The Narcissus myth and failed female transitions in 'The Portrait of a Lady', 'The Awakening', and 'The House of Mirth'

The theme of the failed female transition, especially in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature, is explored through the lens of the Narcissus myth as a means of negating the tragic element of death in Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, Kate Chopin's The Awakening, and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. Various adaptations of the Narcissus myth are discussed, but Richard Hughes's version of the myth in The Lively Image: Four Myths in Literature is the primary interpretation used in propelling the literature beyond tragedy. Hughes's interpretation of Narcissus reestablishes the myth within the literary realm as a longing for a return to pure beginnings, enabling the death of the female protagonist to be reinterpreted as a quest for transcendence. Zen Buddhism, as the modern continuation of the Narcissus journey, is proposed as further evidence for rereading the death of the literary female in mythic terms.