Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady: A Fiction of Portraits I. Introduction Indicated from the title, The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James is a novel full portrait of a young lady named Isabel Archer, the main character. In first sight, it is easy to think this novel simply as a description of a lady provided by the narrator. The term “portrait” gives us a feeling that we are to see a lady fully depicted, or, portrayed inside the frame of the narrative. However, as readers read along, they get to know that there is more depth to the title and therefore that the title can imply more significance. Indeed, as the story unfolds, various versions of these “portraits” of a lady are given. They change, and new versions are constantly created and discarded. As…

Analysis of the Portrait of a Lady The Portrait of a Lady by Marie-Guillemine Benoist is shown at the San Diego Museum of Art. The painting once attributed to Jacques-Louis David and Vigee-Lebrun. However, was recently attributed to Marie-Guillemine Benoist. Although little known today, she was one of a number of prominent women artists working in Paris in the late 18th century. She studied with David and Lebrun(San Diego, CA: San Diego Museum of Art, 2015), so it is reasonable that traits from…

The characters in “The Portrait of a Lady” by Henry James are mostly American people who came in Europe at a moment in their lives. They have lived in Europe from the beginning of their life, as in the case of Madame Merle, or they came there in their adulthood, like Isabel did. Either way, the European lifestyle had an influence on their shaping of identity. Isabel Archer is the main character of James’s novel “The Portrait of a Lady”. The personality she has created while…

The initial conclusion one can draw from the critique of modern culture by both Kafka and Eliot in their portrayals of modern man is that it is them placed in these settings and their literature is simply an outlet for said critique. The modernist sentiments expressed in their works were, in part, universally held opinions amongst literary contemporaries of theirs and as such were not only a veritable representation of them coming to grips with the reality of the world around them, but also of…

An Explication of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Elliot, is a poem about a man’s psychological state of mind as he is walking through town on his way to visit a woman to ask her an important question. Instead of focusing on the woman and what he wants to ask her, he focuses on what others think of him and how he is not good enough for her. Prufrock gets himself all worked up about his physical and mental inadequacies and ends up not…

Recurring images of time, romantic disillusionment and memory reveal the inherent tension between the actual and the possible in Eliot’s poetry. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock dismantles idealistic romanticism and exposes the pessimistic perspective on life, love and time that is central to modernism. At the time of writing, in 1911, Eliot was twenty two years old, and was battling with a lack of lyrical inspiration. For this reason, critics have argued that Prufrock 's romantic hesitations…

No two men are exactly alike, not even identical twins. Some attributes, appearance, and ideology may mirror, but no two men are alike. Differences in how the world is perceived will allow these individual to stand together, but appear far apart. The modernist method of writing allows for individuals to do exactly that, stand together but appear to be far. Writers Ernest Hemingway and T.S. Eliot demonstrated such disassociation in living deliberately in time and place of Nick and J. Alfred…

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a narrative poem by T.S Elliot. It portrays the puzzling and obscure phrenic conceptions of the protagonist, Prufrock, as he guides the reader to what appears to be a peregrination. Throughout the poem’s irregular timeline, an alienated Prufrock repeatedly insists that there is something important he needs to tell the reader, but he continually states that he has time. The poem’s title insinuates that Prufrock is addressing someone he admires, or loves,…

In “The Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot, there seems to be a story that could fall under the classification of Modernism. Modernism was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and it involves negative and dark tone with a little bright light of hope hidden. Modernism started due to too many inventions during such a short time. There was a feeling that after these inventions, many cultural values will disappear and it will bring an enormous change in the society. In this poem, Prufrock…

William Wordsworth’s poem: ’Composed on the Westminster Bridge’ is a sonnet that describes London in the morning as the city is still asleep. The poem’s title: “composed on the Westminster Bridge” tells the reader that the Author is standing on the Westminster Bridge, in London and is describing the sights of the City that he can see from the Bridge. Wordsworth is fascinated by the city’s beauty. He says that the earth has nothing equal to show than this beautiful scene and that the one who…