The International Theme And The Image Patterns In Henry James' Novel "the Portrait Of A Lady"

This thesis is mainly about Henry James' famous "international theme" and how he uses image patterns in the novel The Portrait of a Lady to reflect this theme. First, the thesis gives a brief introduction of the author Henry James. The introduction is written from three aspects: his life experiences, his works and his writing techniques. From the first chapter, we know that Henry James (1843-1916) is an American novelist and critic, a master of the psychological novel too. James was an innovator in technique and one of the most distinctive prose stylists in English. James refined the technique of narrating a novel from the point of view of a character, thereby laying the foundations of modern stream of consciousness fiction. Through stream-of-consciousness (an innovative writing technique at that time), his psychological realism was best displayed. The series of critical prefaces he wrote for the reissue of his novels (beginning in 1907) won him a reputation as a superb techmcian. Critics of James claim that his study of fictional technique is embedded in a larger aesthetic theory that values aesthetic form to the exclusion of other sorts of meanings; especially in the Prefaces, James1 detailed analysis of novelistic form implies that form is the highest "value" any art work can have—and he even suggests that what he calls 'life" has, by comparison, no value at all until it becomes "formed" through art. James is also a stylist. At first, his prose is fresh and clear. Later itbecomes magnificently weighted and complex in its all allusiveness and imagery, accordingly, in its evocative power. "The Portrait of a Lady" has the feature of a turning point-from clarity to complexity.In Chapter Two, the writer of the thesis puts forward the term "international theme", meanwhile, offers its definition, its function and gives some typical examples to show how it is reflected in Henry James' novel. James is famous for his "international theme" (or American innocence in the face of European sophistication). "The Portrait of a Lady" is one of the finest examples of the "international theme". The heroine of The Portrait of a Lady will prove tragically naive in her faith that "nothing that belongs to me is any measure of me; everything's on the contrary a limit, a barrier, and perfectly arbitrary one"; but the Emersonian romanticism of Isabel Archer, her dream of a transcendent self, is finally more attractive than is the insistent worldliness of her opponent, Europeanized American Madam Merle, who cynically proclaims her own "great respect for things!"In Chapter Three, The novel The Portrait of a Lady is introduced to the readers. We have a general idea of its major characters, its plot and its theme, which paves the way for the further explanation of the "international theme" and the image patterns in the novel. Isabel comes to Europe as the ward of a rich aunt, Mrs. Touchett. Being young and desirable, like most of James's heroines she gets much of her education from being loved-by the too aggressive Bostonian Caspar Goodwood, by the healthy, manly Lord Warburton, by her cousin Ralph Touchett, and by the dilettante Gilbert Osmond. She marries Osmond only to find out finally that she had been coldly tricked 'into the marriage by Madame Merle, whom Isabel has thought her best friend when the woman is in reality Osmond's mistress anxious to get money for their illegitimate child, Pansy. In the end She goes back to her husband for the sake of her stepdaughter, thinking, it seems, that she thereby encounters her destiny more nobly than in any previous chapter of it.Chapter Four is the essence of the thesis. The writer lists three image patterns appearing frequently in the novel: (1) house and garden; (2) doors, arch and ruins; (3) eyes. Among these, house and garden is the core of image patterns. Therefore, it is more emphasized. As has often been noticed the main image patterns in James' novel-although the variety is rich-have to do with the house and the garden. In a novel which describes a fall from innocen...