Madame Merle is perhaps best known as The Portrait of a Ladys secret mother, the principal source of mystery for both Isabel Archer and Henry Jamess readers. I perceive her character through the lens of another womans mysterythrough Jamess career-long critical story of the riddle of the greatest of all women of letters: George Sand. Madame Sands annexation of masculinity inspired in James a series of reflections on gender and the mastery of fiction-writing. My two-part analytical portrait examines the intersection of these concerns in Madame Merle. In the essays first part, I chart the connective tissue between Jamess critical writings about Sand and his characterization of the novels great artist (432). Focusing on questions of performativity, gender, and marriage, I address the analogously paradoxical positions into which James traps each woman. In the second part, I rely on Carolyn Devers Death and the Mother from Dickens to Freud: Victorian Fiction and the Anxiety of Origins (1998) to interpret Madame Merles diversely metaphorical role as the texts secret mother. Madame Merles reproductive power and narrative death as chief artificer of Mrs. Isabel Osmond narrate Jamess profound ambivalence about the gender of artistry. I argue that James figures his self-reflexive philosophy for achieving literary mastery, and the doubly gendered mandate of that achievement, in the battle between Osmond and Madame Merle over the authority to craft Isabels and Pansys characters.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-07252008-112328 |
| Date | 31 July 2008 |
| Creators | Bellonby, Diana Emery |
| Contributors | Carolyn Dever |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-07252008-112328/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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