Henry James is one of the most prolific as well as one of the greatest writers America has produced.
He is perhaps best known as the author of stories dealing with the `international scene, " the transatlantic intercourse of American and European society and culture.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the destiny of Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady.
For James, America represents innocence, conscience, and moral spontaneity, including qualities which can be cruel, dogmatic, narrow, fatuous and frigid, as well as morally sound, beautifrl, and charming as is suggested in the person of Isabel Archer.
On the contrary, the European type, for James, represents the antithesis of the American type as is suggested by Osmond and Madame Merle. Standing for experience as opposed to innocence, tradition opposed to conscience, manners opposed to social naivete, Europe also reveals both positive and negative qualities.
James´s purpose is to paint Isabel Archer´s portrait by placing the center of the subject in the young woman´s own consciousness. The subject of the novel is Isabel´s progress from innocence to experience as she tries to live freely, fails, and achieves a deeper understanding of the meaning of freedom. From a dull house and a narrow life in America, James´s heroin comes to Europe determined to explore life freely and to be as happy as possible.
Isabel accordingly is brought out in three principal relations : first, her very upperclass English suitor; next, with Caspar Goodwood, her very provincial American suitor; and, last, with Gilbert Osmond, the cosmopolitan American whom she finally marries. Of these the last is the most important for the main tragic theme of the story, and is the most fully exhibited.
In her cheerful ignorance she! believes she is independent and earnesty wishes to. remain so-to be free to see life. In this belief she refuses the proposals of marriage to her by Lord Warburton and her persistent American suitor, Caspara Goodwood; She wants to remain free and uncornitted and above all independent of the solicitous protection of a husband, Gilbert Osmond, a thoroughly Europeanized America gentleman. Isabell, however, is blind to Gilbert Osmond´s dark side.Osmond wants control of Isabel´s mind.
The question inevitably asked about The Portrait of a Lady is this Why does Isabel Archer return to Italy at the end of the novel-to an unhappy marriage, an ambiguous, uncathartic resolution of her history?
James´s achievement in the last part of The Portrait of a Lady is to turn Isabel´s defeat into victory. The moral innocence of the American is contrasted with the knowledge and experience (and evil) of the European.
In this work, James has Isabel face her reality and there by distinguish between the evil and the ultimate morality surrounding her. James´s view of morallity is that moral consciousness can be achieved only through various experiences in life.
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