Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady appeared first as installments in The Atlantic Monthly (1880–81), where readers recognized in its protagonist, Isabel Archer, a more mature version of the title character from his earlier novella, Daisy Miller (1879). Like Daisy, Isabel is an American on tour in Europe, searching for adventure. A poor orphan, she becomes a ward of her wealthy aunt, Lydia Touchett, and travels to England to live with her for a time. She becomes fond of her aunt and her uncle, a retired American banker, and grows close to their sickly son Ralph, who suffers from tuberculosis. Dynamic, bright, and desirous of independence, Isabel captures the attentions of several would-be lovers, hitting the romantic mark suggested by her surname. She is made all the more desirable when, following his father’s death, Ralph gives a portion of his vast wealth to Isabel. She refuses marriage offers from a wealthy American named Casper Goodwood, as well as from the older Touchett neighbor and English aristocrat, Lord Warburton.

When Isabel travels to the continent with her aunt and her aunt’s friend, Madame Merle, she meets Gilbert Osmond in Florence. She remains unaware of Madame Merle’s previous relationship with Osmond, with whom she had a daughter named Pansy. Impressed by Osmond’s erudite manner, Isabel falls in love with and marries him, despite her previous determination to remain independent. Although she believes Osmond will encourage her independence and spiritual growth, his true cruel nature is revealed following their marriage. He takes on Isabel as a private project, working to break her spirit as he spends her money. When she learns that Ralph is on his deathbed, she plans a return to England, which Osmond refuses. He threatens to place Pansy in a monastery, and Isabel at last learns of Osmond’s relationship with Merle, whom he doomed to suffer existence as his mistress.

Isabel could remain in England, but she shows her strength and determination by deciding to return to her horrible husband in order to protect Pansy, an innocent victim of her parents’ excess. In that decision, she achieves some measure of redemption from her former error in judgment that led to marriage with the shallow, evil Osmond. Her determination strengthens her to refuse a second offer from Casper Goodwood, who, as suggested by his name, proves of far better character than Isabel’s husband. She returns to the very servitude she had always abhorred, embracing self-denunciation and the acceptance of responsibility as a form of freedom.

An avid observer of human nature, James chose to deal with the ethics of choice in his novel, allowing his plot to unfold based on the inner workings of his characters’ minds as they discovered the painful difference between their naïve American approach to life and that of the more sophisticated Europeans. In suggesting that the novel offers a portrait of Isabel, he invites readers to observe his artful reproduction of human nature and its reaction to its surroundings. He presents the age-old tension between the power of the individual will and that of circumstance, where the will’s vision becomes blurred by wealth and refinement. His works are continuously read and studied; The Portrait of a Lady has also been converted to various media forms.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chen, Shudong. Henry James: The Essayist Behind the Novelist. Studies in American Literature, vol. 59. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 2003.
Van Ghent, Dorothy. The English Novel: Form and Function. New York: Harper & Row, 1953.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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