ROLE OF ISABEL ARCHER IN THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY BY HENRY JAMES

Abstract

Undoubtedly, Isabel Archer is a victim of certain delusions and inflated ideals. Isabel Archer is an abstract idealist who runs away from life because she is baffled by it and does not know how to cope with its challenges, but in her own mind she gives it the colouring of a pursuit of an exalted good. She is terribly mistaken in her belief that she knows a great deal about the world and its people. Her infinite hope that she will never do anything wrong coupled with her ignorance of the ways of the world as it was constituted ultimately leads her into the trap laid down by Gilbert Osmond believing him to be a paragon of virtue and rare embodiment of wisdom and refinement. This crucial step gives Isabel ample opportunity to discover the evil of the world in all its dreadful entirety and with all its most restrictive limitations.