The Experience from Innocence to Reality in Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady

Abstract

Henry James is one of the most prominent and towering personalities among the nineteenth century novelists who is always pre-occupied with the concept of morality in his fictional works. Like his other novels, Henry James’ novel, The Portrait of a Lady is also a powerful delineation of the concept of morality which has been presented through the central protagonist, Isabel Archer, who never wants ant restriction on her freedom. Isabel Archer is, of course, the lady of the novel's title. Isabel is presented as a young American woman from Albany who travels to Europe with her aunt, Mrs. Touchett. What happens to her in Europe in terms of being proposed to by an English Lord, inheriting a fortune, and then is victim of a plot to marry her to the villainous Gilbert Osmond, force her at every stage to face her own internal conflict of having to choose between her desire for independence and being able to do what she wants and then commitment to social norms and values.