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Identity

Who am I? Who are you? Who’s that guy over there? Who are we all? These are some of the

fundamental questions that plague us all daily. They also plague the characters of Portrait of a Lady, who,

despite a distance of over a hundred years, are concerned with the same things we are. The novel is all aout

discovering what characters really want and need, deep down inside, and finding out whether or not they have

the strength to reach out and ta!e it. "ven when characters thin! they !now themselves, they’re always

surprised y what they don’t !now aout other people.Women and Femininity

The Portrait of a Lady is not simply the portrait of one single woman # instead, it reveals to us a whole

range of different women, all of whom are emlematic of their time, the late nineteenth century. We see an

e$ample of the modern career gal as well as a traditional, proper%to%a%fault, oedient &ictorian daughter, and

everything that falls etween these two e$tremes. In the novel, 'enry (ames presents the state of women in

general as he saw it # in relation to men, in relation to each other, and in relation to society on the whole.Possession

'ow much can one person truly possess another? If you as! )ilert *smond, the domineering villain

of Portrait of a Lady, he’d proaly tell you that all relationships are defined as possessor and possessed. 'e

certainly ta!es this attitude towards the three women in his life, his wife, his lover, and his innocent daughter.

Than!fully, this isn’t the only view of possession we see in this novel+ other characters demonstrate other

modes of relating to each other. 'owever, the question of possession, oth in human relationships and in how

we relate to the world around us, remains a pressing one.

Pride

Well, we all !now what pride supposedly goeth efore, so let’s not even go there. es, there is a fall in

this oo!, and, yes, pride is largely responsile for it. 'owever, that’s not the whole story. There’s an

interestingly amiguous attitude towards pride in Portrait of a Lady # sometimes it’s a sin, ut sometimes it’s a

virtue. *ur protagonist is a very proud young lady, ut that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s -ust an arrogant

little you%!now%what. 'er pride certainly causes her to ma!e mista!es, ut, in the end, it also gives her a

greater sense of responsiility for those same mista!es.Suffering

/uffering is an interesting concept. It can mean any numer of different things to different people+ in

Portrait of a Lady, we see many of these different incarnations rought to life. We are presented with thesuffering of unrequited love, of physical pain, of loss # and, worst of all, the suffering of the horrile

reali0ation that you’ve made a wrong decision. (ames plays upon his readers’ understanding of all these

different rands of suffering, and, in so doing, rings us even closer to the virant, oh%so%real characters he

creates.

Lies and Deceit

'onesty is !ind of a prolem in this oo!. /ome people are -ust too honest, while others aren’t honest

enough. There’s a certain innate untruthfulness aout the whole society that (ames reveals to us+ polite social

interaction usually involves hiding one’s feelings, to some degree, and mas!ing true emotion ehind gli

repartee. 'owever, as we get deeper into the novel, we see that deceit of a much more malevolent !ind is also

at wor! here1 and it’s scary. (ust as our protagonist feels etrayed y people whom she thought she !new, so,

too, we are shoc!ed and horrified when things turn out to e far worse than they seem.Love

There’s nothing romantic aout love in this oo!. /eriously. If we were more cynical, we might say

that this is the most realistic element of Portrait of a Lady2 love is never ovious, nor is it ever easy. Love here

is rutal, osessive, possessive, usually thwarted, and often unrequited. 3ortunately for us, the readers, it’s also

really fascinating, aleit sometimes in that car%crash way 4you !now, you want to loo! away, ut you -ust

can’t5. *nce you get past the roadloc! of prolematic romantic love, though, you see that there are infinite

different !inds of love # love of family, love of friends, love of life # that ma!e life more interesting and

 earale for our characters.

Men and Masculinity

(ust as Portrait of a Lady reveals a wide spectrum of womanhood, so, too, does it show us a

fascinating parade of different types of men. 3rom the super%masculine to the gently femini0ed, (ames presents us with a set of male characters that are all as different as can e. 'e also as!s us to re%evaluate what

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we thin! we !now aout men and women. In this novel, we see a world not so very different than our own, in

which gender roles are -ust eginning to grow less concrete.