| A Portrait of a Lady, one of the most typical Jamesian novels, has aroused heaps of research and disputes ever since its publication. What occupies the pivotal point of these discussions, as a rule, is the issue of choice in marriage. Henry James never makes any attempt to preset a due course for Isabel Archer. Instead, he places "the center of the subject in the young woman’s own consciousness", and "you get as interesting and as beautiful a difficulty as you could wish". What he as a writer does, is evenly balance the scales before he weighs two things of heavier and lighter weight and then sits back and see what result. Therefore, his novels are at once fascinating and irritating for they demand interpretation and imagination of our own. As readers, we cannot read into Henry James’s novels without interactive thinking. Thus confronted with the open ending, we have to reason out the whys and hows as well as, the prequels and sequels of the story.Granted, traditional researches have yielded great results. Be that as it may, the significance of Henry James’s works can never be exhausted and the reason why, lies in the open ending Henry James deliberately leaves. In the novel The Portrait of A Lady, Isabel, a girl full of fancy, was first blinded and disillusioned by the rosy surface of life. After finding out the brutal truth of her marriage, she now recognizes what life is. Finally, she decides to return to her husband Gilbert Osmond and her stepdaughter in favor of accepting other suitors, Casper Goodwood for instance. Striking as it may seem, this ending gives critics ample room for interpretation. Jay Parini observes that the open ending of the novel suggests that James wishes to grant her possibilities of escaping from those aestheticizing constructions, even if it means returning to her oppressive marriage, albeit as an advocate for her stepdaughter Pansy. (Jay Parini,2006:296)This paper, on the strength of Aristotle, Kierkegaard and Kant’s thoughts, maintains that Isabel’s final decision is neither a simple moral obligation for Pansy, nor owing to a fear of pressing love from Casper Goodwood, as is suggested by some critics, but a fundamentally ethical action. This paper, therefore, with the theoretical perspectives of ethics, is intended to give an in-depth interpretation of the novel. The argument will proceed in three chapters. It first discusses Isabel’s choices in marriage. Among the four suitors, namely, Lord Warburton, Ralph Touchett, Casper Goodwood, Gilbert Osmond, Isabel must choose Gilbert Osmond; it is her "fortunate fall" and only through this ordeal, she can truly grow up to be a "lady". The second chapter goes on to analyze the ethical reason why Isabel chooses to get married with Gilbert Osmond, the dilettante. Aristotle maintains that the pursuit of happiness constitutes the universal and final necessity. And chance is unavoidable in the course of life. Only the characteristics of virtue and intellect guarantees happiness. In the final analysis, the paper elucidates Isabel’s construction of ethical world. In the theory of Ethics, freedom, dignity and self-fulfillment are the major factors that account for one’s happiness. Isabel, after the ordeal of miserable marriage, sets the arduous task of constructing her own ethical world. What Isabel is seeking, is indeed her sense of being a complete, independent human who has whole control of her life. |
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