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The purpose of this study is to illustrate the power image of Henry James's female protagonists through a Readers Theatre adaptation of his novels, Daisy Miller, The Wings of the Dove, and The Portrait of a Lady. Chapter I includes an introduction and defines the purpose of the thesis. Chapter II briefly examines biographical information on James. Chapter III includes the analysis of the three selected novels in relation to preparation of a performance based script for Readers Theatre. In the Appendix is the Readers Theatre script with the inclusive transition and introductory material. The illustration of a typical Jamesian woman reveals a philosophic view of the human possibilities in freedom, power, and the destructive elements that limit an independent spirit.

For the purpose of analyzing James' interpretation of the American character, it is first necessary to study his individual Americans.

The thesis focuses on a variation of James's interest in the "international theme", the effect of transatlantic influences on the development of personality, culture and idea. In the context of this theme it seeks to understand the processes in the development of, and portrayal of change in, the identities of two central characters in the fiction of Henry James, Isabel Archer and Lambert Strether. The two novels analysed, The Portrait of a Lady and The Ambassadors. have a strong contextual relevance to the ''international theme", and compass the span of James's career, providing some degrees of comparison. Beginning with a view of the preliminary vision that James had of the main elements of each central character, the thesis seeks to understand how Isabel Archer and Lambert Strether are subsequently shaped, and developed, by way of the incidents and experiences they meet, and what they make of them. Of primary importance amongst these are the relations they form with the other characters in the novel. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000.