Henry James's commodification of Isabel Archer in Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady and the Objectification of Character

This story begins with the main character in the book, Isabel arriving at Gardencourt from America. Ralph, another main character in this book realizes that Isabel is destitute and talks his father into leaving Isabel some of his fortune in the amount of 70,000 pounds. This however, only begins the troubles for Isabel. Madame Merle, a wealthy woman herself sees that she can benefit from Isabel's money and introduces Isabel to Osmond.

Statement of Thesis

Isabel, a bright young woman with ideas of her own and unfortunately having inherited a great sum, becomes an object or a thing in the work entitled "Portrait of a Lady" and at the workings of others becomes endangered of losing her own identity.

Isabel's Portrait

The work of Gilmore (1986) entitled 'The Commodity World of the Portrait of a Lady' states that the work entitled "The Portrait of a Lady" (1881) "marks the fruition of Henry James' long-gestated resolution to attempt a 'big' book that would both establish his reputation as a major novelist and relieve his financial worries by bringing him a substantial sum of money." The result is that it is no surprise that people in "The Portrait of a Lady" are continuously compared to objects and generally to "previous artworks, and are appreciated as much for their economic as for their aesthetic values." (Gilmore, 1986) Gilmore reports that Henry James himself "participates in this kind of commodification by turning the life-story of Isabel Archer into 'the portrait of a lady' and offering it for sale in the literary marketplace." (Gilmore, 1986) the second meaning of commodity, according to Gilmore which is "related to but distinct from the first, involves what might be called 'the ownership of human beings." (1986) it is reported by Gilmore, that the real issue here is not "the literal possession of a man or woman but rather the denial or suppression of another person's autonomy by using that person for purposes of one's own." (Gilmore, 1986) According to Gilmore, the majority of James statements at "the Portrait of a Lady" reveal a "mixture of aesthetic and pecuniary motives." (1986) James stated for example "I must try and seek a larger success than I have yet obtained in doing something on a larger scale than I have yet done." (Gilmore, 1986) it is not sure whether by success James means "profits of prestige." (Gilmore, 1986)

II. How James Views His Story

Gilmore writes twenty-years later in the Preface of his book composed for the New York Edition of his works on the "commodity status of 'The Portrait' and of Isabel and speaks of himself as a "tradesman or businessman of the mind" or a "way dealer in precious odds and ends who is obliged by the economics of authorship to exchange his art for dollars" and is reported by Gilmore to have singled out "his young heroine as the rarest 'object' or 'treasure' in his mental emporium." (Gilmore, 1986)

As such, for James, Isabel is the "special acquisition he is anxious to place and he anticipates a handsome profit from showing her off to advantage. That which Isabel's cousin believes of Gilbert Osmond is also applicable to James as he held that at last James had material to work with. He held that James "always had an eye to effect, and the effects were elaborately studied. They were produced by no vulgar means, but the motive was as vulgar as the art was great." (Gilmore, 1986) Gilmore writes that there are more than one view of James, the James who hopes to cash in on his heroine's appeal can be compared to Madame Merle, who was a clever woman at matchmaking and resulted in Isabel reflecting that she was "a great artist' but an artist motivated by an idea of gain and not one of the votaries of art for art." (Gilmore, 1986) it is stated in the work of Gilmore that Osmond is more like James in his imagination concerning the characters of the book as he "fully shares in his creator's penchant for reducing or equating other people with valuable pieces of art." (Gilmore, 1986) Osmond's courtship of Isabel is in his view what can be constituted as "the larger success, the concurrent possession of beauty and wealth." (Gilmore, 1986) He hold Isabel, as a young heiress as "an exquisite rarity" and someone he is eager to add to "his collection of choice objects." (Gilmore, 1986)

When Osmond becomes confident that he will succeed in winning Isabel the sense of success experienced by Osmond is overwhelming and as James wrote in the book "his triumphs were, some of them now, too old; others had been too easy. The present one had been less difficult than might have been expected; but it had been easy -- that is, it had been rapid -- only because he had made an altogether exceptional effort." (p. 280-281)

III. Theory of Objects and Things

The work of Brown (2001) states that Appadurai in the work entitled "The Social Life of Things" states that human beings "encodes things with significance from a theoretical point-of-view however "from a methodological point-of-view it is the things-in-motion that illuminate their human and social context. Such methodological fetishism is referred to by Appadurai as the effort to "follow the things themselves" which is stated by Appadurai to disavow "the topological work, the psychological work, and the phenomenological work entailed in the human production of materiality…" (Brown, 2001, p.7) Brown writes that methodological fetishism "is not an error so much as it is a condition for thought, new thoughts about how inanimate objects constitute human subjects, how they move them, how they threaten them, how they facilitate or theater their relation to other subjects." (Brown, 2001) Jonathan Lam is reported by Brown (2001) to question the conditions needed to sympathize with animals and artifacts and how this sympathy serves to threaten the idea of Locke about "thinking thing" or the self. Methodological fetishism "is not an error so much as it is a condition for thought, new thoughts about how inanimate objects constitute human subjects, how they move them, how they threaten them, how they facilitate or threaten their relation to other subjects." (Brown, 2001)

Methodological fetishism describes the hold that the portrait of Isabel had on Osmond and James. Phelan-Cox writes that one of the various meanings that James appears to attach to the "sweet tasting property of observation" is reported to include "an anticipation of the kind of diffusely eroticized watching that has such a central place in our contemporary popular culture." Phelan-Cox refers to this as the male gaze. According to Michel Foucault the male gaze "is connected to power and surveillance; the person who gazes is empowered over the person who is the object of the gaze." (Phelan-Cox, 2004)

V. The Story is Narrator Controlled

In 'The Portrait of a Lady', the reader's look is directed through the narrator of the story. Because the story begins with the narrators' power of interpretation made known in the statement "under certain circumstances in what I should call the perfect middle of a splendid summer afternoon" which are "subjective qualifiers of the novel's setting" the role of the narrator, as interpreter is made known to the reader. Phelan-Cox writes that the narrator "is aware of the moralizing perspective that he has invited the audience to share" and that the narrators "not only conveys information about her [Isabel] to the readers, but he also effectively characterizes and draws attention to himself. As such, the narrator (and the reader by extension) establishes himself as dominant over Isabel in that he possesses the objectifying gaze over her." (Phelan-Cox, 2004) Therefore, the role of the narrator is not simply to provide information to the reader but as well informs the reader how to interpret the information in the story.

VI. Objectification of Isabel

Phelan-Cox writes that the "sexes of the surveyor and surveyed…are not insignificant. There are gender implications to the power imbalance created by the gaze…" (2004) Phelan-Cox writes that it is noted by Patricia E. Johnson "implicit in the structures of much Western art and many Hollywood films is the idea of the male gazer and the female object." (2004) According to Linda Nochlin "the male artist's right to represent women is interconnected with the assumption of general male power over and control of women in society." (Phelan-Cox, 2004) This idea is reported as reinforced in the story by the first response of Ralph Touchette's to his cousin Isabel as follows

"If his cousin were to be nothing more than an entertainment to him, Ralph was conscious that she was an entertainment of a high order. A character like that, he said to himself -- a real little passionate force to see at play is the finest thing in nature. it's finer than the finest work of art than a Greek bas-relief, than a great Titian, than a Gothic cathedral. I had never been more blue, more bored, than for a week before she came. Suddenly I receive a Titian to hang on my wall -- a Greek bas-relief to stick over my chimney-piece." (James in: Phelan-Cox, 2004)

Through the analogies of Ralph, the reader is able to view the manner in which "male pleasure in spectatorship with interconnected with Western aesthetics generally." (Phelan-Cox, 2004) it is the argument of Laura Mulvey that the film of Hollywood is structured around "the voyeurism and scopopophilia of the male gaze by denying the existence of other viewing positions." (Phelan-Cox, 2004) James veritably denied other ways to view through his description of the scene "by consciously omitting Isabel's own perception of herself in that setting or any objective description of the scene that might include observations about Ralph." (Phelan-Cox, 2004)

VIII. Osmond

It is reported that Madame Merle explains that all human beings "have their shell made up of one's house, one's furniture, one's garments the books one reads, the company one keeps" however Isabel absolutely refuses to be defined by her external attributes. Stated as the contrast existing between the naive presumption of Isabel and the ambition of Osmond is focused on the conception of identity. Osmond, who is egotistical believes himself to the "the first gentlemen in Europe." It is reported that this model of "sublime fineness is that which serves to set the "tone of his Florentine abode "a seat of ease, indeed of luxury, telling of arrangements subtly studied and refinements frankly proclaimed housing a rich collection of chests and cabinets of carved and time-polished oak, angular specimens of pictorial art in frames as pedantically primitive and perverse-looking relics of medieval brass and pottery." (Ascari, nd)

Isabel turned down two what are termed as "traditional patterns of male identity" in the form of Caspar Goodwood, the athletic American industrialist and Lord Warburton the supreme ornament of the British aristocracy in order to privilege Osmond, whose charm is greatly enhanced by his objets d'art." (Ascari, nd ) the environment in which all of this takes place is characterized by "decadent sensibility, the gilded molding of the frame prevail over the painting, the opulent decor draws the attention away from the drama that is being acted out." (Ascari, nd)

Isabel is drawn to Osmond, because "of the inability to define him. Her mind contained no class offering a natural place to Mr. Osmond -- he was a specimen apart, while Goodwood and Lord Warburton are all too predictable. " (Ascari, nd) the desire of Isabel is for "an ever-changing self, a ready and enthusiastic acceptance of experience. That which she refuses is a predetermined role." (Ascari, nd) This is held to be clear form the metaphors that are used by James in referring to Isabel "the young woman, whose idea of happiness corresponds to a journey towards unknown lands" or stated by James "A swift carriage, of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can't see." (Portrait III, 235 in: Ascari, nd) This space is such that has no limitations "an adolescent dream that is destined to prove unrealistic -- turns into a nightmare when she marries Osmond, the 'infinite vista of a multiple life is now reduced to a dark narrow alley with a dead wall at the end." (Portrait IV, 189 in: Ascari, nd)

Isabel is described as "a creature of the air" and stated to be held prison "within the massive walls of Palazzo Roccanera 'the house of darkness, the house of dumbness, the house of suffocation'. (Portrait IV, 196 in: Ascari, nd) Osmond, on the other hands is reported as a "gravitational center, a sort of black hole, the master of enclosed spaces." (Ascari, nd) the talent of Osmond for furnishings is reported to render him capable of making a setting that is perfect for "exclusive social rituals, aimed at magnifying his taste and status, thus satisfying his will to power." (Ascari, nd )

It is reported to be Osmond's ability and desire "to dominate the domestic space that connects the refined Osmond with Gothic villains turning him into a jailer whose coercive means are not violence and locks, but a respect for conventions and appearances which is as inflexible as it is cruel." (Ascari, nd ) it is reported that the attitude of Osmond could well be described as "the look of Medusa" as Isabel meditates in Portrait that "It was as if he had the evil eye" (IV 188 in: Ascari, nd) She thinks that this is because Osmond "reduces people and feelings to their shell" and thereby deprives them of their vital core. Even so Isabel defines Osmond as the man with the beset taste in the world. It is stated that the marriage of Osmond to Isabel, described as a "mercenary marriage" can be viewed "as the last stage of a descending curve, mirrored by his painting. When James first introduces his character the reader's attention is drawn to a watercolor representing the Alps however, when Osmond is last seek in the work he is focused on making a copy of "the drawing of an antique coin" who se artistic value "scarcely conceals its commercial one." (Ascari, nd) it is stated that the refusal of Osmond to "bring aesthetic and ethical values together, and by marrying Isabel he commodifies his life, which is his most precious artwork -- by the author's standards -- he twice fails in his aesthetic career." (Ascari, nd)

Gilmore states that the most obvious example is Osmond however, other characters in the story are not free from the habit of "metaphorizing others as expensive and beautiful objects. Osmond is attracted to Pansy because she does not have a flaw in the way she is physically composed and he thought of Pansy as "in amorous meditation a good deal as he might have thought of a Dresden-china shepherdess. The viewing of people as objects is further highlighted as Ralph takes Isabel to an art gallery and as Ralph steals glances at this cousin" the narrarator states "He lost nothing, in truth, in these wandering glances, for she was better worth looking at than most works of art." (Gilmore, 1986) Throughout the story Gilmore states "narrative commentary is suspended and the analogy between person and thing is allowed to speak for itself." (Gilmore, 1986) When Osmond is speaking to Madame Merle, who incidentally is his former lover concerning Isabel's distastes for the idea of marrying Pansy to Lord Warburton, Osmond picks up a small up from the mantel and Madame Merle states "Please be very careful with that precious object…it already has a small crack" and the reader is left to "infer a comparison to Osmond's rebellious wife." (Gilmore, 1986) by the end of the story Isabel has herself began to view herself as an object, although a precious object of art.

At one point in the story Isabel is likened to a yard of calico when Mrs. Touchette and Ralph are speaking about Isabel. Ralph ask Mrs. Touchette what she will do with Isabel and Mrs. Touchette answers that she will do nothing with her but that Isabel "will do everything she chooses. She gave me notice of that." (Gilmore, 1986) Isabel insisted to Mrs. Touchette "I am very fond of my liberty" and in James' story being attached to ones' liberty means "precisely to have plans of one's own., to act in accordance with designs that one has proposed for oneself." (Gilmore, 1986)

The attitude held by Isabel is reported to set Isabel "…at odds with a fictional universe where the right to initiate intentions and the activity of carrying them out are seldom united in the same individual. Marriage is the most obvious instance of an arrangement in which one person is expected to implement an idea or destiny that has originated with another." (Gilmore, 1986)

It is reported that Lord Warburton, "the second of Isabel's three suitors, conceives 'the design' of drawing her into his system and is quite candid about fearing her penchant for devising "purposes" of her own (pp. 95, 75). " Do you know that I am very much afraid of it-of that mind of yours?" he says to her openly (p. 102). Isabel refuses to marry the nobleman because she has her own "design upon fate," as she puts it (p. 103), and doesn't wish to be an instrument of someone else's." (Gilmore, 1986) Isabel reportedly turned down Goodwood for practically the same reason stated as being that his "oppressive attentions deprive her of 'the sense of free' and she deeply resents his disposition to 'take complete possession of her." (Gilmore, 1986)

Goodwood is the owner of a successful and busy cotton mill and reported in the story to have a talent "for making other people execute his purpose and carry out his views- for managing men, as the phrase was" (p. 107)." (Gilmore, 1986) Warburton described as "…one of England's "great proprietors," is reported to enjoy "the ownership of human beings. He owns his tenants, and he has thousands of them. " (Gilmore, 1986) Gilmore writes that Madame Merle and Osmond "are the most unsavory of those who claim a proprietary interest in the lives of others. Regarding Isabel as "a very delicate piece of machinery"), Madame Merle decides to make use of her new friend by introducing her to Osmond and encouraging him to woo her. "What do you want to do with her?" asks Osmond, echoing Ralph's question to his mother. When Osmond mildly demurs that Isabel is "meant for something better" than marriage to him, Madame Merle interjects: "I don't pretend to know what people are meant for, I only know what I can do with them" (p. 222)" (Gilmore, 1986)

In this case 'doing with" has to do with planning Isabel's fate, creating a future for Isabel to whom she must be "induced to enact. Madame Merle, Isabel eventually begins to suspect, has shown contempt for her autonomy: "there was more intention in her past behavior than [Isabel] had allowed for at the time. Ah, yes, there had been intention, there had been intention, Isabel said to herself; and she seemed to wake from a long, pernicious dream. What was it that brought it home to her that Madame Merle's intention had not been good?" Madame Merle's disclosure of her similarly avid interest in Pansy's marriage quickens Isabel's awareness that the older woman has been "a powerful agent in her destiny" (p. 474)." (Gilmore, 1986) the original hesitating about the proposal of Madame Merle for Osmond "…stems not from moral scruples but rather from inertia: he doubts that it is worthwhile to bestir himself from his customary indolence to win Isabel's love. Even after he has made the effort, he complains to his erstwhile mistress, "It makes one work, this idea of yours" (p. 263)." (Gilmore, 1986)

Isabel comes to the realization that Osmond's ideal wife would be one that was inanimate -- an object " a flesh-and-blood possession without the faculty of independent thought." (Gilmore, 1986) Isabel thinks to herself "Her mind was to be his…attached to his own like a small garden-plot to a deer-park. He would rake the soil gently and water the flowers; he would weed the beds and gather an occasional nosegay. It would be a pretty piece of property for a proprietor already far-reaching" (p. 398)." (Gilmore, 1986)

Gilmore writes that the pursuit of Isabel by Osmond " represents a singular departure from his usual habit of disdaining action. Ralph contends that the "dread of vulgarity" is the dilettante's "special line; he hasn't any other" (pp. 230-31), and Osmond himself tells the heroine that he has practiced renunciation "because I could do nothing" (p. 245)." (Gilmore, ) However, in the same passage Osmond admits to being jealous of the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan of Turkey, literal proprietors of persons, proprietors who do nothing because they have others do for them. Although Ralph, on the other hand, pretends to admire "the world of action," James writes that his natural "fund of indolence" has helped to reconcile him to his invalid's life of passive observation (p. 37)." (Gilmore, 1986)

Discussion

It is clear that Isabel is objectified in this story as she is viewed as shallowly as one would view the portrait of Isabel. Isabel is assigned certain characteristics based on the picture formed by the portrait painted of Isabel and it is expected by society that Isabel will give in to living in the manner that her likeness has been socially assigned. This narrow view of Isabel's personage is stifling to her and very much so presents bonds of her freedom of self-expression. Isabel lives I a world where tradition and appearance in the view of others is held as of great worth.

Isabel is naive and immature in many ways as her dream of dreams is an undefined time and place with unidentified specifics as noted in this study. Certainly when the individual has dreams and aspirations that are not yet defined, it would be very easy to wind up without any dreams fulfilled as was the case of Isabel in this story.

Conclusion

In the end, Isabel has herself lost much of her own self-identification and self-worth and has ultimately grown to recognize herself as having value only according to the value assigned to her by others Isabel understands that she is viewed as an object and ultimately defines herself as an object, although one of great value and worth.