James’s purpose in writing The Portrait of a Lady is to express a certain reality, to describe a certain experience (Scott). Each of the cities is developed as detailed as the characters, “intimately observed and thoroughly respected as an individuality” (Brownell). Especially in the case of Isabel, all the cities that she encounters elicits a different connection and response: “Isabel’s feeling of liberty and danger on London’s streets…and then to see Isabel’s immense consolation, in her grief, amid the ruins of Rome.” However, wherever she goes, Isabel seeks shelter in the cities around her. For example, all Isabel wanted in London was to be lost in the “city spectacle” where all the suitors are gone and the “social life falls away” (Walker). Not only do the metropolitan cities reveal a little about the inner thoughts of the characters in The Portrait of a Lady, but they also reveal the realistic reaction to the feminist movement and the “New Woman” in those respective cities in the nineteenth
James’s purpose in writing The Portrait of a Lady is to express a certain reality, to describe a certain experience (Scott). Each of the cities is developed as detailed as the characters, “intimately observed and thoroughly respected as an individuality” (Brownell). Especially in the case of Isabel, all the cities that she encounters elicits a different connection and response: “Isabel’s feeling of liberty and danger on London’s streets…and then to see Isabel’s immense consolation, in her grief, amid the ruins of Rome.” However, wherever she goes, Isabel seeks shelter in the cities around her. For example, all Isabel wanted in London was to be lost in the “city spectacle” where all the suitors are gone and the “social life falls away” (Walker). Not only do the metropolitan cities reveal a little about the inner thoughts of the characters in The Portrait of a Lady, but they also reveal the realistic reaction to the feminist movement and the “New Woman” in those respective cities in the nineteenth