Literatura Britanica

Prof. [pic]Eduardo Valls Cristina Cuesta Simón
Literatura Norteamericana: James/Faulkner February 2012


Analysis of the main character of “Portrait of a Lady”
by Henry James, Isabella Archer.



This essay deals with one of the female characters in the novel The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James and the little comparison between acompletely liberal woman and another one who lives according the social rules that the society establishes.

Henry James takes the reader into a world of Europeans and Americans that today seems still distant. James speaks constantly on the difference between European and American character, setting a world of competitions and social implications that go beyond simple chance encounter betweencultures. The Europeans seem to be mature, sophisticated, almost perverse, while the U.S. still has the candor typical of the young nation with a history that is just beginning. The collision between these two ways of seeing the world takes the reader through a thorough analysis, to consider the very essence of the novel and the narrative that is involved. Henry James recognized that the characterof Isabella Archer was inspired by his cousin, Minny Temple, who despite dying young became the center of attraction of the writer and his surroundings: a girl restless, curious, and eager to live. Minny indeed may have been the excuse, but Henry James created a modern character, an American girl free from social prejudices in England ends up marrying and having to deal with a society that demandsan engagement nineteenth century.

All the female characters appear in “The Portrait of a Lady” have the profile of an independent woman's ideas. They are very strong, bordering on the bizarre originality excess live on the fringes of European society. This is a recurring theme in the work of James, the fight between American and European culture. Although all women in the novel are American,Mrs. Touchett, Isabella Archer, Henrietta Stackpole, Madame Merle, the Countess Gemini, they represent a paradigm of women completely different from European women, a phenomenon that is natural because they come of a different historical context. United States was a new country with no tradition of social classes, with democratic ideas and geography limits which are constantly changing, a hive ofraces, languages, cultures, and a distant world, where these ladies have more living space. Against them, the European World of “The Portrait of a Lady” are Victorian women, subjected to a rigid social system and traditions unwavering therefore respond to another scheme and have another pattern.

The aim of this paper is to make a brief analysis about the main character of the novel. Isabella isan unusual young woman, with intelligence and an appealing personality that will appeal to men as diverse as Lord Warbuton, the American Caspar Goodwood or the one that will be her husband, Osmond Ormond. But women, like her modern friend, the journalist Henrietta Stackpole, or the intriguing Madame Merle. The plot starts in Grandecourt, a beautiful English home to the U.S. and poor Isabel Archerarrives with her ​​rich aunt, who has decided to address her after the death of her father. In Grandecourt, Isabella meet her uncle, who greatly impressed, and her cousin Ralph, seriously ill and one of the most lucid and intelligent characters of all the play. The novel will also be closed on the house, but as the start of the frame is bright and blinding, the ending is ambiguous and, indeed, sad.“Lord Warburton was left standing with Ralph Touchett, to whom in a moment he said: "you wished a while ago to see my idea of an interesting woman. There it is!" ” (2.20)

When she arrives in London, Isabella is a recent orphan, an attractive girl, but poor, she has a great capital: his intelligence. Her head is full of ideas and hopes to see the world, to travel and learn, she wants to...