Dynamic Development Through Interaction

Henry James (1843-1916) is generally considered as a great novelist, essayistand critics. Up to now, Henry James’ novels have been studied in many differentaspects. The most frequently studied perspective is the international theme, which ismostly presented by the contradiction and mutual influences between the Americanand European; another popular perspective is feminism, focusing on the femaleprotagonist’s right of discourses in his novels.This thesis analyzes the mutual influences between European male and Americanfemale protagonists in Henry James’ novels. Henry James’ ideal figure possesses theAmerican individualism and European maturity. This thesis focuses on the processthat the innocent female evolves towards maturity and the purposive male comes tohis conscience in Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady and The Wings of theDove. The thesis focuses on the evolution of European male and American female inorder to show the lessons taken in through the conflicts of culture.This thesis discusses the transformation and interaction of male and femalecharacters in each novel and analyzes the dynamic growth of the male and femalecharacters in three novels. It displays the development of James’ outlook on thetransatlantic male and female protagonists undergo. In The Wings of the Dove, theinnocent American female gains more wisdom and stronger capability to deal with theundesirable life she is confronted with; meanwhile, the male character is lesscalculating compared with the males in his earlier works as well. Therefore, this thesismakes a study on the evolution of male and female characters by dividing the threenovels into three stages.To conclude, this thesis analyzes the three novels to present the dynamicdevelopment of male and female and presents Henry James’ expectation to form anideal figure through culture infusion and interaction between male and female.