Henry James’ Use of Setting as Characterization in the Portrait of a Lady

2293 Words10 Pages
In addition to sharing their actions, thoughts, and feelings with the reader, Henry James reveals insights about the characters in The Portrait of a Lady by employing architectural and landscape imagery as a means for characterization. Rather than directly describing the characters’ appearances, James uses architectural settings to reflect the characters’ attributes, often treating the description a character’s home and context as an extension of the character’s personality. From the façade of a building to the description of a room’s interior, James presents every setting to the reader to reveal something larger about the novel’s characters. Without James’ detailed descriptions, true understanding of the book’s complex characters would be incomplete. The settings in The Portrait of a Lady cultivate a context in which the reader witnesses the transformation of Isabel Archer’s values, attitude and perspectives. In the preface to The Portrait of a Lady, James introduces his notion of architectural metaphor when he likens his writing to a building, stating, "The house of fiction has in short not one window, but a million” (7). This quote sets the stage for his use of architecture to convey information about a character’s personality. Isabel Archer’s character is reflected in the description of her home in Albany; her Uncle Touchett’s Gardencourt estate emulates the attitudes of Ralph and his father. The Lockleigh estate is a relic from another age, burdening Lord Warburton with his past. Osmond’s Florence and Rome homes, perhaps the novel’s most accurate characterizations of its inhabitant, are façade like structures designed to, respectively, fool others into thinking he is something he was not and to control people and keep them as his possessions. Through this characterization, James establishes the intimate relationship between person’s character and
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