Abstract
The famed author Henry James, who lived from 1843 to 1916, occupies a middle-ground between the romantic authors of the nineteenth century and the modernists of the twentieth. Two of his novels, The Portrait of a Lady and Washington Square, demonstrate his evolving sensibilities, as he bridges the traditional and the modern by marrying romantic stories with unconventional conclusions. His technique is present in his use of light symbolism, which, due to an etymological connection from the era of Enlightenment, has accompanied moments of learning and understanding. Through his symbolic and literary gestures, James explores a nuanced definition of “brightness,” and its evolution to symbolize wealth and success as much as wit. Analyzing the heroines of these two texts reveals that they, as much as their author, acknowledge the changing world that surrounds them. Their epiphanies occur in a photographic style. And through both light and darkness, this process of exposure subverts literary convention to expose both harsh realities and the true nature of the men in their lives. The resulting portraiture of the heroines and the culture that surrounds them does not render the caricatures of fairytales nor the impressionistic paintings of novels, but instead depicts the photographic reality of a modernizing and unromantic world.
Recommended Citation
Grosskopf, Rose
(2020)
"Light and Darkness in the Epiphanies of Henry James’ Heroines,"
The Criterion: Vol. 2020, Article 5.
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/criterion/vol2020/iss1/5
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons