International Situation in The Portrait of a Lady

Structure of The Portrait of a Lady

Symbolism and Imagery

Character Sketch of Isabel Archer

 

Q: Discuss The Portrait of a Lady as a novel of ‘International scene’.

                                                Or

Discuss that the novel is a contrastive study of American and European cultures.

 

The international situation predominates in The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. Dealing with this theme James was able to show cultural differences between individuals and also nations. He is basically concerned with the notion that each cultural complex creates its own personality and character, and inculcates its own values in the mind of its people. Naturally when two cultures draw closer, a clash of individuals become unavoidable and this clash inevitably leads to the clash of values.

James has obviously emphasized certain basic American qualities in the novel and juxtaposed them with certain European qualities. For example: self-reliance (seen in Isabel, Henrietta and Caspar Goodwood),  high moral sense, deep sincerity of work, egalitarianism, brashness and presumptuousness, lack of sense of privacy and naivety are all American qualities emphasized in the novel. On the other hand, facility of expression and behaviour (found in Lord Warburton, Ralph, Madam Merle, Osmond and Mrs. Touchett), highly developed interest in arts and literature, certain tacit values and norms and a refined sense of other people’s ‘territory’ (privacy and individuality) are characteristically European qualities focused in the novel.

However, it is to be found that the naïve Americans, the product of a young, democratic and fundamentally unsophisticated culture are set against the refined and reserved Europeans. In the present novel, characters like Ned Rosier, Osmond and Madam Merle illustrate what can happen to an American who loses his own sense of national identity; they are all rootless having lost their American values without getting their foothold in Europe. But, James has not exaggerated this picture. It is noteworthy that Mr. Touchett, an American expatriate, has beautifully combined in himself the best of both cultures in his life in England. Even Ralph do not show any sign of rootlessness. One of the most interesting encounters between American and European occurs with Lord Warburton’s proposal of marriage to Isabel. Warburton is a marvellous specimen of English nobility.

In The Portrait of a Lady, the tragedy is not simply that of an idealized American girl deceived by a European; it is rather much more universal. Isabel exists not only as the American girl but as an individual who suffers because of wrong choice. In fact, her tragedy is the tragedy of an intelligent girl who suffers because of her mistaken preconceived notions about life.

 Ezra Pound rightly observes,

James novels show race against race, immutable; the essential Americanness or Englishness or Frenchness…; not flag-waving and treaties, not the machinery of government, but ‘why’ there is always misunderstanding, why men of different races are not the same. James’s art is not a levelling; it is not an elimination of differences. It is recognition of differences, of the right of differences to exist, of interest in finding things different.

No doubt, James valued the differences of cultures and races at all levels, although he adopted a ‘comic mode’ to express them in the present novel. By highlighting the cultural differences, he has created the comedy of ‘international situation’. Henrietta is the aggressive representative of the ‘modern’ and egalitarian culture of America. She has sailed from America to England in order to watch the inner-life of the English upper class (as though they were museum pieces) and has a contempt for the sophistications for Ralph and Osmond, whose ‘ideals’ she can’t understand or appreciate. For example: she can’t believe that a young man can sit idle. Her idea of a perfect man is Goodwood, who never sits idle, and this is the reason she recommends him for Isabel. She considers nothing as sacred or private. Henrietta unreservedly comments on the English weather, the dullness of London and the cleverness of the European.

The comedy is heightened when Ralph teases Henrietta by pretending that he is ignorant about the virtues of America, or when Lord Warburton who has been to America provokes Isabel by saying that all Americans are ‘red-skins’. To this Isabel retorts- whether she should bring out her bows and arrows to complete the picture. Also, when Mrs Touchett, tells Henrietta that the American hotels are sub-standard, and that, the American women are the natural companions of the servant-class. Caspar Goodwood is further, critical of the slow-moving European trains. Even Isabel appears as a typical American in her critical remarks about the American triflers in Paris.

Therefore, Henry James in The Portrait of a Lady beautifully presents a contrastive study of the ‘international situation’.