tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post7601922992452340749..comments2024-03-28T15:01:12.582+00:00Comments on The little white attic : Ellipses in The Portrait of a Lady- is James "evading the personally impossible" and "disguising a deficiency"? Hai Di Nguyenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02230670162621139739noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901980733463068698.post-12206909536992421982015-11-30T18:35:47.798+00:002015-11-30T18:35:47.798+00:00Far be it from me to argue against a Jamesian such...Far be it from me to argue against a Jamesian such as Gorra, but it does seem to me that James, throughout his career, made judgements on what to depict directly and what not to depict directly based not on his own capabilities, but on what he, as an artist, feels best aids the story. In The Wings of the Dove, for instance, the scene that, one would have thought, would form the dramatic climax – the last meeting between Milly Theale and Merton Densher – takes place offstage. This is not because James felt he couldn’t depict such a scene, but because he felt the story would have a greater impact if the reader were left to imagine the scene for themselves. Instead, James achieves his denouement in the final meetings between Merton Densher and Kate Croy.<br /><br />Reading The Portrait of a Lady, this is precisely what I find fascinating – James’ decisions on what to depict directly, and what *not* to depict directly, and why he makes these decisions. Isabel’s rejections of Caspar Goodwood and of Lord Warburton are shown directly: if her acceptance of Osmond *isn’t* shown directly, it is because james wants to retain a certain mystery on this point. We aren’t supposed to know *precisely* why Isabel accepts Osmond, and the reason, I think, is that Isabel’s own motives are not precisely defined. In the scenes leading up to the acceptance, James gives us as much of Isabel’s thoughts as Isabel herself is aware of: there is n going further. I suspect that Isabel’s true reasons for accepting Osmond are unclear even to herself: the best James can do is to hint at it. It’s as if the truth were covered with a veil, and all James can do is to describe the shape the veil takes, hinting at what may lie underneath. And this seems to me in many ways the essence of James’ art - the depiction of that which cannot directly be depicted through teh most painstaking of indirections.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com