Henry James's New Woman

This thesis is centered on the American writer Henry James's four female characters in his novels Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady to explore the writer's own concept of New Woman. Through the analysis of their respective characteristics highlighting the New Woman traits, this thesis is aimed to disclose James's attitude towards woman. We can see that James exposes the weak points of New Woman via the characterization of the first three New Woman characters; and meanwhile he incarnates his ideals about woman in Isabel Archer and reconstructs his own New Woman.The thesis is divided into four chapters, preceded by an introductory part and followed by a conclusion part:Introduction: Review of the Former Studies on James's "Female Orientation", as the title shows, is an effort made to have a literary review of some former studies on James's "female orientation" reflected in his novels, and also to show the difference and value of this thesis.Chapter 1 The Emergence of the American New Woman introduces the background knowledge about American "New Woman" including the milieu of New Woman's emergence, reasons for its emergence and the definition of New Woman given by critics and sociologist;Chapter 2 New Women in Henry James's Works deals with the first three female characters in James's novels. Through the analysis of their respective characteristics with New Woman traits highlighted, we can see that by characterization of them, James exposes the weak points of New Woman. Hence they serve as the prelude to Isabel Archer.Chapter 3 Henry James's Ideal American Woman is the most important part of this these. Isabel Archer on one hand has New Woman's desire to maintain her own independence and freedom, and on the other hand has traditional woman's respect for sacred responsibilities ensuing from marriage. Her sense of responsibility to some extent balances her individualism of New Woman thus qualifies her to be an ideal American woman of James. Chapter 4 Henry James's Ambiguity about Woman selects two women in James daily life: her mother and her cousin. Through the analysis of James contradictory attitudes—sympathy and fear—exposed in his letters and notes toward them, we can see James's ambiguity about woman which partially explains why James on one hand wants to emancipates Isabel but one the other hand returns her to her wretched marriage.Finally, the thesis reaches a conclusion that Isabel Archer is a Jamesian New Woman, an ideal woman he created, for on her is embodied the balance between two things: the individual pursuit of individual independence and freedom as well as responsibility for others. By returning Isabel to her marriage, James dilutes blind and extreme maintenance of individualism of New Woman by adding fiber of responsibility and endows her with ideal features.