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¶ … Henry James is a plot that is replete with symbolism both in its overarching theme and in its subcomponents.
The Aspern Papers devolves around the plot of a man who would stoop at almost nothing to procure and publish the papers of Jeffery Aspern a famous poet. The character, this nameless narrator, goes to Venice to locate Juliana Bordereau, former lover of a famous, now dead, American poet. He erreoneously believes that Juliana has papers written by this poet and is prepared to court her niece Miss Tita, an unappealing and simple woman, in order to catch a glimpse of these 'Aspern papers'. Miss Tita agrees to help him. Juliana later offers to sell a miniature portrait of Aspern to the narrator for an exorbitant price, but shortly after catches the narrator rifling through her room searching for the alleged papers. Juliana calls the narrator a "publishing scoundrel," collapses, the narrator flees, and Juliana dies. When the narrator returns some days later, Miss Tina hints that he can have the papers if he marries her. Again, the narrator flees, but gradually changes his mind about the proposal and when he returns, Miss Tina tells him that she has burnt the letters one by one, and can never marry him. The plot concludes by the narrator receiving the miniature portrait of the poet for a small price.
The Aspern Papers was one of the last pieces of work that Henry James wrote. Himself fully acquainted with the ramifications of fame and...
At first he disguises himself as a lodger in order to look at the papers; then enters into a pretense to marry Miss Tina to the same objective. When he is urged to marry Miss Tina, he flees, but the thought of the papers makes him change his mind and actually commit himself to marrying her. At the end, after leaving for the third time, he buys the portrait of the poet but no longer for the exorbitant price that was initially offered him. By offering the "miniature" portrait to him at a highly reduced price, Miss Tina seems to be signifying that celebrity has been accorded bloated and absurd value. The narrator, himself, in fact concludes that the papers are 'scrap'.
The conclusion of the novel, in fact, sums up the symbolism of the whole The portrait that was initially accorded exorbitant value by Juliana -- the celebrity that the narrator himself (and that his society itself) prized so highly -- was, at the conclusion of the story, sold to him…
References
James, H. The great short novels of Henry James, New York, Dial Press, 1944
Kaplan, F. Henry James: the imagination of genius: a biography . New York: Morrow, 1992.
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