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Examine Henry James’s treatment of the theme of “marital relations” in Portrait of a

Lady

There are mainly two marital relationships discussed in the novel. One is of Mr.

and Mrs. Touchett. The author does not go in depth to talk about their marital life but he has

given some distinct subtle hints to prove that the marriage life was a failure. And then the

second marriage is of Isabel Archer and Gilbert Osmond. It is through this marriage that we

can see the author’s views on the institution of marriage crystal clearly. And it becomes

obvious that the author doesn’t view marital relationships or the institution of marriage in a

positive light. There are also other marriages briefly discussed in the novel. Like the marital

relationship of Madame Merle and Countess Gemini. And a possible future marriage union

between Pansy and Ned Rosier.

The first marital relationship we encounter in the in the novel is of Mr. and Mrs.

Touchett. Mrs.Touchett spends most of her time abroad in Florence. And she only spends a

month with her husband on a mutual agreement. Her husband is sick and needs care but she is

indifferent towards him and he is indifferent towards her. She leads her own life according to

her own wishes. Both Mr. and Mrs. Touchett are virtually separated from each other but they

don’t see anything irregular about it. They are pretty comfortable living without each other.

They view marriage as some kind of an agreement which has to be carried out until the end.

Another important marriage which takes place in the novel is between Isabel

Archer and Gilbert Osmond. It is through this marriage that we can gain knowledge about the

theme of marital relationship and how Henry James looks at the institution of marriage in

general. The Isabel we see at the beginning of the novel is a vibrant, energetic, independent

woman who knew her own mind. She wanted to travel and see life. Isabel was a visionary.

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She thought that people are not represented by their belongings. She was a ‘pure mind’, she

never thought badly about others. The only error she commits in her life is to marry Gilbert

Osmond. After her marriage to Osmond and towards the end we see a totally different Isabel.

Not the same person we saw at the beginning of the novel.

Isabel viewed marriage as a sacred institution. She wanted to prove herself

worthy, wanted to make her life better through marriage. She wanted to be free and to be

loved. But the irony of her marriage is that she never got what she wished for. Everything

that happens after her marriage is the total opposite of what she wished for. The famous line

“having fled a moat, Isabel has been imprisoned in a fortress” shows Isabel’s pathetic

situation and also sheds a negative light on the institution of marriage.

Isabel’s freedom of expression and ideas become constrained after she

marries Osmond. She is manipulated, over whelmed and believes blindly that Osmond’s

knowledge is far superior to hers. Isabel fails to see that the man she loves wants to control

her totally and believes that “she had too many ideas and she must get rid of them” (p: 460).

Isabel doesn’t realize until it’s too late that she is only another piece of art work added to

Osmond’s collection.

Isabel was living in a male dominated society. Marriage for the 19th century

women determined their life style and shaped their identity. Women in the 19th century were

expected to lead passive lives, usually in a domestic or nurturing role within marriage. So

defying Osmond to visit her dying cousin gives her a moral dilemma. A married woman was

supposed to obey

“If you leave today it will a piece of the most deliberate, the most calculated,

opposition.”(p: 570)

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These words said by Osmond tortures Isabel beyond limits. She is suffocated between her

love for her cousin and the expectations of the institution of marriage.

On the other hand for Osmond marriage was only a means of gaining economic

security. He didn’t care much for love. Isabel for him was only another interesting piece of

art which he would love to add for his collection. He liked her to have “nothing of her own

but her pretty appearance”. He was not physically violent or abusive towards Isabel but he

had his own nasty ways of torturing her. He was jealous of her and suspected her of having

affairs. Whereas he was the one who was having an affair with Madame Merle. He expects

obedience, virtue, money, beauty and intelligence from Isabel when he lacks some of these

qualities. Of course he was intelligent but he was certainly not virtuous or rich. He never

cared for Isabel what he loved most in his life was money. His greed for money is evident in

the way he rejects Ned Rosier as a prospective husband for his daughter and prefers Lord

Warburton.

He insists on following the norms of social manners and pretends saying that

marriage is a sacred and holy institution. He is the “master of mockery”. Because “Antique

coins” are important to him than his wife’s unhappiness. He suspects her fidelity to him.

Moreover he turns the institution of marriage into a prison. Even the descriptions of Gilbert’s

houses in Florence and Rome confirm the above fact.

“....the windows...seemed less to offer communication with the world than to defy the world

to look in. They were massive cross bared”

These lines symbolize the marriage institution as a prison.

“ It was the mask of the house not the face of the house”

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This line not only describes the house. It also gives an insight into the owner. Gilbert Osmond

is also wearing a mask of pretence. He doesn’t show his real self to Isabel until after the

marriage.

So the ultimate result of Isabel’s marriage life with Osmond is that she losses her

faith in the sanctity of marriage. She renounces the world she loves so much and becomes a

portrait to be hanged in Gilbert Osmond’s “collection”. She bows her head to a sterile and

unhappy marriage, in which there is also clash of wills. She plunges herself into a

melodramatic world of intrigue and sordid relationships. And eventually learnt to maintain

appearance.

We can’t see a single successful, complete marriage relationship in the novel.

When looking at Madame Merle and her married life she too cheats on her husband and has

an illicit affair with Osmond. Marital vows are easily broken in the novel. And marriages

which promise love, happiness and prosperity never occur, like Pansy’s and Rosier’s

marriage. At the end Isabel is offered another chance to have true love but she rejects it and

returns to her grotesque husband and grotesque house, accepting her fate to suffer.

So according to me Henry James has portrayed marriage or marital relations as

the epitome of suffering and deceit which lacks love and bares all avenues of freedom. And

marriage is also seen as an institution that changes people. Marital relationships and the

responsibilities that come with it clips one’s wings of freedom. Marriage is seen as a market

place where people shop for money. Marriage expects people to become slaves without

rendering them anything in return. So according to Henry James a thin line exists between

marital relationships, which can easily broken.

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Bibliography

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Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady: Isabel Archer and Nineteenth Century Marriage

http://www.suite101.com/content/henry-james-the-portrait-of-a-lady-

a114725#ixzz17JfdRAeu

M.A.Suresh. The Portrait of a Lady(A Critical Study).New Delhi: Rama brothers,1996.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Portrait_of_a_Lady

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/portraitlady/section15.rhtml

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmPortraitLady09.asp

© Fathima Azna