The Road To Maturity

Like all writers, James is concerned with the human situation, interpreting characters and life, in the actual situation of Americans confronted by the European scene he finds material that is in its very nature admirably suited to express his ideas about life and the general human condition as he understands it. James contrasts the two societies very carefully and presents their conflicting values: American culture is provincial, but it can produce people with moral and natural spontaneity; European culture is dense and rich, representing an accumulation of history and custom and a complexity of manners and types, but it is decaying and corrupt. Thus under the surface contrast of national cultures and societies lies a metaphoric theme how one can reach his perfect maturity, both moral and cultural.James belongs in the liberal Protestant tradition, shared by such writers as John Milton and William Blake, Emerson and Hawthorne. He cherishes the value of individual human integrity and considers the development of each individual抯 potential as the greatest good. Consequently, whatever contributes to that development he considers good, and whatever impedes it evil. In James抯 view, those impediments to human development are the various laws of man抯 creation that dictate systems of behavior: the traditions of social history, the conventions of civilized society, the rituals of institutionalized religion and the regulations of ethical codes. At the same time, James knows well that traditions,2conventions and manners are necessary for the smooth functioning of civilized society that one is obliged to do things in certain acceptable ways in order that civilized human intercourse is possible. So compromise is necessary. On the one hand, James is opposed to completely giving one抯 personality up to conventions; on the other hand, he is against refusing the necessary compromise. The ultimate value is always the individual, but he must adapt conventional manners to himself in such a way as to have them express himself truly. The metaphoric theme of James抯 international fiction just expresses this ideal compromise or reconciliation 搈anners?and experience embodied in Europeans wedded to 搈orals?and innocence embodied in Americans.The road to satisfactory maturity is helpfully described by WilliamVBlake in terms of three stages: innocence experience maturity or揾igher innocence?or 搒alvation.?The ultimate mature stage means that the two contraries, innocence and experience, are wedded and are perceived to be essential conditions of mortal life. James抯 ideas about life are in accordance with Blake抯. Following these three stages, my thesis presents an interpretation of the metaphoric theme in James抯 international fiction, through the transatlantic experiences of two American girls Daisy Miller and Isabel Archer. It falls into three chapters.Chapter One deals with what I call the Innocent from the New World Garden. The general characteristic of the Americans in Europe is their comparative innocence a state created by the youth of the country, and by its lack of traditions and of a richly cultural civilization; a state perpetuated and complicated by America抯 moral tone. They are naively3confident of possessing the power to realize limitless potential and see the world as good and full of readily achievable objectives. Their souls have to recognize the tragic happenings of human existence, the inescapable limitations and the widespread evils.Chapter Two dwells on the painful experiences of the innocent Americans in the Old World. What troubles the Americans in their lives is the conflict with the values of tradition-bound Europe, both in outer manners and in inner morals. Daisy Miller is totally unconscious of the impact of her free manners and fails to adopt expressive manners that is important to the smooth functioning of social intercourse in a civilized society. She plunges pigheadedly on to her doom. Isabel is induced into a marriage full of h...