The Portrait of a Lady 617social ties and unspoken expectations for anyone to
enjoy complete freedom.
However, James is no bleak pessimist. At the
end of the novel, Isabel has acquired the kind of
knowledge and experience that she needs to assert
herself. She rises above her husband’s control when
she decides to visit Ralph in England, and she
takes another step forward when she decides to go
back to Italy instead of escaping to America with
Goodwood. Under her guidance, Pansy will be able
to learn all the things that Isabel learned too late. If
Isabel has lost her freedom, she will at least secure a
better fate for her stepdaughter.
Timo Müller
innocence and experience in The Portrait
of a Lady
For Isabel Archer, the journey from America to
Europe is a journey from innocence to experience.
Back in Albany, she spent most of her time in her
cozy, protected home reading novels and philosophy
books. In Europe, on the other hand, she has to
manage her own life, and it turns out that her inno-
cent youth has hardly prepared her for that task. She
goes to Europe because she finds it “picturesque”—
one of her favorite words—and expects to see some
castles with real ghosts in them. When she has to
deal with European high society, its unspoken codes
and its complicated structure, she is completely off
her guard. Over and over again, she forms wrong
opinions of people she meets and cannot distinguish
false friends from real friends. She turns down the
advice of her experienced, well-meaning aunt but
accepts the advice of Serena Merle, who is dishon-
est and interested only in her own gain. Instead of
judging people by what they say and do, she tends
to project her own naïve ideas on them: She is fas-
cinated by Madame Merle, who plays the piano and
talks about interesting things, whereas the sound
advice of her aunt and cousin sounds slightly boring
to her. Calculating and experienced, Osmond knows
how to make use of Isabel’s lack of judgment. He
has no personality of his own but plays along with
Isabel’s romantic ideas, so that he appears to her as
an ideal guide and companion: She “waited, with a
certain unuttered contentedness, to have her move-
ments directed; she liked Mr. Osmond’s talk, his
company; she felt that she was being entertained.”
Isabel’s naïve innocence leads her to make the great
mistake of her life. It is only after her marriage to
Osmond that she realizes how dull, dishonest, and
incapable he really is.
When she finds out about the love affair between
Osmond and Madame Merle, Isabel turns away
from her husband and begins to judge her situation
more objectively. She sheds all the innocent, roman-
tic ideas of her childhood and begins to behave as
an adult rather than as Osmond’s immature child-
wife. This can best be seen in her relation to Pansy:
Up to this point, Isabel has been Pansy’s playmate
rather than her stepmother, but now she assumes
responsibility for the child. When Osmond wants
to marry Pansy to Lord Warburton, Isabel’s former
suitor who still cares more for her than for Pansy,
Isabel prevents the scheme through her passive
resistance; when Osmond reacts by sending Pansy to
a convent, Isabel visits her and promises to protect
her as best she can. This might be one reason why
Isabel decides to go back to Italy in the end: She
wants to protect her innocent stepdaughter from the
selfish scheming of Osmond and Madame Merle,
just as she would have needed protection herself
some years earlier, when she fell for their plot and
married Osmond.
The opposition of innocence and experience is
related throughout the novel to the opposition of
America and Europe. The Americans who come
to Europe (Isabel and her friend Henrietta) are
portrayed as somewhat naïve but innocent in a posi-
tive sense: They are honest, outspoken, friendly, and
sociable. The Europeans appear more experienced
in comparison. They are more careful and self-
controlled, which in some cases means that they can
deceive, manipulate, and take advantage of others,
but also that they are more agreeable and better
at judging people. Basically, there are three types
of Europeans in the novel: native Europeans who
embody the rich culture and history of the continent
(Lord Warburton), Americans who have moved to
Europe and have preserved their innocence to some
extent (the Touchett family), and Americans who
have assimilated to Europe and become corrupted
and false as a result (Osmond, Madame Merle).
Instead of presenting a one-sided, stereotypical