions. Her evolution is defined by the explicit opposition between Ralph (supplier of means of freedom) and Osmond (usurper of that freedom), the victory seems to go to the forces of conventions. Yet, the case is not isolated and it has to be included in the permanent conflict between the demands of nature and the exigencies of civilized social order. Moreover, we see a mythic pattern of fall and redemption in Isabels marriage to Osmond, her knowledge of evil, and a redeeming visit to the dying Ralph and the possession of the undying love, and the return to Osmond as a changed self. The international theme is revealed in the re-discovery of Europe by an American protagonist. Different possible responses to Europe are illustrated: 1. Some Americans remain Americans in manners. An example is Henrietta Stackpole, a featured character. 2. Other become wholly Europeanized, like Madam Merle. Ironically, Henrietta stays in Europe, while M. Merle returns to America at the end. 3. Others take different position in-between, like the Touchetts. Lord Warburton, the only European in the novel, is open and unaffected, while the Europeanized Americans Gilbert Osmond and Madam Merle reveal a revolting subtlety, having assimilated only the evil of Europe.

13

The Portrait of a Lady, pp. 27-28.

28

James was himself an American living abroad, and he clearly loved his adopted country. Speaking through Ralph Touchetts father, James offers a delightful point of view of an American living in England: Ive been watching these people for upwards of thirty-five years, and I dont hesitate to say that Ive acquired considerable information. Its a very fine country on the whole finer perhaps than we give it credit for on the other side. There are several improvements I should like to see introduced; but the necessity of them doesnt seem to be generally felt as yet.14 James usually presents Americans as innocent, though slightly simple-minded, incapable of the subtle refinements of European culture, but charmingly uncomplicated and straightforward in their belief in American superiority. He usually presents Europeans as a little sinister in their often wicked judgment of conformity and artfulness over individual value and genuineness. Isabel often perceives things in terms of morality, a morality deeply connected to her American background, in opposition with the decadent Italian society: She believed then that at bottom she had a different morality. Of course the morality of civilised persons has always much in common; but our young woman had a sense in her of values gone wrong or, as they said at the shops, marked down. She considered, with the presumption of youth, that a morality differing from her own must be inferior to it ; and this conviction was an aid to detecting an occasional flash of cruelty, an occasional lapse from candour, in the conversation of a person who had raised delicate kindness to an art and whose pride was too high for the narrow ways of deception. Her conception of human motives might, in certain lights, have been acquired at the court of some kingdom in decadence, and there were several in her list of which our heroine had not even heard.15 When Isabel goes to England, her cousin Ralph is so delighted with her independent nature that he manages to convince his father to leave half his wealth to Isabel, in order to stop her from ever having to marry for money, but ironically it attracts the deceitfulness of the novels bad characters, Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond. They plot to persuade Isabel to marry Osmond in order to gain a way in to her possessions. Her marriage to Osmond actually destroys Isabels free spirit, as her husband treats her as an object and tries to force her to share his opinions and abandon her own. This is the thematic background of Portrait of a Lady, and James skillfully intertwines the novels psychological and thematic elements. Isabels downfall with Osmond,
14 15

The Portrait of a Lady, p. 43. Ibid., pp. 33-34. 29

for instance, enables the books examination of the conflict between her desire to conform to social convention and her intensely independent mind. It is also perfectly explained by the elements of Isabels character: her chaotic upbringing has led her to long for stability and safety, even if they mean a loss of independence, and her active imagination enables her to create an false picture of Osmond, which she believes in more than the real thing, at least until she is married to him. Once she marries Osmond, Isabels pride in her moral strength makes it impossible for her to consider leaving him: she once longed for hardship, and now that she has found it, it would be hypocritical for her to surrender to it by violating social custom and abandoning her husband. In the same way that James unites his psychological and thematic subjects, he also intertwines the novels settings with its themes. Set almost entirely among a group of American expatriates living in Europe in the 1860s and 70s, the book relies on a kind of moral geography, in which America represents innocence, individualism, and capability; Europe represents decadence, sophistication, and social convention; and England represents the best mix of the two. Isabel moves from America to England to continental Europe, and at each stage she comes to mirror her surroundings, gradually losing a bit of independence with each move. Eventually she lives in Rome, the historic heart of continental Europe, and it is here that she endures her greatest hardship with Gilbert Osmond.

2.4 Losing innocence and resisting abuse The Portrait of a Lady is seen by many as Henry Jamess supreme achievement. It is a fully European novel, a novel of education, revealing the heroins growing consciousness, in an effort of self-seeking, of self-exploration. Isabel Archer is one of the many innocent Americans with whom writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries found themselves preoccupied. Her innocence is the primary element of her sense of her freedom. In other words, James seems to be saying that Isabel only thinks shes free and capable of living her life freely. In America she can nurture these fantasies. She has spent a childhood being neglected by her father, neglect that is understood in terms of freedom. She has been free to

30

read anything in the library and she has done so, but has been unable to balance freedom and the discipline necessary to get through the proper study of anything. Sent to school as a young girl, she decided quickly that it was not the place for her and she was allowed to stop going. In her adult life in America, she seems to have no place to go besides marriage to the inflexible Caspar Goodwood. She sits alone in the little-used library of her grandmothers almost abandoned house. Both of her sisters have married quite conventionally despite their free childhood. Theres no reason to think Isabel wouldnt have done the same if it were not for her aunts well-timed release. In the American scene then, James demonstrates that unrestrained freedom will lead the protagonist nowhere. She will be isolated and bored. She will not progress in her studies because she will have no direction. She will be wasted on a marriage to a man so inarticulate that he cannot express his feelings. In the final scenes of the novel, the simple thought of Rome gives Isabel the chills: Her errand was over; she had done what she had left her husband to do. She had a husband in a foreign city, counting the hours of her absence; in such a case one needed an excellent motive. He was not one of the best husbands, but that didnt alter the case. Certain obligations were involved in the very fact of marriage, and were quite independent of the quantity of enjoyment extracted from it. Isabel thought of her husband as little as might be; but now that she was at a distance, beyond its spell, she thought with a kind of spiritual shudder of Rome. There was a penetrating chill in the image, and she drew back into the deepest shade of Gardencourt. She lived from day to day, postponing, closing her eyes, trying not to think. She knew she must decide, but she decided nothing; her coming itself had not been a decision.16 It is interesting how such an independent woman as Isabel can become the victim of abuse and limitation of action. In her reading of The Portrait of A Lady, Elizabeth Allen considers Isabels freedom as a false impression. As she appropriately puts it, Isabel is facing a choice of sign function rather than of exploration and action 17, because the real threat to her freedom comes from the way she is seen and fitted into social structures of signification 18. Thus Allen notes that Isabel only thinks she makes a free choice in choosing Osmond. It is also unbelievable how an intelligent young woman such as Isabel fails to understand she is being taken advantage of by Mme Merle and Osmond. E. Klevan points out that Isabel doesnt see that Osmond and Madame Merle are smiling and hiding; she doesnt
16 17

The Portrait of a Lady, p. 368. Allen, Elizabeth. A Woman's Place in the Novels of Henry James. London, Macmillan, 1984, p. 68. 18 Ibid., p. 65. 31

recognise the controlled concealments and revelations that shape their behaviour. It pleases her not to see. It is part of the journey she travels, part of the process of her initiation, to appreciate the character of social performance, the nature of society as an evaluating audience, and the necessities of performance for herself.19 Women at the end of the nineteenth century are certainly the victims of the general prejudgments against them. Anti-feminist Ouida argued in 1894 that Woman in public life would exaggerate the failings of men, and would not even have their few excellencies, and that there would be little hope from her humanity, nothing from her liberality; for when she is frightened she is more ferocious than he, and when she has power merciless.20 In England, Isabel is spoiled by the kind Mr. Touchett, his kind-hearted son Ralph and their nice neighbour Lord Warburton and she find here two kinds of women. One kind is represented by the sisters of Lord Warburton. They are so calm and so disciplined that they seem almost insubstantial. Despite her own beliefs that the free life is the best life for a woman, Isabel is attracted to these women and finds their life a lovely one. The second kind of woman represented in England for Isabel Archer is Mrs. Touchett, an American ex-patriot who lives in Florence, Italy, and visits her husband for a month each year in England. She has not been accepted by the English aristocracy as her husband and son have. While she lives according to the strictest obedience to established social proprieties, she has made up so many of her own social proprieties that she doesnt fit into English society. Apart from Henrietta Stackpole, Mrs. Touchett is the most independent female character in the novel and she is so depicted that the reader is not encouraged to see her as a possible model for Isabel Archer to imitate. When Isabel gets the chance to make England her home, she rejects it, imagining her life as the wife of the distinguished Lord Warburton to be life in a gilded cage. Even Mr. Touchett doesnt think Isabel should marry Lord Warburton. The journey to Europe starts like the adventure of her life, and Isabel is delighted and anxious to see what the future might bring:

19 20

Klevan, Edward, op. cit., p. 167. Despotopoulou, Anna, op. cit., 2002, p. 230. 32

She had a desire to leave the past behind her and, as she said to herself, to begin afresh. This desire indeed was not a birth of the present occasion; it was as familiar as the sound of the rain upon the window and it had led to her beginning afresh a great many times. () Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumped out of the window. () At present, with her sense that the note of change had been struck, came gradually a host of images of the things she was leaving behind her. The years and hours of her life came back to her, and for a long time, in a stillness broken only by the ticking of the big bronze clock, she passed them in review. It had been a very happy life and she had been a very fortunate person this was the truth that seemed to emerge most vividly. She had had the best of everything, and in a world in which the circumstances of so many people made them unenviable it was an advantage never to have known anything particularly unpleasant. It appeared to Isabel that the unpleasant had been even too absent from her knowledge, for she had gathered from her acquaintance with literature that it was often a source of interest and even of instruction. Her father had kept it away from her her handsome, much loved father, who always had such an aversion to it. It was a great felicity to have been his daughter21.

2.5 Women as objects In A Womans Place in the Novels of Henry James, Elizabeth Allen suggests that the attempt to reconcile the contradiction of womans existence, both as sign and as conscious subject, is central to many of Jamess major novels22. For Allen, in the course of his career James progresses from utilizing woman simply as sign, through various intermediate stages, to the final achievement of his later fiction where the woman controls how she is seen and what she represents23. According to Allen, patriarchal society demands of women always to be potential signs, carriers of meaning meaning that is generally socially constructed, not normal or essential. In such a relationship man functions as subject while woman is his object, appropriated by him as a sign. In turn man attempts to resist any reciprocity in the relationship that would grant woman subjectivity, for this would necessarily constitute him as object24.

21 22

The Portrait of A Lady, p. 31. Allen, Elizabeth, op. cit., p.3. 23 Ibid., p. 10. 24 Ibid., p. 2. 33

Chris Foss mentions what he calls Osmonds objectification as Isabel explained by the critic through the conviction that Osmond relates to Isabel as art collector25: Obviously Osmond is the primary perpetrator here, the particular patriarch who places her as an art collector displays a prize possession. Ralph, on the other hand, is certainly one of the most sympathetic characters in the novel and, significantly, he helps to undermine Osmonds powerful grip on Isabel by refusing to allow it to remain unspoken. Traditional views of Ralph usually admit that he too sees Isabel as an object but this fact more often than not gets lost in the touching farewell scene, so that one primarily thinks of him as Isabels friend and ally, someone attempting to free her instead of fix her.26 Thus, not only Osmond, but also Ralph and, basically, all men at the end of the 19 th century had the same opinion about women: they are mainly decorative, not suited for social functions and dependant on men: Ralphs version of masculinism is similar to that of his father, an idealized view of woman positing her as innocent, natural, and somehow morally beneficial to man. Ralph cannot let go of his vision of Isabel as somehow above the contamination of the world in her beautiful youthful freedom, which for him should manifest itself mainly in her refusal to be caught by a man in marriage. If ever there were a lifesustaining fiction, it is Ralphs one learns it is in large part only to see what she will make of her marriage (whether she will rise above it as he hopes/expects) that he lasts as long as he does, and it is only after he has convinced himself this fiction is still in place that he can rest in peace. While not as sinister as Osmonds, Ralphs own idealized adoption of Isabel is no less selfish. It is more for his own pleasure than for her own good that he looks forward to a fourth, a fifth, a tenth besieger27 of Isabel.28 It is intriguing, however, how men, even the better ones, tend to see women as objects of art: Apart from Osmonds cruelty and malice, the whole situation of the novel refers to questions of art: Ralph is correct in telling himself that A character like that [Isabel]

25

Foss, Chris. Female innocence as other in The Portrait of a Lady and What Maisie Knew: Reassessing the feminist recuperation of Henry James in Essays in Literature. Vol. 22, No. 2, Macomb,1995, p. 255. 26 Foss, Chris, op. cit., p. 254. 27 The Portrait of A Lady, p. 235. 28 Ibid., p. 256. 34

is finer than a work of art, while Osmond may well insist with her that one ought to make ones life a work of art with all the negative connotations of such an assumption.29 Some critics suggest that Isabel is a victim of the social pressure and of her inability to cope with this situation: Isabel Archers experience may be traced in terms of the losses and gains of a progressive sensitivity to the importance of social surface; the knowledge she acquires is a paradoxically enlarging and restricting one. The menace of social performance is the latent potential for the more insidious kinds of manipulation that may have wrecked her life. It necessarily entails a certain emotional closure, a hardening that may easily, imperceptibly, turn sour.30 We can add to this interpretation the obvious intention of the author to present Isabels life as a play where the heroine herself has only a secondary part: Isabel took on this occasion little part in the talk; she scarcely even smiled when the others turned to her invitingly; she had sat there as if she had been at the play and had paid even a large sum for her place these two had it for the effect of brilliancy, all their own way, and might have been distinguished performers figuring for a charity. It had all the rich readiness that would have come from a rehearsal. Madame Merle appealed to her as if she had been on the stage31

29

Perosa, Sergio. Henry James and Unholy Art Acquisitions in The Cambridge Quarterly. Vol. 37, No. 1, 2008, p. 156. 30 Klevan, Edward, op. cit., p. 165. 31 The Portrait of A Lady, p. 298. 35

3. DAISY MILLER AND THE AMERICAN INNOCENCE

3.1 American vs. European and the international theme Daisy Miller is one of James earliest works involving the international theme. From the very beginning, the American characters are described in terms of innocence: It was a beautiful summer morning, and in whatever fashion the young American looked at things, they must have seemed to him charming. He had come from Geneva the day before by the little steamer, to see his aunt, who was staying at the hotel32 In its most general terms, that is, in terms that will apply to almost any Jamesian novel, the contrasts is seen as follows: The American vs. the European, innocence vs. knowledge or experience, utility vs. form and ceremony, spontaneity vs. ritual, action vs. inaction, nature vs. art, natural vs. artificial, honesty vs. evil. The above list could be extended to include other virtues or qualities, but this list will be sufficient to demonstrate Jamess theme or idea in the use of this American - European contrast. From the very beginning, the American characters are described in terms of innocence. The reader should also remember that James uses these ideas with a great deal of flexibility. It does not always mean that every European will have exactly these qualities or that every American will. Indeed, some of the more admirable characters are Europeans who possess many of these qualities and in turn lack others. Because a European might possess urbanity and knowledge and experience does not necessarily mean that he is artificial and evil. And quite the contrary, many Americans come with natural spontaneity and are not necessarily honest and admirable. The reader should remember that James uses these ideas with a great deal of flexibility. It does not always hold that every European will have exactly these qualities or that every American will. Indeed, some of the more admirable characters are Europeans who
32

Daisy Miller, p. 7. 36

possess many of these qualities and in turn lack others. Because a European might possess sophistication and knowledge and experience does not necessarily mean that he is artificial and evil. And quite the contrary, many Americans come with natural spontaneity and are not necessarily honest and admirable. In Daisy Miller, James is more concerned with the difference in behaviour than he is with the specific person. But generally, the character that represents the American is, of course, Daisy Miller herself. The representative of the European attitude in the worst sense of the word is Mrs. Costello, and to a lesser degree Mrs. Walker and Winterborne. Of course, all of these Europeans were actually born in America, but they have lived their entire lives in Europe and have adopted the European mode of viewing life. One of the great differences emphasized is the difference between the Americans spontaneity and the Europeans insistence upon form and ceremony. Daisy likes to react to any situation according to her own desires. Even though people tell her that certain things are improper, Daisy likes to do what she thinks is free and right. On the contrary, Mrs. Walker would never act in any manner except that approved by all society. The American than acts spontaneously, while the Europeans have formalized certain rituals so that they will never have to confront an unknown situation. Thus, there is a sense of sincerity in the Americans actions, whereas the European is more characterized by a sense of extreme urbanity. Throughout the novel, we never see Daisy perform any action but that which is natural and open. The Americans sense of spontaneity, sincerity, and action leads him into natural actions. He seems to represent nature itself On the other hand, the Europeans emphasis on form, ceremony, ritual, and sophistication seems to suggest the artificial. It represents art as an entity opposing nature. Ultimately, these qualities lead to the opposition of honesty versus evil. This question is not investigated in Daisy Miller, but in terms of James final position, it might be wise to know his final stand. When all American qualities are replaced by all of the European, we find that form and ritual replace honesty. The ideal person is one who can retain all of the Americans innocence and honesty, and yet gain the Europeans experience and knowledge.

37

Daisy Miller was one of Jamess earliest treatments of one of the themes for which he became best known: the expatriate or footloose American abroad. Americans abroad was a subject very much of the moment in the years after the Civil War. The postwar boom, the socalled Gilded Age, had given rise to a new class of American businessman, whose fashionable families were impatient to make the grand tour and expose themselves to the art and culture of the Old World. Americans were visiting Europe for the first time in record numbers, and the clash between the two cultures was a novel and widespread phenomenon. The perception of the Americans about Europe is an idyllic one at the beginning: That English lady in the cars, she said Miss Featherstone asked me if we didnt all live in hotels in America. I told her I had never been in so many hotels in my life as since I came to Europe. I have never seen so many its nothing but hotels. But Miss Miller did not make this remark with a querulous accent; she appeared to be in the best humor with everything. She declared that the hotels were very good, when once you got used to their ways, and that Europe was perfectly sweet. She was not disappointed not a bit. Perhaps it was because she had heard so much about it before. She had ever so many intimate friends that had been there ever so many times. And then she had had ever so many dresses and things from Paris. Whenever she put on a Paris dress she felt as if she were in Europe.33

3.2 Innocence and corruption Henry James was in two minds about the American character. By temperament, he was more sympathetic with the European way of life, with its emphasis on culture, education, and the art of conversation. Like most Europeans, he saw his compatriots as ill-mannered, not very educated, and ridiculously provincial, unaware of an immense and centuries-old world outside their own new and increasing territories. On the other hand, he was also fascinated by the touching innocence of the American national character, with its emphasis on sincerity rather than artifice. In later novels, such as The Portrait of a Lady and The American, James would continue to explore the moral implications of a simplicity that, like Daisys, cannot defend itself against the worldliness and cynicism of a decadent society based on hypocrisy. In an extract, Daisy combines the premonition of the symbolic death of an innocent American in a corrupted environment and the European life:
33

Daisy Miller, p. 17. 38

Weve got splendid rooms at the hotel; Eugenio says theyre the best rooms in Rome. We are going to stay all winter, if we dont die of the fever; and I guess well stay then. Its a great deal nicer than I thought; I thought it would be fearfully quiet; I was sure it would be awfully poky. I was sure we should be going round all the time with one of those dreadful old men that explain about the pictures and things. But we only had about a week of that, and now Im enjoying myself. I know ever so many people, and they are all so charming. The societys extremely select. There are all kinds English, and Germans, and Italians. I think I like the English best. I like their style of conversation. But there are some lovely Americans. I never saw anything so hospitable. Theres something or other every day.34 Throughout Daisy Miller, Winterbourne is preoccupied with the question of whether Daisy is innocent. The word innocent appears repeatedly, always with a different shade of meaning. Innocent had three meanings in Jamess day. First, it could have meant ignorant or uninstructed. Daisy is innocent of the art of conversation, for example. It could also have meant nave, as it does today. Mrs. Costello uses the word in this sense when she calls Winterbourne too innocent in Chapter 2. He is also aware of the differences between American and European women: Miss Daisy Miller looked extremely innocent. Some people had told him that, after all, American girls were exceedingly innocent; and others had told him that, after all, they were not. He was inclined to think Miss Daisy Miller was a flirt a pretty American flirt. He had never, as yet, had any relations with young ladies of this category. He had known, here in Europe, two or three women--persons older than Miss Daisy Miller, and provided, for respectabilitys sake, with husbands who were great coquettes dangerous, terrible women, with whom one's relations were liable to take a serious turn. But this young girl was not a coquette in that sense; she was very unsophisticated; she was only a pretty American flirt.35 Finally, when Winterbourne protests, twirling his moustache in a sinister fashion, he invokes the third meaning, not having done harm or wrong. This third meaning is the one that preoccupies Winterbourne as he tries to come to a decision about Daisy. He initially judges the Millers to be merely very ignorant and very innocent, and he assesses Daisy as a harmless flirt. As the novel progresses, he becomes increasingly absorbed in the question of her culpability. He fears she is guilty not of any particular sex act but merely of a vulgar attitude, a lack of concern for modesty and decency,
34 35

Daisy Miller, p. 124. Ibid., p. 23. 39

which would put her beyond his interest or concern. One could argue that it is the way in which Daisy embodies all the different meanings of innocence that is her fall. At the end of the novel, her symbolic death is a proof of the irreconcilable differences between the New and the Old Continent: But, as Winterbourne had said, it mattered very little. A week after this, the poor girl died; it had been a terrible case of the fever. Daisys grave was in the little Protestant cemetery, in an angle of the wall of imperial Rome, beneath the cypresses and the thick spring flowers. Winterbourne stood there beside it, with a number of other mourners, a number larger than the scandal excited by the young ladys career would have led you to expect. Near him stood Giovanelli, who came nearer still before Winterbourne turned away. Giovanelli was very pale: on this occasion he had no flower in his buttonhole; he seemed to wish to say something. At last he said, She was the most beautiful young lady I ever saw, and the most amiable; and then he added in a moment, and she was the most innocent.36 At times, the authors obsession with the national identity covers entire paragraphs, as in the following extract, where the young interlocutor is taught a lesson in the American superiority: Shes got to give me some candy, then, rejoined his young interlocutor. I cant get any candy here any American candy. American candys the best candy. And are American little boys the best little boys? asked Winterbourne. I don't know. Im an American boy, said the child. I see you are one of the best! laughed Winterbourne. Are you an American man? pursued this vivacious infant. And then, on Winterbournes affirmative reply American men are the best, he declared. His companion thanked him for the compliment, and the child, who had now got astride of his alpenstock, stood looking about him, while he attacked a second lump of sugar. Winterbourne wondered if he himself had been like this in his infancy, for he had been brought to Europe at about this age. Here comes my sister! cried the child in a moment. Shes an American girl.37

3.3 Open personality and social constraints We have already mentioned with reference to Isabel Archer in The Portrait of A Lady that Jamesian women have to face a variety of social constraints, or even opposition,
36 37

Daisy Miller, p. 9. Ibid., p. 211. 40

explained by the simple fact that they are women. As Edward Klevan puts it, Social definition, labelling, the understanding and placing of the individual in conformity with established types are seen to correspond to prescribed, carefully defined social space. The regulation of Daisy Millers idiosyncratic impulses is felt in terms of the constraints placed upon her physical movement38. That is to say, women are restricted even in their physical movements, although Daisys behaviour resists definition, as her movements and posture defy spatial constraints. She is seen continually strolling, walking on ahead, while the tourists were lounging and staring (74); she came tripping down stairs her little rapid, confiding step (74); she looked over the parapet, at the lake and the opposite mountains (52).39 There is a certain resemblance between Daisy and Milly Theale in The Wings of the Dove, and this is that they both refuse to be easily catalogued and understood by the others: This imagery is significantly related to The Wings of the Dove (1902), and the refusal of both Daisy and Milly to be, as it were, pinned down or fixed by others. It is a wonderful image of apparent possibility and openness. The revisions further draw attention to horizons and prospects both within and beyond Daisy: the prospect she offers to Winterbourne and the prospect of a life denied her, and both comment on Mrs Costello, who is continually shut up in her room.40 Social definition, conservatism and the marginal role of women in society are symbolized by a general immobility of the characters. Whenever they travel or try to get out of their limited circle, women such as Isabel or Daisy will face potential dangers, often lifethreatening. Winterbourne is somehow intimidated by Daisys directness and openness: Her openness and his closure are seen in the candid and sprightly movement of her body and the awkward stiffness of his a stiffness that might have been generously interpreted in terms of the pathos of inhibition.41 Natural gestures such as dancing can be for the intimidated Winterbourne impossible to perform in the presence of Daisy: Its a pity these rooms are so small; we cant dance, I am not sorry we cant dance, I dont dance.
38 39

Kevlan, Edward, op. cit., p. 162. Ibid., p. 163. 40 Ibid. p. 163. 41 Ibid., p. 164 41

Of course you dont dance; youre too stiff,42 At the end of Daisy Miller, Henry James seems to suggest that Daisy is never seen as she is. Winterbourne, however, stands in the Colosseum, and Daisy, as ever, is covered in a shadow (she has never been seen clearly), and the illumination that covers him is not a measure of how clearly he sees, but how clearly he is seen. 43 This game with light and dark Daisy is always in the shadow becomes in the story a premonition of the heroines misfortune and death but also of the obscurity and lack of understanding that the other characters exhibit towards her.

42 43

Daisy Miller, p. 98. Kevlan, Edward, op. cit., p. 164. 42

4. INFIDELITY OR THE CRACK IN THE GOLDEN BOWL

4.1 From realism to the impressionism of the character Henry James has certainly had a remarkable influence on the development of the novel. Part of this influence has been through the type of realism that he used. On the other hand, the most frequent criticism against James has been that he is not realistic enough. Many critics have objected that James does not write about life, that his novels are filled with people whom one would never meet in this world. This may be the impression someone gets when reading The Golden Bowl because of its complicated study of the human consciousness. Actually Jamess realism is of a special nature. By the early definitions, James is not a realist. The early definitions stated that the novelist should accurately depict life and that the novel should hold up a mirror to life; in other words, the realist was supposed to make an almost scientific record of life. But James was not concerned with all aspects of life. There is nothing of the ugly, the vulgar, the common, or the pornographic in James. He was not concerned with poverty or with the middle class who had to struggle for a living. Instead, he was interested in depicting a class of people who could afford to devote themselves to the refinements of life. When we refer to Jamess realism, we mean Jamess fidelity to his own material. James realism in its truest sense means being faithful to his character. In other words, characters from other novels often do things or commit acts that dont seem to blend in with their essential nature. But the acts of the Jamesian character are always understandable in terms of that characters true nature. James explained his own realism in terms of its opposition to romanticism. For James the realistic represents those things which, sooner or later, in one way or another, everyone will encounter, while the romantic stands for those things that we can never know directly. Thus, it is conceivable that one can experience the

43

same things that the characters are experiencing in a James novel, but one can never actually encounter the events narrated in the romantic novel. When James, therefore, creates a certain type of character early in the novel, this character will act in a consistent manner throughout the entire book. This is being realistic. The character will never do anything that is not logical and acceptable to his realistic nature, or to our conception of what that character should do. Some critics have noticed the relation between character and setting, and more interestingly, between interior and exterior settings and consciousness: As Jamess characters became intense perceivers of settings indoors and outdoors these settings acquired significance because they were products of the minds of the characters. Observations and thoughts about house or exterior setting began to indicate certain aspects of the characters consciousness.44 In terms of typology, although James does not deliberately try to establish such a category of characters, he will impose the young American woman: Character types, a foundation of the realist art () constrict personality, after all to a bundle of predictable features. He [James] seems to have distrusted his own propensity not only to use such established devices but to devise new ones. He had done his part to add to the stock catalogue. He had helped to make a popular by-word as well as a literary clich of the American girl by its repeated use in his stories and novels.45 Writing about realism in later years, James maintained that he was more interested in a faithful interpretation of a character in any given situation than in depicting all aspects of life. Accordingly, when he has once drawn Maggie or Prince Amerigos character in one situation of the novel The Golden Bowl, the reader can anticipate how that person will act in any other given situation. We are always able logically to understand all the actions of any character. Thus James realism would never allow the characters to perform actions that would be inconsistent with their true natures. One character or another can become the narrator and give a personal point of view on the story: While it is through Maggies mind that action and
44

Despotopoulou, Anna. Invisible Buildings: Maggies Architectural Adventures in The Golden Bowl in Papers on Language and Literature. Vol. 34, No. 4, p. 406. 45 Bell, Millicent. Type in The Wings of the Dove and the Invention of Kate Croy in The Cambridge Quarterly. Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 90. 44

character are processed in the second part of the novel, in the first, James gives us significant insight into most of the characters consciousness, thus providing the reader with avariety of points of view.46 James points out that the novels own soul follows the queer and uncanny formal innovations that keep pace with the future of the society that produces and consumes it. In The Art of Fiction Henry James states and supports his belief that a novel is art and that it is the responsibility of the novelist to take that art form seriously. James states that writers should write realistically and avoid make - believe and apologetic forms of literature. James openly states that fiction is one of the fine arts, deserving in its turn all the honors. James goes on to say that the true art of writing fiction is to catch the colour of life itself.

4.2 Plot and characters in The Golden Bowl The Golden Bowl is set in Italy, England and America and focuses on a conflict of culture and traditions that the characters experience and has at the centre the idea of deception and betrayal. Charlotte Slant, a ruined American left her country to settle in Europe. This way, perhaps, her reduced means would last longer in the Europe of the last part of the XIX century. In Florence, she meets, and falls in love, with an Italian prince, Amerigo. At the beginning, Prince Amerigo has a castle on the point of ruin and empty pockets. They become lovers, but neither one has the money to live well in the society both loved. When Charlotte goes to London, her good friend Fanny Assingham, an American with a lot of social connections, has a plan to marry her to Adam Verver, the first American billionaire, whose own daughter, Maggie, happened to be Charlottes friend. Amerigo follows Charlotte to England, but he starts seeing Maggie, because marrying this rich young lady would represent a way out for his money problems. One day, Charlotte and Amerigo visit an antique shop to buy a present for Maggie and they find a gorgeous vase decorated with gold. The owner tells them it is a perfect piece. The price though, kept it out of her budget, besides, she was not completely sure Maggie would like it.
46

Despotopoulou, Anna, op. cit., 2008, p. 410. 45

Amerigo notices, however, that the bowl had a barely visible flaw, the flaw of the golden bowl becoming thus a metaphor for imperfect relationships: Then, she asked, what IS the matter? Why, it has a crack. It sounded, on his lips, so sharp, it had such an authority, that she almost started, while her colour, at the word, rose. It was as if he had been right, though his assurance was wonderful. You answer for it without having looked? I did look. I saw the object itself. It told its story. No wonder its cheap. But its exquisite, Charlotte, as if with an interest in it now made even tenderer and stranger, found herself moved to insist. Of course its exquisite. Thats the danger. Then a light visibly came to her a light in which her friend suddenly and intensely showed. The reflection of it, as she smiled at him, was in her own face. The danger I see is because youre superstitious. Per Dio, Im superstitious! A crack is a crack and an omens an omen.47 Adam Verver seems pleased with Amerigos marriage to Maggie as now he can add a noble title to his future grandchildren. After the marriage, Maggie and Amerigo divide their time between the house in London and her fathers splendid palace he rents in Leicestershire. Maggie hopes to see her widowed father happily remarried and encourages his interest in Charlotte. Not surprisingly, Charlotte agrees to marry Maggies father, Adam. The reader cannot tell if there is any affection in Charlottes heart for Adam or she marries him for the money and in order to stay in close contact with Amerigo. It seems the latter, because Charlotte and the Prince go everywhere together, now that it is acceptable for two relatives to spend time together. Charlotte, now married to Adam, had not stopped loving Amerigo, their passion is even stronger. The four live happily for about two years, until Maggie discovers that her husband and her best friend turned mother-in-law were having an adulterous relationship. One week-end Charlotte and Amerigo go to a country estate where a celebration is taking place. When they return to London, they decide to stay overnight at Gloucester, where they spend the night at an inn. Maggie is worried and when they reappear, Amerigo explains how they wanted to see the magnificent cathedral in Gloucester, but Maggie feels there is something wrong in the explanations given by Amerigo. After a while, Maggie, shopping at the antique shop the same that Amerigo and Charlotte had visited before is offered the golden bowl. The owner explains she can have it
47

The Golden Bowl, p. 87. 46

for a modest sum since he discovered a flaw in the crystal. When the merchant goes to deliver the piece, he notices the picture of Amerigo and Charlotte on a table. He mentions to Maggie this was the couple interested in buying the precious vase a few years ago. Maggie realizes the deception: It was as if she had come out that was her most general consciousness; out of a dark tunnel, a dense wood, or even simply a smoky room, and had thereby, at least, for going on, the advantage of air in her lungs. It was as if she were somehow at last gathering in the fruits of patience.48 Adam, noticing his daughters distress, decides it is time for him to go back to America where he is building a museum to house all his European treasures. Charlotte, unwillingly, is forced to go. In spite of her distaste for her native country, Charlotte will become a well-known figure of the American high society because of Adams money, but in the process she loses Amerigo. At first glance The Golden Bowl is a novel of education. Maggie slowly gets rid of her immature innocence and becomes an accomplished woman who saves her marriage with skillful handling of a potentially unstable condition. She realizes that she cant remain forever dependent on her father but must accept adult responsibilities in her marriage. The Prince is portrayed as a snob and not very scrupulous. But he comes to respect Maggie as she works cleverly and effectively to save their marriage. He had previously regarded Maggie and Adam as little more than good children, bless their hearts, and the children of good children. While its never certain exactly how much Adam knows of the situation, he finally appears wise and understanding of his daughters plan for the two couples to separate. Charlotte is a very beautiful woman, but she may be a little stupid as the Prince mentions in a ruthless finishing judgment. She eventually appears more confused than selfpossessed. 4.3 Cheated women or the flaw in the golden bowl

48

The Golden Bowl, p. 212 47

The golden bowl, the object which gives the title of the novel, acts as a metaphor of dysfunctional relationships. The actual object mentioned in the book was supposed to be a wedding present for Maggie from Amerigo. The Prince and Charlotte were looking for the perfect present for the bride when they came across the golden bowl in an antique shop. They would have bought it, if it were not for a nearly invisible flaw that Amerigo noticed in the bowl. This nearly invisible flaw serves as a metaphor for the seemingly invisible imperfections that can appear in a marriage. In Maggie and Amerigos marriage, it was not just a barely noticeable flaw, but a life of deceit and adultery hidden under the appearances of a richly decorated existence. Maggies ignorance of her husbands affair is resented as frustrating by the reader, as in this fragment presenting the wedding preparations: But she had kept her connected and informed, from week to week, in spite of preparations and absorptions. Oh, Ive been writing to Charlotte I wish you knew her better: he could still hear, from recent weeks, this record of the fact, just as he could still be conscious, not otherwise than queerly, of the gratuitous element in Maggies wish, which he had failed as yet to indicate to her. Older and perhaps more intelligent, at any rate, why shouldnt Charlotte respond and be quite FREE to respond to such fidelities with something more than mere formal good manners? The relations of women with each other were of the strangest, it was true, and he probably wouldnt have trusted here a young person of his own race.49 Despite her innocence and trusting nature, Maggie changes completely when she realizes she is being cheated on. As Anna Despotopoulou points out, It is notable that from the moment Maggie starts suspecting her husband and Charlotte, James employs elaborate symbolism of action and motion to emphasize her reaction to her adversaries attempt to immobilize her. Mention is made of dancing, jumping, acting on a stage, and flapping of wings, symbolizing her protest as well as her determination to retaliate.50 In a dialogue, Amerigo and Charlotte seem apparently unaware of Maggies ability to discover their affair and act: Thats exactly what I meant the Prince laughed out this allusion to their snatch of talk in Portland Place. It's just what I suggested. She took, however, no notice of the reminder; she went on in her own way. But it isnt a reason. In that case one would never do anything for her. I mean, Charlotte explained, if one took advantage of her character. Of her character? We mustnt take advantage of her character, the girl, again unheeding, pursued.
49 50

The Golden Bowl, p. 34. Despotopoulou, Anna, op. cit., 2008, p. 434. 48

One mustnt, if not for HER, at least for ones self. She saves one such trouble. She had spoken thoughtfully, with her eyes on her friends; she might have been talking, preoccupied and practical, of someone with whom he was comparatively unconnected. She certainly GIVES one no trouble, said the Prince. And then as if this were perhaps ambiguous or inadequate: Shes not selfish God forgive her! enough. Thats what I mean, Charlotte instantly said. Shes not selfish enough. Theres nothing, absolutely, that one NEED do for her. Shes so modest, she developed she doesnt miss things. I mean if you love her or, rather, I should say, if she loves you. She lets it go.51 Like almost all Jamesian men, but even more obvious, Maggies father, Adam Verver is an art collector, who tends to consider everything around him, even his daughter as a possible work of art. Were like a pair of pirates positively stage pirates, his daughter Maggie tells him pirates who rejoice when they find the buried treasure (similar hints are scattered in the novel). He also collects Prince Amerigo for her (as Isabel had wanted to collect Osmond, and he Isabel): Youre at any rate a part of his collection one of the things that can only be got over here, the Prince is told: You are a rarity, an object of beauty, an object of price Youre what they call a morceau de muse. 52 Adams attitude may explain and somehow excuse what happens to himself and his daughter. Treating everybody as an object may turn against you, and this is what happens to Adam and Maggie: they become objects in the hands of Charlotte and Amerigo.

51 52

The Golden Bowl, p. 63. Perosa, Sergio, op. cit., p.158. 49

5. PURITY AND ABUSE IN THE WINGS OF THE DOVE

5.1 Narrative techniques and character construction James states in The Art of Fiction that in the previous centuries the English novel had no sense of having a theory, a consciousness of itself behind it - of it being the expression of an artistic faith, the result of choice and comparison. He goes on to say that art is delightful and interesting and he doubts that any good work of fiction can succeed without both. The artists words are not exact, he says, but rather suggestive, beautiful, and vague. James is a very careful artist who uses rather often and freely the technique of foreshadowing a later action. This means that he has given hints in the early parts of the novel about some important thing that is going to happen later in the story. Thus, a touch of realism is added to the novel because so many things have foreshadowed the main action that the reader should not be surprised to discover the action at the end. Milly Theale, the protagonist in The Wings of the Dove53 is presented from the beginning as a sick, rich woman, rather romantic in nature, so the reader will not be surprised to find out that some men would try to take advantage of her situation and marry her before she dies. Similarly, in Daisy Miller we are given very early in the novel hints of Daisys spontaneous and impetuous nature. Thus it is not surprising to find that she carries this characteristic to its logical extreme. Furthermore, we hear several times about the danger of catching the Roman fever, so when Daisy does become sick, we have been prepared for this by earlier allusions to the illness. Henry Jamess use of the third person unreliable point of view, the same that he uses in The Wings of the Dove, allows the reader to be informed on the events only from
53

The title probably refers to the 55th Psalm, which records the deceit and guilt of conspirators and exclaims Oh that I had wings like a dove! For then I would flee away and be at rest. Also possibly Psalm 68, where God has conquered the kings of Canaan for Israel and the wings of [His] dove are sheathed with silver, its feathers with shining gold. 50

Millys perspective. This limited point of view, without intrusion of the authorial voice, was established by Henry, and is an artistic expression of Williams description of consciousness. Jamess narrative style is rather elliptical, like an internal dialogue with the qualifications, hesitations, backtracking and distractions that are characteristic of our internal thoughts. It is easy to get lost in his long sentences with multiple subjects. Henry is considered a predecessor of the stream of consciousness technique, a phrase that his brother William is credited with. One interesting aspect of Henry James narrative technique is how he uses tone, point of view and dialogue. One of James contributions to The Art of Fiction is in his use of point-of-view. Point-of-view means the angle from which the story is told. For example, previous to James novels, much of the fiction of the day was being written from the authors viewpoint that is, the author was telling the story and he was directing the readers response to the story. Much of the fiction of the nineteenth century had the author as the storyteller, and the author would create scenes in which certain characters would be involved, but all of the scenes would not necessarily have the same characters in them. Jamess fiction differs in his treatment of point-of-view. He was interested in establishing a central person about whom the story revolved, or else a central person who could observe and report the action. Usually, the reader would have to see all the action of the story through this characters eyes. Thus, while the central character in Daisy Miller is Daisy herself, we see her through the eyes of the central intelligence, that is, through the eyes of Winterborne. Sometimes the central character will also be the central intelligence, as it happens in The Portrait of A Lady. In James fiction we respond to events as the central intelligence would respond to them.

5.2 Story-line in The Wings of the Dove Placed in the splendid London drawing rooms and decorated Venetian palazzos, The Wings of the Dove is the tale of Milly Theale, an inexperienced, predestined American heiress, and a pair of lovers, Kate Croy and Merton Densher, who conspire to get hold of her
51

fortune. In this clever tragedy of betrayal, self-deception, and infidelity, Henry James unites three unfortunate and completely human destinies surprisingly linked by desire, greed, and salvation. Kate Croy, aged 25, meets her miserable degenerate father, Lionel Croy in London. Kates mother had died a few years before and she had also lost two brothers. She offers to come live with him and take care of him. But her rich widowed aunt, Mrs. Maud Manningham Lowder, has offered a comfortable wealthy existence to her in exchange for her giving up the company of her father. He insists that she give up seeing him and accept the aunts proposal. Kate has inherited a small revenue from her mother, which her father wants to share in rather than seeing it shared with her impoverished widowed sister, Mrs. Marian Croy Condrip who has four children because he disapproves of her boyfriend, Merton Densher. Kate meets Marian in her blighted home Marian also encourages her to follow Mauds wishes, in hopes that there will be future financial benefit for Marian as well. Maud had approved of Marians marriage to a poor parson and was unforgiving to her. Marian notes that Maud is arranging Lord Mark for Kate. Merton and Kate secretly meet in Kensington Gardens. They had first met at a party, then on the Underground. He is a journalist working in Fleet Street. Maud is planning to write him he isnt good enough for Kate in Mauds eyes but Kate says he must meet her. Kate reviews her own familys dreadful conditions and misfortune, her fathers vague wrong deeds. Merton presses her to marry but she wishes to wait until the time is right. Merton comes to Lancaster Gate, Mauds remarkably decorated house. She likes him, and does not try to prevent his relationship with Kate, but indicates her plans for Kate to marry a great man. He makes plans to go on a journalistic job in America. Kate proclaims her love and engages herself to Merton forever he gives in return his promise to be faithful to her and they agree to keep the engagement a secret. Miss Milly (Mildred) Theale is a wealthy 22 years old innocent heiress and orphan from America with practically no living relations. She is in vacation in Switzerland with her travel companion, Mrs. Susan Shepherd Stringham, a widow from Vermont. Susan senses a
52

premonition of disaster in Milly. Is Milly sick? Millly wont discuss her specific concerns or symptoms, thouh she had seen a doctor in NY. Milly decides they should go to London. She had met Densher in NY while he was working there and she wishes to look him up in London. Susan knew Maud when they were at the Vevey school together and she writes her. At Mauds, Milly meets Kate and Lord Mark. Milly admires Kate immensely finds her an amazing good-looking girl. Milly learns from Maud through Susan of a hidden interest between Kate and Merton and asks that Milly and Susan do nothing to encourage this relationship Milly is confused as she enters this scheme. Susan says to Milly My dear child, we move in a labyrinth. Susan and Milly visit Marian, who lets them know that Merton actually loves Kate. Later, Susan and Milly discuss Mertons lack of fortune and his exceptional abilities. Milly concludes that Kate does not love Merton, else Marian would have mentioned it. Maud, Kate, Milly, and Mark visit Lord and Lady Aldershaw. Maud is affectionate towards Milly and invites her to come and stay with them at Lancaster Gate. Milly confesses to Kate her plans to see the great physician, Sir Luke Strett, and asks for her silence on this. Milly will not discuss the details of her illness. Kate accompanies her to the physician for the first visit. The doctor says he will take care of her and advises Milly to live life. Afterwards, Milly makes light of her medical condition to Kate. Maud asks Milly in confidence to find out from Kate if Merton has returned from America. Milly discovers Mauds attitudes and motives with her. Later, Milly and Kate discuss Mauds intention to unite Mark and Kate. When Milly visits the National Art Gallery, she encounters Kate there with Merton, freshly returned from America. She invites them to lunch. She believes Merton to be in love with Kate. Merton and Kate plan for him to come to visit at Mauds, apparently to see Milly. There he secretly meets with Kate, but she again advises him to be patient. Kate says Milly loves him and suggests they use this to their advantage. Millys best friend is Kate, and Kate thinks Milly will do all she can to help her. Merton is unsure and uneasy with this plan of abuse. Kates love for him has been concealed from Maud and Milly.

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Merton and Susan have dinner at Mauds with Kate and two men. They talk about Millys health (she is unwell and did not come). Merton is disturbed that Kate wants him to make up to a sick girl. Merton is introduced to Mark. Maud encourages Merton to follow Milly she believes Merton to be a fortune hunter and seems to expect him to act according to her wishes. Maud subtly guarantees through Susan to Milly that Kate does not love Merton. Merton visits Milly, but she claims to be all right. She is planning to go to the continent but assures him she will return. Kate arrives but leaves shortly. Dr. Strett has visited Susan and given his medical report. He suspects but has not confirmed a different opinion from what Milly suspects we do not learn what it is, though it seems worrying. Susan and Maud discuss about Merton and Kate Maud acknowledges to her that Kate cares for him but asks Susan to keep this from Milly. Maud says Merton is not good enough for Kate but implies he is for Milly. Milly visits Dr. Strett and announces her plans to go to the Tyrol and Venice in 2 weeks. She is interested in Merton. Milly and her friends are now in Venice she stays in a rented palace, the Palazzo Leporelli, and is guided by Eugenio. While she is alone, Lord Mark shows up all of a sudden. She confesses to him that she is very ill and wants to die there. He wants her to be loved more and asks her to love him and marry him, though rather clumsily and without passionate conviction so she declines his offer. She tells him that Maud wants him and Kate to marry. He replies by saying that Kate is in love with Merton. She denies this possibility; based on Kates lack of confirmation - Mark shares his doubts about Kates honesty and then leaves. Merton dislikes his badly maintained hotel and his annoying and two-faced existence. Milly wants to come and visit him there. Kate wants Merton to tell Milly that Kate dislikes him. Kate and Merton discuss Marks offer of marriage to Milly and Mertons possible love for Milly. Merton longs to have Kate express her love for him by coming to his hotel, but she declines. Susan asks Merton to be faithful to her friend and encourages him to do something to encourage his relationship to Milly. Milly throws a party that includes Dr. Strett. Kate speaks to Merton admiringly of Milly she is a dove. Kate plans to leave town while Merton is planning to marry Milly. Merton agrees to continue with their plan if she will come to his hotel room, and this time Kate agrees. She keeps this promise, and then leaves with
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Maud for London. Merton debates his actions with Milly and with himself, wanting one way or another to remain faithful to Kate. Merton worries that his deception, if it is discovered by Milly, might end up killing her. He goes to see Milly but is turned away at the palace. Mark had come to see Milly Merton sees him at a nearby restaurant. For three days he is left by himself, then Susan comes to his hotel. Susan tells him of Millys abandonment she has turned her face to the wall and is dying. She wants him to come to Milly and to deny what Mark has accused him of, specifically that he and Kate have been engaged all along. He must have learned this when proposing to Kate. Dr. Strett arrives but Merton stays away from Milly. On leaving, Strett goes for a tour with Merton, says Milly is better, and she wants to see Merton. We next encounter Merton in London in December. He had seen Milly for only 20 minutes she was dying and did not ask him about his relationship to Kate, but only wanted to be with him that last time. He was saved from having to deny his love for Kate. She showed no sign of believing that she had been deceived. He visits Kate she realizes that he fell in love with Milly but believes their plan has been a success. They discuss about Marks visit to Milly and he says this is what has led her to give up and be on the verge of death. Maud remains unaware of Mertons relationship with Kate Susan has not revealed his secret. Merton was unable to bear staying with Milly until she died. Merton meets with Kate, wants her to marry him, but she still wants them to wait, unless perhaps he has learned of an inheritance. Merton goes to Dr. Stretts house and encounters Maud there with Mark waiting for her in her carriage. She tells him that Milly has died, our dear dove ... has folded her wonderful wings... or she has spread them the wider. Kate has left her aunt against Mauds wishes to be with Marian on Christmas Eve their father has come to her for help. Merton meets Kate in Marians dull home. He has received a letter from Milly written earlier when she was better but delayed until Christmastime to be mailed he has not opened it. Merton again presses Kate on how Mark could have known about the engagement. Mark had been convinced after his first visit to see Milly that Merton truly loved Milly, and this improved Mauds view of Merton. Kate never says explicitly that she told Mark of the engagement.

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They consider the letter from Milly Kate concludes Milly has made Merton rich and brutally throws the unopened letter into the fire. Two months later Kate comes to Mertons room. Their relations are now less passionate. He regrets not knowing what was in Millys letter. He has received an envelope of money from New York and sent it to her unopened, as a test and she has opened it, disappointing him. He refuses to have anything to do with the money and challenges her to marry him without it or to lose him and have her freedom and the money. He wants to escape any knowledge of the spoiled money. She believes him to be afraid, and suggests that although he did not love Milly before her death, that he did so after her death. She asks if he is in love with Millys memory and suggests he no longer wants any other love. He offers to marry her immediately but she says as she leaves We shall never be again as we were.

5.3 Milly Theale the mysterious victim Criticism commonly acknowledges that the character of Milly Theale was based on Jamess cousin, Minny Temple. Personal regrets may have made James doubt especially in the case of Milly the value of his novelistic invention. Minny Temple had died when they were both in their twenties, and he wrote at the end of his life that she became a haunting ghost whom he would finally seek to lay by wrapping it, a particular occasion aiding, in the beauty and dignity of art54 the occasion being his next-to-last great novel. Earlier, as he admitted to a friend, he had had Minny in mind when conceiving the heroine of The Portrait of a Lady. But Isabel Archer lives on to find herself in difficulties such as might only have been Minnys if she had lived longer. Not only are Millys initials the same as Minnys but she dies young, just as Minny had. More than ever, thinking back to the person he had known, James felt the resistance of reality to artistic simplification. His cousin had impressed him by her love of lifes opportunities, her hope to live in unpredictable ways. Perhaps he had responded inadequately to her when she was alive, though after her death he could say he loved her.

54

James, Henry. Autobiography. ed. F. W. Dupee, New York, 1956, p. 544. 56

Perhaps it proved true, as Kate Croy tells Densher concerning Milly, that Minny had had to die so that James might understand her.55 The main character of the novel is, in the first place, very difficult to grasp. Milly is indeed an extremely complex character and, furthermore, the ellipses that characterize Jamess writing prevent a full understanding of the character. As Millys friend and companion, Susan Stringham says, You know nothing, sir, not the least little bit about my friend She is a thousand and one things.56 Indeed, Merton Densher, the alleged victimizer in the novel moves from platitude to humility before the mystery of Milly Theale.57 Milly herself is separated in her own response to the common view of her. She says to Lord Mark, Youve heard me before, in my country, often enough.58 She becomes more and more sharply conscious of having as with the door sharply slammed upon her and the guards hand raised in signal to the train been popped into the compartment in which she was to travel for him. To Mark, she was a mere little American, a cheap exotic, imported almost wholesale and whose habitat, with its conditions of climate, growth and cultivation, its immense profusion but few varieties and thin development, he was perfectly satisfied.59 But her heart sink[s] as she realises that Densher, whom she likes so much more, is ready to accept the view, and she wants to please him by being as American as it might conveniently appeal to Mr. Densher, after his travels, to find her60. She, herself no less than Densher, no less than James has the typecasting eye for others. When she spots an American mother and daughters in the National Gallery, she feels that she knew the three generically as easily as a schoolboy with a crib in his lap would know the answer in class.61 She sees her new friend, Kate Croy, as an example of the English Girl a type to set next to the American Girl for study of general traits. Kate belongs, she thinks, to a species to be found in
55 56

The Wings of the Dove, p. 532. Ibid., pp. 269-270. 57 Bell, Millicent. op. cit., p. 91. 58 The Wings of the Dove, p. 139. 59 Ibid., p. 142. 60 Ibid., p. 236. 61 Ibid., p. 232. 57

Thackeray. And yet, Milly will strive to defy expectation, even the inevitability of death, assured by her doctor that she can do or be anything. Paradoxically, her remedy is to a conventional trait of the set character she is supposed to illustrate. When she invites Densher to ride with her alone in her carriage, her highly American extreme spontaneity is the start of his growing appreciation. He finally realises in Venice that she could be unpredictable and this was part of her typicality: the type was so elastic that it could be stretched to almost anything; and yet, it kept down, remained normal, remained properly within bounds. Her being the American girl just in time and for the relation they found themselves concerned in, was a boon inappreciable62.

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The Wings of the Dove, p. 425. 58

CONCLUSIONS

Contemporary criticism considers Henry James as one of the greatest authors of all time, and that his works are some of the best when it comes to characters development and the way their psychological behaviour comes into play in various circumstances. Henry Jamess evolving literary style and artistic intentions mirrored the transition from the Victorian to the Modern era in English literature. James was one of the first major novelists to utilize modernist, stream-of-consciousness techniques, and he forwarded an aesthetic approach that avoided a traditional omniscient narrative voice, arguing that the novelists technique required a revelatory process of showing rather than a didactic act of telling. His earlier work is considered realist because of the carefully described details of his characters physical surroundings. But, throughout his long career, James maintained a strong interest in a variety of artistic effects and movements. His work gradually became more metaphorical and symbolic as he entered more deeply into the minds of his characters. In its intense focus on the consciousness of his major characters, Jamess later work foreshadows extensive developments in twentieth century fiction. In the later part of his career James became more and more interested in his characters consciousness, an interest which had been announced by The Portrait of a Lady. His style also started to grow in complexity to reflect the greater depth of his analysis. Henry James has had a remarkable influence on the development of the novel. In our attempt to prove that there is such a thing as a typology of the abused women in Jamess novel writing, we focused on four of his major literary accomplishments The Portrait of A Lady, Daisy Miller, The Golden Bowl and The Wings of the Dove. In the first place, we noticed that all four present some story of deception and abuse and all have tragic endings. Even though only Daisy Miller and The Wings of the Dove end up in death the other two novels, The Portrait of A Lady and The Golden Bowl are tragic as well, because they end with a statement of failure. Failure of love, trust and independence.
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Secondly, we were not surprised to conclude that all four women dealt with in our study are young Americans placed in a European setting. Without going too much into detail, we should mention that this is part of what criticism calls Jamess international theme and, in our case, reveals the irreconcilable differences between America and Europe, between the New and the Old Continent, between innocence and simplicity on one hand, and refinement and corruption on the other hand. Furthermore, we noticed that Isabel, Daisy, Maggie or Milly possess considerable wealth that attracts fortune-hunters, ready to marry them to gain access to their money. The abusers are thus mainly their suitors or husbands who use them as a means to a higher social position. But they are not the only ones to treat women as objects. The end of the nineteenth century, despite the progress brought about by the Industrial Revolution, is still an era when women have a marginal social role, are not allowed to vote and have limited access to education and employment. Therefore, the objectification of women that we noticed in our study of the four women protagonists is not only an individual characteristic of the men profiteers in the novels, but a feature of the nineteenth century society as a whole.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES: James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady, Penguin Classics, 2003. James, Henry. Daisy Miller. Penguin Classics, 1987. James, Henry. The Golden Bowl. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. James, Henry. The Wings of the Dove. Modern Library Classics, 2003. James, Henry. Autobiography. ed. F. W. Dupee, New York, 1956. James, Henry. Theory of Fiction. in James Edwin Miller (ed.), University of Nebraska Press, 1972. SECONDARY SOURCES: Allen, Elizabeth. A Woman's Place in the Novels of Henry James. London, Macmillan, 1984. Bell, Millicent. Type in The Wings of the Dove and the Invention of Kate Croy in The Cambridge Quarterly. Cambridge University Press, 2008. Bosanquet, Theodora. Henry James At Work. Ed. by Lyall Powers, University of Michigan Press, 2006. Cheveresan, C. T. College British Literature. Editura Universitatii Aurel Vlaicu, Arad, 2008. Despotopoulou, Anna. The Price of Mere Spectatorship: Henry Jamess The Wings of the Dove in The Review of English Studies. Vol. 53, No. 210, Oxford University Press, 2002. Despotopoulou, Anna. Invisible Buildings: Maggies Architectural Adventures in The Golden Bowl in Papers on Language and Literature. Vol. 34, No. 4, 2008. Fogel, Daniel M. Covert Relations: James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Henry James. University Press of Virginia, 1990. Foss, Chris. Female innocence as other in The Portrait of a Lady and What Maisie Knew: Reassessing the feminist recuperation of Henry James in Essays in Literature. Vol. 22, No. 2, Macomb, 1995.
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Funston, Judith E. Henry James, 19751987 : a reference guide, Boston, G. K. Hall, 1991. Hicks, Granville, The Great Tradition: An Interpretation of American Literature Since the Civil War, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1935, pp. 112, 121. Klevan, Edward. Smiling and Hiding: The Earlier Novels and Tales of Henry James in The Cambridge Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1996. Lane, Allen (ed.), Henry James a life in letters, Penguin Press, 1999. Lodge, David, 20th Century Literary Criticism, Longman, 1981. Lubbock, Percy, The Craft of Fiction, Charles Scribners Sons, 1955, pp. 156 - 71. Kaplan, Fred, Henry James: the imagination of genius, a biography, New York, 1992. Mencken, H. L., Henry James, in A Mencken Chrestomathy, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1953, pp. 500 - 01. Novick, Sheldon M., Henry James: the mature master, New York, Random House, 2007. Perosa, Sergio. Henry James and Unholy Art Acquisitions in The Cambridge Quarterly. Vol. 37, No. 1, 2008. Pippin, Robert B. Henry James and modern moral life, Cambridge University Press, 2001. Powers, Lyall. The Portrait of a Lady: Maiden, Woman and Heroine. Boston. Twayne Publishers, 1991. Tanner, Tony. The Fearful Self: Henry Jamess The Portrait of a Lady in Henry James: Modern Judgements. Ed. Tony Tanner. London, Macmillan, 1968. Vidal, Gore, Return to The Golden Bowl, in New York Review of Books, Vol. XXX, Nos. 21 22, January 19, 1984, pp. 8 - 12. Ward, J. A. The Imagination of Disaster: Evil in the Fiction of Henry James. University of Nebraska Press, 1961. Watt, Ian, The First Paragraph of The Ambassadors: An Explication, in Essays in Criticism, Vol. X, July 1960, p. 274.

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