Question

What is a thematic relationship between "The Portrait of a Lady" and "A Photograph "

Answer 1

Henry James often addresses the difference between the "old world," or European values and culture, and the "new world," or American values and culture. Literature and art are often considered to be places where a culture can showcase its sophistication, traditions, and values in their highest form. For Europeans during the mid to late 19th century, it was a novel idea that Americans were developing a higher culture capable of producing works of great literature. By the time The Portrait of a Lady was written though, several American authors had already gained respect in the Old World, such as Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman. Yet, the question remained: what cultural ideas and values did Americans represent? Could such new ideas change European culture? The literary tradition associated with the Old World at the time was after all, in a state of decadence. The character of Lord Warburton represents this. He has many political ideas about revolution and change, but he benefits from the very institution against which he rebels in thought. Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond, though both are Americans, are examples of Old World values -- they are Americans who have come to Europe and fully adapted to the lifestyle of the Europeans. (For example, it is explicitly mentioned that Madame Merle is of the "old world" and Gilbert Osmond is likened to convention itself.) When Isabel Archer arrives in the first scene at Gardencourt, the men are discussing the possibility of women bringing new ideas with them. Isabel Archer represents American modernity and culture. When she walks in, she is the materialization of the hope that a fresh perspective on things could help revive old European traditions that are decadent and rigidly formal. However, in the book, she falls under the power of an American who has committed to Old World values; she falls for the illusion that there is a real system of value behind his aestheticism.