scholarly journals Depicting the Contrast between America and Europe through Symbolic Characters in The Portrait of a Lady

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Davood Mohammadi Moghadam ◽  
Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
European Society ◽  
Young Lady ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Basic Pattern ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady ◽  
International Novels

Henry James is one of the most prominent American novelists. In spite of a great novelist, he was also one of the important theorists of the novel whose theories were effective in the field of novel. He is mostly famous for his international novels through which he practiced the international theme of ‘America versus Europe’. Through this international theme, James depicts the contrast between America and Europe in his works, while it was defined as the duty of American writers of his days to write about this contrast to show America as separated and distinguished from Europe. The Portrait of a Lady is generally accepted to be James’ masterpiece. In this novel James practices his international them professionally through his common basic pattern of bringing an American young lady into a European society to show the contrast between America and Europe. This American lady in this novel is the heroine, Isabel Archer, who comes to Europe in the search of a better life and a high culture, but finally is deceived by sophisticated Europeans as the result of her innocence. Actually one of the main contrasts shown in this novel is the conflict between American innocence and European sophistication or high culture. This study is going to discuss that one part of this conflict is represented by James through some symbolic characters in this novel. The study is going to focus on Madam Merle and Ralph, and aims to discuss that it is through Isabel’s interaction with these symbolic characters that one part of the contrast between America and Europe is depicted.

CORREGGIO'S SKETCH IN HENRY JAMES' NOVEL «THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY»: FUNCTIONS OF AN INTERMEDIAL REFERENCE

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-21
Author(s):  
NINA BOCHKAREVA ◽  
VALENTINA VISHNEVSKAYA
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
The Novel ◽  
American Writer ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady

The article is devoted to the analysis of an intermediate reference to the sketch of the Italian artist of the XVI century Correggio in the 24th chapter of the novel "Portrait of a Woman" by the American writer Henry James. The influence of an intermediate reference on the disclosure of the image of Gilbert Osmond is investigated, which allows the reader to learn his additional characteristics and form a holistic idea of this character of the novel.

3. The James brand

2021 ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Susan L. Mizruchi
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Henry James ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The Mind ◽  
International Novels

‘The James brand’ examines how, during the period when he was introducing his brand to an Anglo-American public, Henry James honed his signature subject: plotting the fates of Americans abroad. If James was not the inventor of the international novel, he was certainly one of its most important proponents and developers. The first of James’s international novels, The American (1877), focuses on the mind of a woman; Portrait of a Lady (1881) reveals it to be an ideal register for the deep psychological transformations that became his trademark. James also wrote a major essay on literary criticism during this period, “The Art of Fiction” (1884).

scholarly journals The Trauma of Female Gender with Special reference to Henry James Novel “The Portrait of a Lady”

NOTIONS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
Farhana Tabassum
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Henry James ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Male Gender ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Human History ◽  
Social Responsibilities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady

Females have been a silent feature for the majority of human history, their thoughts, and feelings are not considered being of the least importance. Henry James has embellished the social responsibilities of marriage vows very critical for women. James was a critic of middle class conjugal life and magnifies the trauma of middle class women. Philosophically the central theme of the topic explains the word Trauma which literally means the ferociousness of the male gender on the females in the form of suppression . Under the difficult circumstances, women were submissive but through her works, they fought the social forces and attempted to create their own identity. The novel ‘The Portrait of a lady’depicts a tradition from innocence of the Isabel Archer who claimed to be fond of her freedom surrounded with a number of challenging women. The portrait of a lady is not the end of Isabel story but story of women changing place in society because it was even forbidden for the women to break the norms of patriarchal conventions. Henry James choice is based on interest and revolutionary themes regarding women in The Portrait of a Lady which challenges the society and its rules of the Nineteenth century regarding women position, their behavior expectations and their challenges against the traumatic conditions of the society.

Freedom, Self-Obligation, and Selfhood in Henry James

2011 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Fessenbecker
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady ◽  
Important Sense ◽  
History Of ◽  
Wings Of The Dove ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Decision To Stay ◽  
Peculiar Nature

Patrick Fessenbecker, "Freedom, Self-Obligation, and Selfhood in Henry James" (pp. 69–95) In this essay I argue for a new interpretation of Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady (1880–81, revised 1908). After briefly surveying the history of interpretations of the novel, I argue that critics have failed to understand the peculiar nature of Isabel Archer's volitional state, particularly in her decision to stay with her abusive husband at the end of the novel. Isabel, I demonstrate, is constrained in an important and binding way, but the source of the constraint is simply herself, in a philosophically perplexing way. This essay attempts to illuminate these features of the novel by drawing on the philosophical resources in Harry G. Frankfurt's works, particularly his notion of "wantons," or agents who do not care about their wills and thus are in an important sense not persons, as well as his concept of a "volitional necessity," a complex of cares, desires, and beliefs that is so essential to an agent's personhood that actions on behalf of the necessity feel inevitable. Though the agent cannot help but act on the necessity, she nevertheless feels importantly free, because the compulsory force is simply her self. The essay then concludes by briefly suggesting how these Frankfurtian ideas might suggest new interpretations of other James novels, which I introduce through short discussions of The Wings of the Dove (1902) and The Ambassadors (1903).

scholarly journals Mutual Misunderstanding: Intercultural Competence and the Unconscious/Conscious Dialectic in Henry James’ 'The Portrait of A Lady'

Linguaculture ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Monica Cure
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Henry James ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady

Henry James, in his novel The Portrait of a Lady, builds a world around a main character who temperamentally and then circumstantially appears to every chance for happiness, especially when compared with others. As many critics have noted, Isabel Archer experiences tragedy because of this great potential for fulfillment rather than in spite of it. However, what critics have tended to overlook is the other parallel, though “minor,” irony of the novel: her friend Henrietta Stackpole’s fulfillment and move to England. The infamous ending of Isabel can be better understood by looking at it through the lens of intercultural competence and by comparing it with that of Henrietta. Building off the theory of unconscious versus conscious cultural identity that James sketches in his essay 1878 “Americans Abroad,” this article analyzes the role self-consciousness and awareness of cultural differences in the development of the novel’s characters.

scholarly journals Practicing the International Theme of America versus Europe through Depicting their Cultures, Characters and Settings, in The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

2014 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 8-14
Author(s):  
Davood Mohammadi Moghadam ◽  
Wan Roselezam Wan Yahya
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
The Third ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady ◽  
A Chain ◽  
Recurrent Theme ◽  
International Novels

Henry James is the most prominent American novelist who practices the international novels which deals with America and Europe. Among the subjects and the themes which James wrote about, his international theme is the most recurrent theme in his work, in other words we can say that James‟s international theme is the main an the most important subjects of his literary career. James‟s literary career is divided into three periods and the international theme is the main subject of the first and the third period, so its importance is obvious. This international theme is called in other words the issue of „America versus Europe‟ through which James tried to show the contrasts which he believed to exist between America and Europe. In the days of Henry James it was as a defined duty for American writers to represent the contrast of America and Europe, because they were exhausted to be looked as a second-hand European. While in those days Americans looked themselves as inferior to European, so American writers defined to write about their contrast with Europe to be separated from Europe and that illusion. The Portrait of a Lady is James‟ most well-known masterpiece; this novel is again an international novel in which James practiced the international theme with a high proficiency because all parts of this novel, including its characters, settings and events are used skillfully like a chain to show the contrast between America and Europe.

TYPES OF HEDONISM ON THE MAIN CHARACTER SIR WALTER ELLIOT IN THE NOVEL PERSUASION BY JANE AUSTEN

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Enggin Valufi ◽  
Retno Budi Astuti
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Jane Austen ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
High Culture ◽  
Descriptive Qualitative

Hedonism is a view of life in philosophy that seeks to avoid pain and make pleasure as the main goal in life. People who embrace hedonism tend to over-pursue pleasure. The hedonism lifestyle is mostly carried out by 18th century people especially the nobles who live in high culture. They are as close to hedonism as they are in the Persuasion novel by Jane Austen. Sir Walter Elliot the main character is a nobleman who did a lot of hedonism. Hedonism which is seen as too glorifying personal pleasure to ignore others. The purpose of this study was to find out the types of hedonism done by Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion. This research uses descriptive qualitative method because all data are in the form of sentences. The researcher uses a philosophical approach and analyzes data using Weijers' theory as the main theory. The results of this study found that Sir Walter Elliot performed two types of hedonism, namely aesthetic hedonism and selfish hedonism.

Browning's The Ring and the Book: “A Novel Country”

1983 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Susan Blalock
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Love Story

Henry James declared in “The Novel in The Ring and the Book” that he had long thought of the twelve-book poem as an unsuccessful novel of the “so-called historical sort.” He thought that the manner of its production “tragically spoiled” and “smothered” Browning's intention in writing his novel-in-verse. James identifies that intention as the desire to present a “study of the manners and conditions from which our own have … issued.” James's desire for the structure to build a coherent love story around Pompilia and Caponsacchi blinded him to the processive nature of Browning's study of how art represents the manners and conditions from which our own have issued. What James laments as “the great loose and uncontrolled composition” and the “great heavy-hanging cluster of related but unresolved parts” actually constitutes rather than spoils the novelistic force of The Ring and the Book if we define the novel in Mikhail Bakhtin's manner as a revolutionary process rather than as a fixed generic form.

scholarly journals A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF GENDER SUBJECTIVITY IN HENRY JAMES’ THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shah Mir ◽  
Saima Jahangir
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Henry James ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Portrait Of A Lady ◽  
Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Patriarchal Power ◽  
Gender Subjectivity

Reassessment and interpretation of gender dynamics in the current social order has been prevalent theme within gender discourses. The yoke of subordination borne by women as readers, writers or fictional characters in the patriarchal pyramid occupies a central space across the whole spectrum of debates. This study utilizes a qualitative mode of inquiry which is centered on textual analysis. The present study evaluates the instances of gender subjectivity and patterns of subjugation within the textual arena invested with hegemonic ideologies as depicted in the novel The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. The paper employs feminist critical discourse analysis as a tool to analyze The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James in order to dissect the underlying ideologies present in the Victorian time period and investigates discourses of subjectivity. The findings of the study demonstrate that notwithstanding temporal advancements, gender power structures remain intact, and women continue to suffer under patriarchal power structures. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0874/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

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