How Does Henry James Present The Conflict Between Women And Society?

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The nineteenth century was a large feminist movement as women pushed against their “roles in society.” Women were beginning to act contrary to “expected” beliefs and actions. To expose and respond to this social inequality, many women took to writing- novels, letters, pamphlets, and speeches. Overall, literature during this time often focused on the conflict between women and society. Henry James was an American author often regarded as an important figure in the literary culture of the nineteenth century, focusing on literary realism and trying to capture life as realistically as possible. In The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James reveals the realities of how society’s expectations of women and unequal gender relations in marriages affected women of the …show more content…
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

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