Socrates taught that the unexamined life is not worth living, and Isabel Archer of Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady constantly examines her conduct and her thoughts to see whether she measures up to the standards by which she hopes to live. As James introduces her, she is a young woman of an aristocratic family of but moderate means in Albany, New York, and her father, her last living parent who has but haphazardly provided her education, has recently died. Her aunt appears for the first time in Isabel’s life, and because she takes a fancy to Isabel, she brings her to Europe so that her horizons might be broadened. In England, she meets her dying cousin Ralph who is smitten so much by her that he persuades his father to provide amply for her in his will. A short time later, the old man dies, and Isabel discovers to her surprise that she has suddenly become quite wealthy. After an interval in which she comes to the conclusion that her education is deficient since she has learned but a little French and only read in a few books about German philosophy, Isabel continues to explore Europe with her now widowed aunt so that she might broaden her horizons and gain further insight into herself. In Albany, she had refused the hand of Caspar Goodwood because she found his expectations of her stifling. In England, she enjoyed the company of her cousin Ralph because she found that he offered her opportunity for growth, but there was no thought of marriage with him. Ralph’s friend Lord Warburton became smitten of Isabel immediately on meeting her, and he proposed to her almost directly afterward. Although he was extremely wealthy and powerful, she found that she did not belong to his world, and she did not wish to remake herself so that she might become a part of it. Now on the continent with her aunt, Isabel becomes acquainted first with Paris, and then the two women proceed to the home of the aunt in Florence. While she was visiting in her uncle’s home, Isabel became acquainted with a woman whom she very much admires and wants to emulate because of her poise and her artistic and social skills, Madam Merle, who now appears in her aunt’s home in Florence. Madam Merle arranges for the widower Gilbert Osmond to meet Isabel who is immediately impressed by the man’s vast knowledge, and she perceives that he has but limited means. Although Isabel wishes to live by conviction and not by convention, it means almost nothing to her when Osmond tells her that he is all convention. She retains her favourable impression of the man and of his daughter Pansy. Isabel decides that she does not wish to bind herself in a marriage, and she and Madame Merle spend a year touring portions of the world so that she might further broaden her horizons and increase her understanding. After a time, the two women return to Italy, and Isabel marries Osmond in the hope that she can be of help to him and his daughter. If the story were to end here and Isabel’s life thenceforth were to be happy, this would be but a pulp novel of little significance despite its skilful portrayals of various women, just as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin would have been of little significance if it had ended with little Eva’s flight across the ice floes of the Ohio River and her subsequent escape into safety in Canada. James proceeds several years into the future and tells what has happened in the meantime. Isabel has discovered that Osmond lets his life be governed by strange conventions of unknown origin about which he tolerates no questions, while he expects her to acquiesce in his customs with unwavering obedience. In the final pages of the story, Isabel violates her husband’s commands by returning to England to attend Ralph in his final days. She has in the meantime discovered that Pansy is not the daughter of Osmond’s wife, but of his mistress Madame Merle, and that the older woman has manoeuvred her into marrying Osmond so that Pansy might be benefitted. While she is in England, Isabel once again has an opportunity of beginning a life both with Goodwood and Warburton, but she does not enter into either opportunity, thus affirming both of her earlier decisions. Unlike her improbably persistent suitors, Isabel has in the meantime matured, and she has learned to express herself clearly and circumspectly while she does not act impulsively, but judiciously. She has realized that suffering is a consequence of the choices that she has made. Although she hesitates as a result of this insight, she accepts this, and she returns to her husband thus as a lady. James apparently wishes to indicate that under the serenity and composure of a lady suffering and a decision to accept it is to be found. It is likely that there are gentlemen whose history is similar to that of Isabel’s.
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 15:14:51 +0000
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