The Analysis Of The New Woman Traits In The Portrait Of A Lady

Henry James(1843--19l6), one of the most celebrated and remarkable writers in the world literature, is generally regarded as “the greatest master of American Literature”. His works have attracted many readers and lots of scholars all over the world who make researches on them from different perspective. The thesis is aimed to explore Isabel’s traits as a New Woman from the perspective of feminism, hoping to enrich the research of the great work—The Portrait of a Lady. In this work, James depicts a series of female characters around Isabel Archer endowed with the traits of New Woman, but she doesn’t thoroughly get rid of traditional values. On one hand, she despises tradition as a result of her pursuit of independence and liberty; on the other hand, she assumes her traditional responsibility for her family. Anyhow, she is a typical New Woman in the sense of social progress in spite of her certain compromise with traditional values. The thesis consists of five chapters:Introduction shows a brief review of Henry James’ s literary and research works, which includes the characteristics of his literary creation and three periods of his literary career; makes a general survey of literary review on The Portrait of a Lady,and points out the research contents of the thesis—to analyze the heroine, Isabel’s New Woman traits from the perspective of female subjectivity.Chapter Two is about the theory of “female subjectivity” and New Woman. There are two sub sections: the first section is about the background of the era of American New Woman and the second section is the introduction of female subjectivity.Chapter Three will combine the text, to analyze specifically Isabel’s unique traits--New Woman traits. As a New Woman,Isabel pursues knowledge and struggles for liberty. She audaciously refuses two outstanding suitors to defend her independence; while faced with her tragic marriage, she dares to assume her responsibilities. During the practices, Isabel also gradually realizes her subject consciousness.Chapter Four gives an analysis of the reasons for Isabel’s New Woman traits, which include the influences from Henry James’ s family and James’ s personal reasons.The conclusion is that Isabel is an ideal progressive New Woman in spite of her certain compromise with traditional values. Key words Henry James, Isabel, Female Subjectivity, Ideal New Woman...