The "Godlen Bowl": An Allegory Of Marriage

The Golden Bowl is the most excellent novel among Henry James's numerous novels.Many critics fix attention on the focuses (or the centers of consciousness) in the narrative ofthis novel, and the marriage is still an interesting subject. By analysing the text, this paperexplores the relationship between the "golden bowl"and marriage to reveal the protagonists'marriage attitude and the allegorical meaning of the golden bowl to a certain degree, throughthe protagonists'impression of the "golden bowl"and their understanding of marriage.In spite of limited description of the "golden bowl", it still plays an important role in thisnovel. The present dissertation intends to explain this allegory from five parts: chapter onedeals with the appearance of the "golden bowl"—it unveils the marriage and predicts theconsequence of two marriages; chapter two centers on the flaw in the "golden bowl"—thecrack in the "golden bowl"plants the seed of future strife, and a vicious circle lurks aroundMaggie; chapter three focuses on the reappearance of the "golden bowl"—the reappearanceof the "golden bowl"hastens the occurrence of the conflict; chapter four narrates that thebreakup of the "golden bowl"bears out the truth at a certain place behind a given appearance—the ficelle breaks the "golden bowl"; and chapter five reveals that the broken "goldenbowl"hints an ending —the breakage of the "golden bowl"offers a crucial chance forrearranging the marriage.According to the text, this dissertation combines James's limited point of view withlamps theory and ficelle to analyze the relation between the "golden bowl"and the marriage,to explore the allegorical meaning of the "golden bowl", and to reveal the marriage attitudesof protagonists. Compared with the forgoing studies of The Golden Bowl, this dissertationtreats this novel as not only as literary text, but also as the narrator of an allegory. It might beviewed as useful means to interpret this novel.