CORINNENOTES

Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady

Plan

Liberty and Imprisonment.

Intro:

“The Portrait of Two Gentlemen”- Spectator Nov. 1881, unsigned review.

- this misses the point of James’s novel.

“hauntingly authentic and elusive” Tony Tanner.

-it is this elusiveness which characterises the conflict for Isabel, and for James, between liberty and imprisonment, desire and reason and the internal and external definition of self. Our Portrait is deliberately elusive, as is ultimately the desire for total freedom.

Para. 1:

The constraints in Isabel’s character which prevent her from achieving freedom.

-          “fear of herself” Tony Tanner.

-          Like Dorothea and Maggie has “had no regular education” – barrier to understanding.    

-          Imagination “her imagination was by habit ridiculously active” and ”She was not accustomed indeed to keep it behind bolts” (the bolt image will reoccur). Has had “the music of Gounod, the poetry of Browning, the prose of George Eliot” in contrast to the Governess in “The Turn of the Screw”, who only experiences Amelia at Ely. If “TTOTS” demonstrates the problems of a repressed imagination TPOAL shows the problems inherent in having an over active imagination which will not accept reality: “She had never opened the bolted door nor removed the green paper…she had never assured herself that the vulgar street lay beyond”. The “bolts” which dominate Isabel’s life are locked because of herself as well as because of her situation. (See also Lucy in Villette)

-          “She wants never to have and to hold, and thus never to be had and held; she wants never to possess and be possessed, but always to postpone, to wait for ever in a sweet unrest” (Adrian Poole).

-          The contradiction in Isabel also reveals the contradiction in America, and the contradiction in being American. If America really is “the land of the free” why do so many Americans in the novel leave America in search of something more?

Para. 2.

The role of Lord Wharburton and Casper Goodwood in Isabel’s desire for freedom.

-          Lord Wharburton = oppression on a “social level” (Tanner)

-          Goodwood =  oppression on a “physical level”(Tanner). Goodwood contradicts Isabel’s need to “see but not to feel” and also reveals that she is partly repressed – she will not acknowledge her own sexuality.(see also Villette) . Also the reoccurring image of Goodwood’s eyes “in his clear burning eyes like some tireless watcher at a window” – windows are equated with seeing reality.

-          Both talk with Isabel in Rome (which represents the oppression of patriarchy – see also Middlemarch) and Gardencourt (which represents freedom). Shows the conflict inherent in liberty.

Para. 3.

The role of Gilbert Osmond in the imprisonment of Isabel.

-          See also Grandcourt in Daniel Deronda , Casaubon in Middlemarch , the Duke in “My Last Duchess”.

-          Why Osmond? “Osmond eludes her categories of understanding” (Adrian Poole) – the ideal rather than a reality.

-          Rome, House, “framed in a gilded doorway” – “The Lady is half willing to be turned into a portrait” (Tanner)

-          “a pang that suggested to her somehow the slipping of a fine bolt – backwards, forwards, she couldn’t have said which”.

-          Osmond is “as much a collaborator as a deceiver” (Tanner) – this view however overestimates Isabel’s role in her imprisonment (especially considering Madame Merle’s role).

Para. 4.

Madame Merle and Ralph and their impact on Isabel’s liberty.

-          Ralph is an “apostle of freedom”, closely associated with Gardencourt. Also see his death and Isabel’s reaction.

-          However Ralph “ruined” Isabel, and her money is one of the major factors in her imprisonment (contrast with Jane Eyre and North and South where money liberates the heroine). In this respect he is as much of a silent controlling figure as Madame Merle.

-          Madame Merle demonstrates how it is not only the patriarchy which imprisons Isabel.

-          However she too is trapped “You’ve not only dried up my tears you’ve dried up my soul”, the “chipped and cracked” cup – she too has been damaged by society.

Para. 5.

Pansy’s role in the exploration of imprisonment.

-          Reveals a more sinister aspect of Osmond than Tanner’s “collaborator” view would allow. (see also “TTOTS”)

-          Is “blank”, the total removal of identity and sexuality. Importance of the Convent – see also Lucy in Villette.

-          Unlike Isabel though she does not realise her imprisonment.

Para. 6.

The impact of the ending of the novel on liberty and imprisonment.

-          “A lamer conclusion to a brilliantly written story could ill be conceived”, H. A. Huntington, 1882.

-          “the most important kind of freedom, an internal one” (Tanner).

-          “the straightest path of all for a creature imprisoned for too long is the path that leads back to the cage” (Judith Woolf). – a more accurate impression of Isabel’s situation at the end of the novel.  Madame Merle may have been banished to America but Ralph as the “apostle of freedom” is dead. Added to this Isabel is ultimately a “portrait” (as is the Duchess in “My Last Duchess”), a possession of both Osmond and James.

-          The conflict is expressed by Poole as “To give yourself away to anyone in particular is, in James’s world, to risk the calamity of permanently forfeiting your liberty. But never to give yourself away is to remain enchanted in a prison of selfhood”.  (A conflicting view to Bronte in Jane Eyre but more in line with the sentiment expressed in Villette, see also the unfulfilment of those in Middlemarch).