文档介绍：the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who "affronts her destiny" and finds it overwhelming fall prey to the sinister design of two vulgar & unscrupulous expatriates, Madame Merle & Gilbert Osmond
The Portrait of a Lady
1. Main characters analysis 2. James’s major concerns 3. Main approaches to interpret the novel 4. Inspiring questions and thoughts sharing
Four parts of the presentation
Main Character Analysis
Intelligent
Independent
Imaginative
Idealistic
Isabel Archer
Inquisitive
Main Character Analysis
Gilbert Osmond
On surface
In reality
Handsome Intelligent Profound Charming Unworldly Artful ……
Vicious Calculating Shallow Contemptible Conventional hypocritical ……
A sharp contrast with Isabel
Main Character Analysis
Madame Merle
On surface
In reality
Charming Cultured posed ……
Calculating Hypocritical Dishonest pitiful ……
A sharp contrast with Isabel
Woman with a past; Lady of experience;
Main character Analysis
Pansy
Innocence
Depth
In possession
In the possession
The international theme
The meeting of American and Europe American innocence in contact and contrast with European decadence& its moral& plications
The Americans in Europe America: youthful, passionate, free of fetters of traditions& conventions Europe: sophisticated, stable, abiding by traditions & conventions
Isabel Archer: unconventional, even disrupt conventions Gilbert Osmond & Madame Merle: Europeanized Americans Mrs. Touchett: a defender of etiquette and European rules Caspar Goodwood: a typical American free of conventions and makes his own Henrietta Stackpole: a defender of American but ironically…
The innocence
American innocence caught in the toils of European Duplicity James’ fictional world is peopled almost always by American heroes and heroines who, confronting European sophistication, either triumph over it or are overwhelmed.
Innocence not touched by deep experience in worldly matters The innocents are candi