| Isabel Archer, the heroine of The Portrait of a Lady, a brilliant female figure in world's literary gallery, has aroused interest of critics and the public ever since the novel's publication. It seems that Henry James aims at portraying a "new woman": she is frequently labeled as independent and having ideas of her own. But in the novel she actually serves as an object, to be watched, collected and made use of. The author fails at his attempt to reconcile the contradiction of her existence, both as object and as conscious subject. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, American and European society was still male-dominated and provided little chance for a woman to pursue independence and freedom, especially for one greatly shaped by patriarchal ideology and moral standards.My thesis seeks to analyze her tragedy from a feminist perspective. It is composed of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter One discusses briefly the feminist literary criticism followed by a review of the contemporary social circumstances. Much emphasis is laid on the analysis of and commentary on the women's inferior educational, economic, social, political status and its representation in the novel.Chapters Two and Three are detailed studies of various characters associated closely with Isabel's tragedy. Chapter Two is devoted to an analysis of how the male characters, masters of the patriarchal society, act upon Isabel, and partlycause her tragedy. Then it examines the interaction of womentowards Isabel, who themselves have been turned into faithful defenders of the patriarchal ideology. Chapter Three begins with an analysis of the novel's narrative techniques and the relationships between the author and narrator, then, it explores, through examining the fiction's structure, diction and narrative focalization, the patriarchal ideologies shown by the author and narrator. This is followed by the Conclusion that summarizes the thesis and restates its main points.
|
PDF Full Text Request