Society vs. Individuality in James'
The Portrait of a Lady
Henry James' novel, The Portrait of a Lady, takes an exclusive look at the conflict between the individual and society. Isabel Archer is a lucky woman because she is afforded the luxury of knowing freedom and independence at a time when women were generally seen and not heard. Because of Isabel's upbringing, she can resist the proposals of men for the sole reason of her individuality. Freedom and independence are important and she realizes that one must be proactive in protecting them. When Isabel lets her guard down, she begins to compromise one small aspect at a time, those things she considered dear and important to her soul. Once lost, they bring her close to edge of darkness with no way of ever finding her way back to them. The portrait of this lady becomes darkened by the incredible conflict society creates on those choosing to live independently from social convention.
Isabel Archer is lucky enough to know what freedom and individuality taste like. We read she has everything a girl could have including "kindness, admiration, bonbons, bouquets, the exclusion from none of the privileges of the world she lived in, abundant opportunity for dancing, plenty of new dresses" (43). She is a complex character in that she is innocent and spoiled. Her optimism and...
Madame Merle's opening diatribe -- or at least, her lengthy monologue of dissatisfied pronouncements -- makes it clear that gender had a great deal to do with personal definition and constraint, in her view, and though Isabel protests it must be acknowledged that there is some truth to her assessment. At the same time, Madame Merle fully adopts and thus allows herself to be constrained by the notion that she
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Adolescence to Adulthood: Comparative Study of Stephen Dedalus from James Joyce's "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" to Felicitas Taylor from Mary Gordon's "The Company of Women" Stephen Dedalus, the hero in "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" by James Joyce, is very similar to Felicitas Maria Taylor, the heroine in "The Company of Women" by Mary Gordon. The novels they are protagonists in both track their
The drama is tragic but what makes it more tragic is how the father passes down the doomed dreaming legacy to his sons. Robert Spiller observes that Willy Loman is Miller's "most beautifully conceived character" (Spiller 1450), who dies at the end of the play, "still believing in the American success myth that killed him and infected his sons" (1450). The man is to be admired because of his
In "Piaf," Pam Gems provides a view into the life of the great French singer and arguably the greatest singer of her generation -- Edith Piaf. (Fildier and Primack, 1981), the slices that the playwright provides, more than adequately trace her life. Edith was born a waif on the streets of Paris (literally under a lamp-post). Abandoned by her parents -- a drunken street singer for a mother and a
The 1990s also saw innovative interpretation of law enforcement's role in the perpetuation of organized crime. One of the most notable examples is L.A. Confidential (1997), in which corruption has reached so deep into the Los Angeles police department that two seemingly unrelated criminal investigations both lead to the police chief. The genre also proved its adaptability and continued appeal with Heat (1995) and Carlito's Way (1993); both films starred
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