Imaginative architecture in "The Portrait of a Lady" with blind eyes and took little pleasure in the countries she crossed, adorned however with the richest freshness of spring, her thoughts followed their course through other strange countries, dimly lit, without paths. , where there was no change of seasons, but only as it seemed, a perpetual gloom of winter She had many things to think about but it was neither a reflection nor a conscious purpose that fulfilled. Disjointed visions flashed through her, and sudden dull glimmers of memories, of expectations, rose and went as they pleased, but she saw them only in intermittent images, which rose and fell according to a logic of their own. clean."(606)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This passage, from the final chapters of The Portrait of a Lady, strikes me as one of the most brutally sad moments in the entire novel. Here came Isabel, who defied Osmond's wishes to defer to the sanctity of their marriage, with a solemn, ghostly nod to the freedom and independence that had always characterized her , being by his cousin Ralph's side as he dies. What makes the passage so effectively tragic is that in its tone, language, and imagery, it strikes notes that have been repeated many times since the beginning of the novel; at the same time, however, we cannot fail to register the differences in the workings of our heroine's mind as she attempts to make sense of what she has become. Much of the poignancy of the lines quoted above comes from the way they contrast with James's earlier descriptions of Isabel's mentality. It is surely part of his qualities as a protagonist that, from the beginning of the novel, his mind is constantly and sparkling with life: “His imagination was by habit ridiculously active…” (86). The most fertile ground for her imagination is her own life: "She was always planning its development, desired its perfection, observed its progress." (It is interesting to note, here and elsewhere in the novel, the way in which James often asks Isabel to treat herself in her mind as an external, abstract, almost objectified subject: James could very well have written his own development or perfection, but chooses not to, leaving us with the subtle impression that she is somehow disconnected from herself in her own mind.) Given these early descriptions of Isabel, it is difficult not to not register the sheer power of the statement that "she was incapable of questioning the future", she, and by natural extension the reader, was deprived of one of her most vivid faculties, and James made sure to what we felt the immensity of this momentary loss Another thing to note in this passage is James's metaphorical use of landscape In the first chapters of the novel, we are told of Isabel: “Her nature had, in. his vanity, a certain garden quality, a suggestion of perfume and murmuring branches, of shady bowers and elongated perspectives, which made him feel that introspection was after all an exercise in the open air, and that a visit to the recesses of her mind was harmless when one returned with a sip of roses."(107) Now that her story is no longer an abstract question before her, her thoughts move through "other strange-looking countries , dimly lit, without path,.

Essay / Imaginative architecture in "The Portrait of a Lady" with blind eyes and took little pleasure in the countries she crossed, adorned however with the richest freshness of spring, her thoughts followed their course through other strange countries, dimly lit, without paths. , where there was no change of seasons, but only as it seemed, a perpetual gloom of winter She had many things to think about but it was neither a reflection nor a conscious purpose that fulfilled. Disjointed visions flashed through her, and sudden dull glimmers of memories, of expectations, rose and went as they pleased, but she saw them only in intermittent images, which rose and fell according to a logic of their own. clean."(606)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This passage, from the final chapters of The Portrait of a Lady, strikes me as one of the most brutally sad moments in the entire novel. Here came Isabel, who defied Osmond's wishes to defer to the sanctity of their marriage, with a solemn, ghostly nod to the freedom and independence that had always characterized her , being by his cousin Ralph's side as he dies. What makes the passage so effectively tragic is that in its tone, language, and imagery, it strikes notes that have been repeated many times since the beginning of the novel; at the same time, however, we cannot fail to register the differences in the workings of our heroine's mind as she attempts to make sense of what she has become. Much of the poignancy of the lines quoted above comes from the way they contrast with James's earlier descriptions of Isabel's mentality. It is surely part of his qualities as a protagonist that, from the beginning of the novel, his mind is constantly and sparkling with life: “His imagination was by habit ridiculously active…” (86). The most fertile ground for her imagination is her own life: "She was always planning its development, desired its perfection, observed its progress." (It is interesting to note, here and elsewhere in the novel, the way in which James often asks Isabel to treat herself in her mind as an external, abstract, almost objectified subject: James could very well have written his own development or perfection, but chooses not to, leaving us with the subtle impression that she is somehow disconnected from herself in her own mind.) Given these early descriptions of Isabel, it is difficult not to not register the sheer power of the statement that "she was incapable of questioning the future", she, and by natural extension the reader, was deprived of one of her most vivid faculties, and James made sure to what we felt the immensity of this momentary loss Another thing to note in this passage is James's metaphorical use of landscape In the first chapters of the novel, we are told of Isabel: “Her nature had, in. his vanity, a certain garden quality, a suggestion of perfume and murmuring branches, of shady bowers and elongated perspectives, which made him feel that introspection was after all an exercise in the open air, and that a visit to the recesses of her mind was harmless when one returned with a sip of roses."(107) Now that her story is no longer an abstract question before her, her thoughts move through "other strange-looking countries , dimly lit, without path,.

Navigation

« Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Get In Touch