Department of English Studies

Academic Year: 2023/ 2024

Guided Reading 2

Prof. Najah Mahmi

A Reading in “The Portrait” (4)

Week 7
 Dialogue is used in the short story as a technical device
to dramatize the customer as a character. It is a
technique which aims to portray Mr. Bigger’s
humiliating tendencies towards the customer.
The customer’s appreciation of “dark and foggy”(p.2)
painting implies his inner confused conceptualization of
art. It implies his gloomy internal psychological reality
and hazy self reception and perception.
Colors are technical devices by means of which the
modernist author portrays the written work of fiction.
The work is visualized by means of dialogue,
characters stream of consciousness, colors, and
interactive gestures.
In modern literature, most descriptions of characters are
conveyed to readership as streams of consciousness. Characters’
attitudes, personal features, and psychologies are depicted
through their thought, inner monologues and conflicts. A good
example is the dialogue between Mr. Bigger and the Lord of the
Manor which reflects, on the one hand, their mutual conflicts
that revolve around class and knowledge, and, on the other
hand, the customer’s inner conflicts as regards his own personal
conceptualizations of class and knowledge.

Another feature of the modernist literary style is the use of brief

and short dramatic sentences, and that is what “The Portrait”’s
readers can easily notice. The rationale behind the use of short
and brief sentences is to impress and/ or shock the reader to
involve her/him in the process of interpretation.
The short story is mostly not narrated through direct
descriptions of characters and explicit exposition of their
acts, but rather via dramatic details and a careful choice of
diction to reflect upon situations and characters’ inner
realities and states of being. This allows space for readers to
interact with the text and thus provide their own readings and
interpretations. It is a strategy to involve readership in
generating meanings.
The modernist writer is an invisible god in his writing. He is
not seen in he work. The short story is narrated through an
omniscient voice: an all- knowing narrator that waves from
one character’s state of mind to another.
As Mr. Bigger has proved his knowledge victory over the
customer whom he tells the story of the portrait he wants him
to buy for seven hundred and fifty pounds. According to Mr.
Bigger, the portrait was painted by an Italian artist called
Giangolini with whom the portrayed lady- the wife of the
fourth Earl Hurtmore- has fallen in love.
The name “Hurtmore” suggests pain and suffering as two
shaping elements of the couple’s marital institution, and
implies the husband, Lord Hurtmore, to be the main source of
that pain, whereas the wife is unnamed in the story to imply
her subordination to the male agent. She cannot be defined
outside marital institution; she is Lord Hurtmore’s wife.
The portrait, as a piece of art, is a witness for an
unmatched married couple: a young beautiful woman
and an old rich man. Their interests in life are totally
different, as she “liked clothes, she liked society, she
liked gambling, she liked flirting, she liked enjoying
herself.”(p. 3), while “His chief interests in life were
music and Roman antiquities. […] He spent at least
half his life traveling in Italy, looking for antiques
and listening to music.”(p.3).
The newly wedded couple’s marriage is a marriage of
interests. Lord Hurtmore has chosen her to be his wife for her
beauty and youth, and she has married him for
His wealth. They never communicate; they are simply
enjoying life. Their marriage is a mere superficial marriage
meant for fitting social norms. It is a social appearance
through which each of them lives separately, fulfilling
certain interests: marriage is a social necessity for him to keep
his polished social image as “he was about fifty-five he
suddenly decided that it was about time to get married.”(p.3),
whereas her main interest lies in “The brilliants, the pearls, the
great Hurtmore emeralds, the ruby clasps, the diamond
earrings”(p.5).This implies the author’s criticism of marriage
built on personal interests. In this respect, the narrator
explicitly affirms:
"His money and his title must have made up for many deficiencies.
One can't imagine, from her appearance, that Lady Hurtmore took a
great deal of interest in Roman antiquities. Nor, I should think, did
she care much for the science and history of music. […] It doesn't
seem that the newly wedded couple got on too well. But still, they
avoided an open breach. […] For Lord Hurtmore, Venice meant
unlimited music. It meant Galuppi's daily concerts at the orphanage
of the Misericordia. It meant Piccini at Santa Maria. It meant new
operas at the San Moise; it meant delicious cantatas at a hundred
churches. It meant private concerts of amateurs; it meant Porpora and
the finest singers in Europe; it meant Tartini and the greatest
violinists. For Lady Hurtmore, Venice meant something rather
different. It meant gambling at the Rudotto, masked balls, gay supper
parties—all the delights of the most amusing city in the world.
Living their separate lives, both might have been happy here in
Venice almost indefinitely. (p.3-4)
Lady Hurtmore’s materialistic tendencies are emphasized
through her sacrifice of her love to young Giangolini. She
has decided to keep “the family jewels” (p. 6) at the expense
of love. Once her husband reveals her marital infidelity, and
as the artist (Giangolini) was ready to sacrifice money and
escape with her, she “much relish the idea of love in a
cottage” (p.6). She refuses to live with her beloved in
poverty, she prefers going back to her high class refined life
with old Hurtmore whom she ironically refers to as a
“solemn […] owl” (p.6), “Poor old Pantaloon!” (p.4-5-6)
and “Long-nosed Pulcinella” (p.6). She “wasn’t in the least
sorry for him” as she was planning to be far away with
Giangolini “clutching the jewel case more tightly” (p.4).
As Lord Hurtmore becomes aware of his wife’s infidelity and
thus confronts her and Giangolini, the narrator states:

"The lovers stared at him for a moment speechlessly. Lady

Hurtmore put her hand to her heart; it had given a fearful jump
and she felt a horrible sensation in the pit of her stomach. Poor
Giangolini had gone as white as his paper mask. Even in these
days of cicisbei, of official gentlemen friends, there were cases on
record of outraged and jealous husbands resorting to homicide.
He was unarmed, but goodness only knew what weapons of
destruction were concealed under that enigmatic black cloak. But
Lord Hurtmore did nothing brutal or undignified. Gravely and
calmly, as he did everything, he walked over to the table, picked
up the jewel case, closed it with the greatest care and saying: 'My
box, I think,' put it in his pocket and walked out of the room. The
lovers were left looking questioningly at each other."
There was a silence. (p.6)
 The passage above is a key passage in the story of Lord
Hurtmore, his wife and Giangolini. It divides the story into
two main parts:
- Illusionment
- Disillusionment

“silence” is the dividing point between both stages: “there

was a silence”

In the first stages, characters (Lord Hurtmore, his wife and

Giangolini) are quite immersed in their own worlds: the
Lord is busy with carnivals, music and Italian food,
whereas his wife and Giangolini are busy with their love
story and preparations to flee and thus establish a new life.
The passage in (slide 10) comes after Lord Hurtmore has unveiled his
wife’s marital infidelity:

"About half an hour after they had gone a gondola drew up at

Giangolini's door, and a man in a paper mask, wrapped in a black
cloak and wearing on his head the inevitable three-cornered hat got
out and went upstairs to the painter's room. It was empty. The
portrait smiled sweetly and a little fatuously from the easel. But no
painter stood before it and the model's throne was untenanted. The
long-nosed mask looked about the room with an expressionless
curiosity. The wandering glance came to rest at last on the jewel
case that stood where the lovers had carelessly left it, open on the
table. Deep set and darkly shadowed behind the grotesque mask, the
eyes dwelt long and fixedly on this object. Long-nosed Pulcinella
seemed to be rapt in meditation. (P. 6)

Lord Hurtmore is shocked. The moment he discovers his wife’s

infidelity is a moment of “meditation”; a moment of reconsideration,
eye-opening, self-revelation: an epiphany.
Readers’ expectations for Lord Hurtmore’s reactions are very
high and the development of the story-at this moment of
contemplation- is highly dramatic. How would Lord Hurtmore
react to his wife’s marital infidelity? What would he do? What
decisions will he take after his supposed experienced
epiphany? Will he reconsider himself and the way he receives
and perceives marriage? Will he communicate with his wife?
What would the latter do? Will she escape with Giangolini?
Who would she blame for what she has done?
Characters’ critical scene of silence is a shaping and reshaping
stage in their futures. Their moment of silence is supposed to
be a moment of change. However, Mr. and Mrs. Hurtmore
would prove their inability to change. Their silence is a
moment in which they decide to keep up their own predefined
lives. She decides that “Woman’s place […] is the home- with
the family jewels”and “go and see for herself” (p.6), while
“Lord Hurtmore did nothing brutal or undignified. Gravely and
calmly, as he did everything, he walked over to the table,
picked up the jewel case, closed it with the greatest care and
saying: 'My box, I think,' put it in his pocket and walked out of
the room.[…He] was standing by the fireplace[…] expecting
[her].”(p. 6-7)
Each one of the couple opted for indifference and decided to
continue life and save one’s own interests. This proves their
materialism and inability to react against social norms. It proves
also the corruption of their souls, inner hollowness, hypocrisy and
loss. The artist is also corrupted as he proved high interests in the
jewelry though he was ready to sacrifice money and escape with
Mrs. Hurtmore.
The three characters’ corruption is quite symbolized through the
black and white masks they are wearing to fit society.The notion of
the mask is quite symbolic for the three characters’ empty souls,
lying, malicious natures, and double-edged lives; yet, they have
proven failure, malformation and weakness even being hidden
behind their fragile “grotesque” masks in “paper”(p. 6)