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59Д.Р. Киреева
HENRY JAMES' «INTERNATIONAL THEME»IN THE NOVEL «THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY»: FROM AMERICAN INNOCENCE TO EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE
Keywords: Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Archer, inner world, interior, psychologism.
Abstract: The paper deals with one of the most perfect and mature James' novels "The Portrait of a Lady". James shows a universal "portrait" of a girl's transformation into a woman, the process of losing sweet illusions and understanding the true bitterness of life. The book reveals a very dramatic conflict of the time - meeting of pure American innocence feelings with European norms and rules of the society. Here, naturally, James introduces the theme of money and their effect. His protagonist, Isabel Archer, does not care about material values, the only thing she really keen on is her feelings. The inner, spiritual values, not the exterior and material ones were of vital importance for Isabel. Feelings rule in her behavior. It is a story of an American girl's spiritual "education" that tastes real life in Europe and loses hopes. The chosen text presents a great interest for forms of psychologism. "The Portrait of a Lady" has been a recognized masterpiece of a psychological novel for more than one hundred years. The text has a multilevel structure, thus can be observed and analyzed from different points of view.
Ключевые слова: Генри Джеймс, Женский портрет, Изабелла Арчер, внутренний мир, психологизм.
Аннотация: В статье рассматривается один из наиболее совершенных и зрелых романов Генри Джеймса "Женский портрет". Джеймс стремился отразить процесс трансформации внутреннего мира молодой американки, которая в процессе познания жизни утрачивает иллюзии и познает истинную горечь жизни. Книга раскрывает весь драматизм «встречи» американской наивности и невинности с интригами европейского общества. Героиня романа, Изабелла Арчер, далека от мыслей о материальном, она живет миром своих чувств. Духовный мир, мир переживаний и эмоций, желание ощутить вкус жизни и следовать голосу сердца - это то, ради чего живет Изабелла. Делая выбор, героиня руководствуется лишь эмоциями. Джеймс рассказывает историю духовного "образования" чистой и искренней американской девушки, которая познает вкус правды жизни в Европе. Уже более ста лет "Женский портрет" является признанным шедевром психологического романа. Целью данной статьи является проследить за трансформацией внутреннего мира героини сквозь призму столкновения двух миров, двух культур: американской и европейской.
Henry James is a figure of outstanding importance in the world of literature in respect to his great contribution into the development of psychological prose. Being an American by birth, but a European at heart, James introduced the theme of a clash between the two worlds, two civilizations and two completely different mentalities into his creative art. Thus, one of the central ideas in Henry James' prose was the collision of two cultures - the European and the American ones, and, in connection to this, he studied the relationship between a man and society - the protest against platitude, spiritual impoverishment of a personality in the bourgeois world. James was interested in analyzing and monitoring the behavior and, consequently, the fate of an American in Europe. This topic is reflected in the narration fabric of "The Portrait of a Lady', one of the most famous James' novels. This article aims at literary studying of the encounter of American innocence and European experience through the changes in the inner world of the book's main character, Isabel Archer, and her spiritual transformation reflected in the psychologism of "The Portrait of a Lady".
All James' creative work was devoted to the study and reflection of the interior, spiritual world of a man. He aimed at showing the peculiarities of human psychology through detailed and thorough descriptions of the finest nuances of emotions, feelings and impressions. James tended to show the secret mechanisms of a human soul. He claimed that an Artist should be a secret psychologist. Professor T.L. Selitrina in her article "Henry James in Russia" says: "His intense intellectualism, his philosophical approach to reality, his interest to psychological conflicts and his locality to the genre of the novel remained topical in the 20th century" [1:187].
The paper deals with one of the most perfect and mature James' novels "The Portrait of a Lady". James' idea was to "draw" a universal "portrait" of a girl's transformation into a woman, the process of losing sweet illusions and understanding the true bitterness of life. The novel unfolds a very dramatic conflict of the time - meeting of pure innocent soul with hypocritical norms and rules of the society. Definitely the main character, Isabel Archer is endowed with features of national American mentality and its outlook is clearly seen in threads of Emerson's "self-confidence" doctrine interwoven into the narrative fabric. Naturally, James introduces the theme of money and the intrigues it can create. James' Isabel is an American girl who is not into material values, the only thing she is really keen on is her feelings. In the dialogue between Isabel and her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, she confesses "I don't know anything about the money"
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[2:36]. "Her money had been a burden" [2:365] concludes James in the end. The inner, spiritual values, but not the exterior and material ones were of vital importance for his protagonist. Typically for James's American heroines and heroes, feelings rule in Isabel's behavior. The novel reveals a type of a spiritual "education" for a naive American lady by means of cruel European intrigues that lead to the real life taste and loss of hopes. The narrative presents a great interest for analyzing the forms of psycholo-gism. "The Portrait of a Lady" has been a recognized masterpiece of a psychological novel for more than one hundred years. The text, having a multilevel structure, can be observed and analyzed from different points of view.
It is undoubtedly a matter of interest to trace how the changes in the protagonist's interior private life are reflected in the narrative fabric; what forms and means are used to show the transfer from innocence to experience. The choice of theme is explained by growing interest to the sphere of emotional field and processes happening in a person's mind as well as to the ways of conveying the interior message through the prism of narration. James is interested in the initial and final moments of the heroine's story, the process of character development within social and psychological conditions. The circumstances are found with perfect preciseness. They are included into the narrative composition in order to show all phases of character forming and all the forces taking their part in the process. This article has its goal to trace changes from initial to final points of the heroine's transformation.
The present paper will use the term "psychologism", a term that is widely used by Russian literary critics. In this article the following definition will be used: it is the style unity, the system of means aimed at full and detailed revelation of the inner world of a hero. The general features of psychologism in literature are: special reflection of the inner world of a person by artistic means, the depth and sharpness of the writers' penetration into the spiritual world of a hero, the ability to describe thoroughly different psychological conditions and processes (feelings, thoughts, desires) and to trace nuances of the emotions. In this sense, it is found that it is possible to speak of a writer-psychologist and psychological novel, drama, etc.
It is common that exterior, material things have the reflection of their owner. James does reflect the exterior world, the things and places surrounding his heroine, but in his narration it plays the background role. The front role is performed by the interior life and its complicated psychological processes. Dozens of pages in the beginning of the novel are devoted to Isabel's character, view points, expectations and background. Nevertheless, very little information is given upon the lady's appearance. We find that she was tall, "willowy", had grey eyes and dark hair.
In the beginning, James does not give the traditional, for realistic prose, total and thorough description of his young American heroine and her past at once. He divides the information into pieces of different size and hides them within the text fabric. Isabel's emotional condition is often hidden in the subtext. The first seven chapters present a puzzle of Isabel's personality and the reader is to collect and decipher all the finest hints and to create a picture of the lady's inner world.
In the beginning of the novel, Isabel's interiority is presented both directly and indirectly. Indirect or outside portraying of the character is executed with the help of other heroes' remarks, thoughts and impressions about Isabel, her mimics, gestures, movements and even through the dogs' behaviors. First impressions of the heroines' interior are hinted at in the enigmatic telegram by words "very independent" and then via dogs' reactions: Ralph's dog was very pleased to see the girl and "suddenly darted forward with a little volley of shrill barks, in which the note of welcome, however, was more sensible than that of defiance" [2:25], a moment later the other dog, a collie "trotted toward the young lady in the doorway, slowly setting his tail in motion as he went" [2:26]. These first small details can bring the reader to a conclusion that Isabel has some sort of cordiality that makes animals like her. The final accord is played in Lord Warburton's remark summarizing and enchanting at the same time:"You wished a while ago to see my idea of an interesting woman. There it is!"[2:30]
The reader is also given some portrait details but they are very few in order to make the interiors more vivid and prevailing, so her appearance is described by the following epithets: "tall girl in a black dress, who at first sight looked pretty" [2:26], "unexpectedly pretty" [2:26]. But surely, the reader gets to
know about her national identity, as if it was a part of Isabel's description, adding features of an American lady, though individual for every reader. Thus, every single reader has his or her own portrait of Isabel Archer. A couple of chapters later the author adds some more information: "willowy", having dark hair and grey eyes. At the same time James gives a little bit more details to the portrait reflecting the inner character: "her head was erect, her eye lighted, her flexible figure turned itself this way and that< . .> her impressions were numerous and they were all reflected in a clear still smile" [2:28]
In a dialogue between Mr. and Mrs. Ludlov we see that "Isabel is written in a foreign tongue" [2:38] for other people and "she's so original (even for an American)" [2:38]. In Mrs. Touchett and Ralf s conversation we come across the following specific characteristics: "She is as good as summer rain..."," she's a clever girl--with a strong will and a high temper. She has no idea of being bored.", "She is very frank", "very pretty", "rare creature" [2:48], " very natural" [2:49], and also one national feature is given "She thinks she knows a great deal of it--like most American girls; but like most American girls she's ridiculously mistaken." [2:48]. These words are very important, as they start the juxtaposition of American and Europe.
Isabel is also presented from Ralph's point of view who finds her having "a natural taste" [2:51] and "undeniably spare, and ponderably light" [2:51]. ""A character like that <...> real little passionate force to see at play is the finest thing in nature. It's finer than the finest work of art-than a Greek bas-relief, than a great Titian, than a Gothic cathedral" [2:65].
The first chapters are spiced with several flashbacks to Isabel's past, including her childhood reminiscences, teenage impressions. Important for the "inner portrait" is the information about the family and especially the way she was brought up: "the discipline of the nursery was delightfully vague and the opportunity of listening to the conversation of one's elders (which with Isabel was a highly-valued pleasure) almost unbounded". She was allowed not to attend school and "like the mass of American girls Isabel had been encouraged to express herself [2:58]. Her father was deep in debt and in gambling, the fact that can bring the reader to a conclusion that Isabel hardly ever had serious education. On the other hand, she was loved and happy, the reminiscences of her childhood had the "flavor of peaches". One more important step leading into Miss Archer's inner world is the fact that "she had uncontrolled use of a library full of books" [2:33].
The beginning of the novel contains self-expression showing the controversial young nature, like "I'm afraid of suffering" confesses she to Ralph, and at the same time "I'm very fond of my liberty" [2:53] claims she.
Together with indirect presentation of Isabel's character, there is also a direct one. Direct presentation is represented in her thoughts, conversations and impressions. But there are no direct descriptions of the feelings, only streams of hints, thoughts, expectations and impressions that somehow affect the human soul. James does not give exact names to emotions, he shows them giving only vague description: "Isabel felt some emotion <...> the emotion was of a kind which led her to say: "I should like very much to go to Florence."" [2:36] "Our young woman's emotion deepened; she flushed a little and smiled at her aunt in silence." [2:36]. In both cases we have exterior display of emotions: they are reflected in speech in the first case and in flush and smile in the second.
Chapter 4 is devoted to Isabel's condition after she knows her life is about to change. It recreates the psychological processes through some physical conditions:"she was restless and even agitated; at moments she trembled a little" [2:40], James gives the features of excitement, anxiety, etc., but the reader is to guess. No direct explanation is offered by the author. After physical features, James sinks the reader into Isabel's character: "She had an immense curiosity about life and was constantly staring and wondering. She carried within herself a great fund of life, and her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and agitations of the world." [2:42]. Then the reader is sank (with some explanations) into fluctuating processes happening in her mind: "These things now, as memory played over them, resolved themselves into a multitude of scenes and figures. Forgotten things came back to her; many others, which she had lately thought of great moment, dropped out of sight. The result was kaleidoscopic." [2:42]
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Step by step the reader penetrates deeper and deeper into Isabel's interiority. The psycholo-gism of the first chapters gives an impression of a young heart, naive, inexperienced. She was eager to live and like many girls of her age (she was 23) she believed she was meant for something special. Chapter 6 is almost totally devoted to rendering Isabel's interiors; James uses a flashback to show what her life ideals were. They are, as pointed out by many critics, somehow connected with Emerson's self-reliance doctrine. According to Emerson there is no other way leading to happiness than following your own heart. To have an independent spirit and pay no attention to what other people say. Real life consists of self-trust, freedom of thought and feeling, and tendency to the realization of a person's inner potential. Isabel Archer "was too young, too impatient to live, too unacquainted with pain." [2:58] The heroine exudes the spirit of the "American dream".
After Isabel got the inheritance from her passed away uncle, she makes up her mind to go to Europe. Europe is supposed to be the ground where all the dreams come true. Isabel meets Osmond, a widower with a teen-aged daughter and sophisticated mind. Emotionally colored is the description of Isabel's being in love with Osmond. Interestingly, in many cases, the exteriority reflects the interiority. James brilliantly reconstructs the feeling of love. Everything becomes so magical. A person in love seems to worship everything connected with the object of passion. Isabel separated Osmond from the rest of the world as someone special. She tended to know everything about him. She dearly loved his child and felt strong impulses to talk with Pansy about her father. In the "world of things", the atmosphere surrounding Isabel consists of light shades and sweet nuances. "Nothing could have been more charming than this occasion--a soft afternoon in the full maturity of the Tuscan spring."[2:222] or "The scene had an extraordinary charm. The air was almost solemnly still, and the large expanse of the landscape, with its gardenlike culture and nobleness of outline, its teeming valley and delicately-fretted hills, its peculiarly human-looking touches of habitation, lay there in splendid harmony and classic grace" or "The hour that Isabel spent in Mr. Osmond's beautiful empty, dusky rooms--the windows had been half-darkened, to keep out the heat, and here and there, through an easy crevice, the splendid summer day peeped in, lighting a gleam of faded color or tarnished gilt in the rich gloom". [2:273] Even the choice of season demonstrates love. "There was something in the air, in her general impression of things--she could hardly have said what it was--that deprived her of all disposition to put herself forward." [2:224] At first, Europe seems to a fairy tale and Isabel adores everything connected with Os-mond:"his pictures and cabinets all looked like treasures" [2:227], "his pictures, his medallions and tapestries were interesting", "Her mind contained no class offering a natural place to Mr. Osmond - he was a specimen apart."[2:228] The heroine sees no drawbacks in Osmond. She thinks "he knows everything, he understands everything, he has the kindest, gentlest, highest spirit." [2:299]
Chapter 24 gives a fascinating example of not-owners-direct speech. At first, the narration is given in typical psychological narration from the third person, and then it, little by little, inconspicuously it turns from this form of narration into the inner monologue, though it is not marked with quotation marks, but given in the form of not-owners-direct speech. At first appear phrases and sentences typical for Isabel, not for the author, and then James imitates the peculiarities of the inner speech: rhetorical questions, fluidity, multitude of thought movements. After all, the author gives one more hint about his hero-ine:"The working of this young lady's spirit was strange, and I can only give it to you as I see it, not hoping to make it seem altogether natural." [2:296]
The feeling of love shifts Isabel's world vision. In the beginning she wanted to travel a lot, to see the world, to meet people, to feel the taste of life. After meeting Osmond she says things like: "One must choose a corner and cultivate that" or "...I like my cage"[2:294] confesses Isabel to Ralph in their dialogue before her marriage. This dialogue is full of physical description and portrait details to reflect the speakers' inner world. Ralph tried to persuade Isabel not to marry Osmond. Isabel, as is natural for a person in love, tries to justify her decision. "Cold her tone had been <...>, a color like a flame leaped into her face", "she went on with majesty", "Isabel turned pale" [2:296]. Ralph "blushed as well", "fixed his eyes on the ground" [2:296]. James makes the reader analyze what happened in heroes souls during the conversation. "The look of pain and bewilderment deepened in his companion's face." [2:296]
The final stage of showing how much Isabel was in love is the fact that everybody tried to talk her out of the marriage idea. People disliked him but "This dislike was not alarming to Isabel".[2:300] As we can see, love made the first change in Isabel's transition from innocence to experience. Her heart was not pure anymore, it was filled with love. For Isabel, love presents to be the only sense of living, the only possible treasure. Europe warmly welcomed her.
A few chapters later we meet Isabel after almost three years of marriage, after three years of living in Europe: "she was dressed in black velvet". [2:315] The choice of colors and the dress material reflects the heroine's mood. James says: "The flower of her youth had not faded, it only hung more quietly on its stem"[2:315]. The reader can observe can observe that there were almost no exterior changes, but at the same time "She had lost something of that quick eagerness<...> " she had more the air of being able to wait" [2:316]. The author uses two antonymic lines of description "she was too impatient" in the beginning and she is "able to wait" in the end. Mr. Rosier instantly remembered that he had known her as a child, and James makes the reader sense that Isabel had lost something.
Strong is the vision of "experienced" Isabel through the prism of Ralph's consciousness. The author draws a vivid contrast between past and present Isabel Archer. "She wore a mask it completely covered her face. There was something fixed and mechanical in the serenity painted on it; this was not an expression, Ralph said--it was a representation, it was even an advertisement." [2:336] The phrase "she has lost her child" [2:336] can be read in two ways: the first one, that her child had died (it was a fact), but at the same time there is some second, a sub-context, that may be read as "Isabel lost her childishness". "She produced the impression of being peculiarly enviable". And author puts the description of what Isabel used to be "whereas of old she had a great delight in good-humored argument, in intellectual play (she never looked so charming as when in the genial heat of discussion she received a crushing blow full in the face and brushed it away as a feather), she appeared now to think there was nothing worth people's either differing about or agreeing upon. Of old she had been curious, and now she was indifferent, and yet in spite of her indifference her activity was greater than ever." "The free, keen girl had become quite another person; what he saw was the fine lady who was supposed to represent something". [2:337]
The famous chapter 42 is one of the strongest in its psychological heat. The atmosphere becomes gloomy and the surrounding "world" is deemed and darkened underlining the heroine's mood. It is not an afternoon anymore, it is "far into the night" [2:361]. "It was her deep distrust of her husband -this was what darkened the world" [2:363]. The relationships between Isabel and her husband are also shown through the darkened colors: "the dusk at first was vague and thin<...>. But it steadily deep-ened".[2:363] This eye-opener-chapter presents the final stage of innocence-to-experience transformation. Once again, the third person narration transfers into not-owners-direct speech, words that are typical for Isabel, not for the author, appear. James imitates structural peculiarities of the inner speech: double thinking, fragmentariness, pauses, rhetorical questions. There is also a direct address of Isabel to herself, the interior order. The image of the narrator got totally melted with Isabel's and the inner speech of the heroine takes its place in the text. All the gamut of Isabel's interior condition is rendered so clearly and perceptibly but not directly. They are given through the address to the reader's sympathy for loss of her illusions. Her thoughts are written but her emotional condition is hidden in the subtext. The realization of this subtext in the reader's mind becomes possible due to not-owners-direct speech. The author's commentaries are clearly divided from the interior monologue. The thoughts and emotions of the author, Isabel and the reader are joined together, thus the heroine's inner world becomes close and understandable.
James shifts the reader's interest from the action to life of the soul and consciousness. He transfers the attention from the exterior intrigue to the construction of a character. The given analysis showed how interesting and touching it can be for a reader, even though the plot development is not dynamic.
Chapter 42 is an outstanding example for literary and psychological analysis. The psychological elements were sorted out into the compounding elements and become clear both to the reader and to
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the heroine. The analysis of the components of Isabel's spiritual life makes them quite clear for the reader. "She saw the whole moon now -she saw the whole man" [2:364].
The reader witnesses the crash of the "American Dream". Sophisticated Europe taught another lesson. The reader sees Isabel realizing the bitter truth of real life: "instead of leading to the high places of happiness<..>led rather downward and earthward, into realms of restriction and depression" [2:363]. Now "suffering, with Isabel, was an active condition". [2:363] Symbolic is the role of light in the end of the chapter -"the lamp had<..> gone out and the candles burned down to their sockets". [2:372] Just like Isabel, her naivety had gone out, her innocence got burned down. She is strong enough to accept it and to go on living - in this is her maturity starts to be revealed: "But she was, after all, herself" [2:363].
It should also be noted that James's vision of "The Portrait" had changed throughout the years. For the first time, the novel was released in 1880-1881 and then it was reprinted almost a quarter century later, in 1908, for James's Collected Works. According to the pleiades of American and European critics, they are two very different books. Changes in the two texts are hardly noticeable at first glance. But preparing the novel for the reprint, James made more than five thousand different changes, ranging from individual words to entire pages. However, there is a multitude, invisible to the naked eye, of touches, billions of new colors that you can see and feel how much change has occurred in the text.
James's idea was to enhance and sharpen the reader's impression of how incurably romantic Isabel's attitude was to life, to underline how truly American she was. This has primary importance for the writer, especially for deep understanding of the conclusion's effect.
It is claimed by many foreign academics, that Isabel in the first version of "The Portrait" and Isabel in the revised book were two different people; as well as the quality of her "destiny" is not the same in both works. In each case, Isabel goes the same way and meets the same people. However, this road has different landscapes in the second version and people she meets on the way are felt by the reader more clearly. They are more sharply delineated, more clearly expressed, and more vividly drawn than they were before. The fate of the heroine is felt more acutely by means of deeper narrative pictures. The later Isabel has a higher level of consciousness and the stronger the degree of freedom. James had made her even more American and deepened the American-European drama.
In the revised "Portrait of a Lady" James had also amplified the European "component". The writer decorated the novel's dialogues with French words and expressions. He uses them in order to reveal and add more nuances to the book's characters. He also used French language to create a certain atmosphere. In terms of intercultural communication, French represents the "third party", "exotic" for the original culture and it is the so-called "cultural implant".
Thus, James tended to make the reader feel the depth of the American-European spiritual "conflict" and showed it through the tragic story of Isabel Archer. He led the reader through a part of the protagonist's life, through her inner world metamorphosis, the inner world caught in the cage of the society's frames.
1. James Henry. The Portrait of a Lady. Wordsworth classics. 1999. 528 pages
2. Selitrina, T.L. Henry James in Russia.//The reception of Henry James in Europe, edited by Annick Duperray. London. 2006. p.182-189
