Isabel and Pansy: The Ironic Tales of Fate in The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James

During the late 19th and early 20th century a proclaimed "gender crisis" had availed itself unto American culture through the recently present ideal of an economically independent woman. Due to a variety of social forces and awareness this "new woman" attempted to reinvent the economic and social status of females at the turn of the century. Many American novels at this time attempted to reflect this new gender phenomenon within its pages by exploring the possibilities and fate of a woman supposedly set free from societal constraints through independent wealth or income. An example of one such novel includes The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James. This novel contends with the ideals of the "new woman" through the use of several of his female characters, exemplifying the extremes of both the "new woman" and her counterpart. James's novel, however, refuses to place him in the position of either staunch critic or open supporter of the ideals of the emerging independence of women. Instead he deconstructs the "new woman" paradigm, Isabel Archer, into a complex web of irony by pairing this economically independent woman with her economic and societal opposite, Pansy. It is in the relationship of these two women that James is able to truly unravel the irony of the fate of Isabel Archer.

The reader's first notion of Isabel is that of a woman who does not want to marry, but instead wants to see the world and not be constrained by the bonds of marriage. When her uncle bestows her with a fortune it seems as though her wish will be granted. However, as soon as her autonomy is made possible, James snatches it away with his masterful use of dramatic irony. He affronts Isabel's will of independence through her marriage to Gilbert Osmond. He writes:
What had become of all her adours, her aspirations, her theories, her high estimate of her independence and her incipient conviction that she should never marry? These things had been absorbed in a more primitive need-a need the answer to which brushed away numberless questions, yet gratified infinite desires. (297)

The tone of this passage evokes the notion of acting on a flurry of feminine emotion while simply brushing away the steadfastness of ambition that Isabel had once so desired. The 'primitive need' James is alluding to is a suggestion that although Isabel believes herself to stand above the societal conventions surrounding women and marriage, her basic feminine instinct, her 'infinite desires', to attach herself to a man is much too overpowering for her to resist. Although Isabel's reasons for marrying Gilbert Osmond seem to gratify her sense of independence,"This dislike [for Osmond] was not alarming to Isabel; she scarcely regretted it; for it served mainly to throw into higher relief the fact, in every way so honorable, that she married to please herself" (294), her actual marriage only bestowed feelings of entrapment and failure in Isabel. In fact, the entire orchestration of the marriage was a plan devised without any of her control. She simply failed to exhume herself from the traditional role of the wife, while failing to be just that. In an exchange with Ralph, Isabel exclaims, "I hope it may never be my fortune to fail to gratify my husband's", to which Ralph passionately responds, "Ah, that's willful, that's unworthy of you! You were not meant to be measured in that way-you were meant for something better than to keep guard over the sensibilities of a sterile dilettante!" (292). Isabel's want to please her husband's 'sensibilities' seem to the reader and to Ralph to undermine her self-proclaimed route to something better, to some sort of unprecedented fate for a young woman in her social and economic position. One would expect Pansy, Osmond's daughter, to have her fate sealed by Osmond, but not Isabel. However, one must ask if James shares Ralph's regard for the way in which Isabel is to be 'measured'. Does James believe Isabel, or any woman for that matter, to be above the musings and critiques of a man? To Ralph's dismay it became apparent that whatever Isabel had represented in the past, a beacon of independence or freedom for women, she now simply "…represented Gilbert Osmond" (331).

When James introduces the reader to Pansy, it is as though she is there to stand in opposition to Isabel. Where Isabel strives to be a version of this "new woman", Pansy perfectly contents herself with being the most conventional of "convent flowers"(220), aiming to please every wish of her father. Isabel and Pansy represent two sides of the same coin; both constitute the whole of Gilbert Osmond's life and try to appease his sensibilities; however, where Isabel fails to be molded into Osmond's mouthpiece, Pansy "…was really a blank page, a pure white surface…"(268) still completely malleable to Osmond's hands. Isabel cannot grapple with the fact that Pansy and her may have a thread of themselves in common. To Isabel, Pansy represents a person unlike herself. She concedes that, "If he [Warburton] had cared for her [Isabel] it might seem odd he should care for Pansy, who was so different…" (348). By James pairing these two women together in matters regarding men, he shakes Isabel's conception of herself to the ground. There is an absolute refusal in Isabel to accept that Warburton could love Pansy and love her, too, "If he was in love with Pansy he was not in love with her stepmother, and if he was in love with her stepmother he was not in love with Pansy" (355). With this quote Isabel is once again placing herself in opposition to Pansy. Isabel's absolute denial of any possible connection to Pansy indicates her denial of Pansy's "weakest" aspects within herself. She marvels at how, "…any one could care so much-so extraordinary much-to please" (341). In fact, Pansy states to Isabel that giving pleasure to her father is, "…what I live for" (269). Yet, in Isabel's marriage to Osmond her life becomes intrinsically connected to and involved in pleasing him as well. When Osmond relies on Isabel to secure the marriage between Pansy and Lord Warburton, Isabel concedes:

…She wished to convince herself that she had done everything possible to content her husband; she was determined not to be haunted by visions of his wife's limpness under appeal…It seemed to Isabel that if she could make it her duty to bring about such an event she should play the part of a good wife. She wanted to be that; she wanted to be able to believe sincerely, and with proof of it, that she had been that. (348)

Isabel, like Pansy, becomes an object of Osmond's critique and musings, instead of the subject of his love and affection. Within Isabel's own thought's, she objectifies her own position as a wife by referring to it as "that". The concept of the "good wife" is repeatedly objectified to the word "that". It is in this passage that James begins to unravel Isabel and hint at her true unhappiness. He indicates that Isabel wanted to 'play the part of a good wife'. With these words the reader becomes aware that Isabel is not truly capable of being Osmond's 'good wife', a formidable task for someone of Isabel's character. She can only do what she can to play the "part" of one. In essence, her life is a dramatization of her ironic fate with Osmond and her intrinsic connection with Pansy.

The comparison of Isabel and Pansy as being two sides of the same coin becomes poignant within the concluding chapters of the novel. Pansy's character begins to reveal itself as Isabel's unhappiness is brought into full light. Pansy, too, is playing the "part" of a good daughter. Her true desires deeply conflict with those of her father's for her; yet, like Isabel, she concedes to his wishes in order to fulfill his vision of her future. However, Pansy enters into her fate with her eyes wide open, whereas Isabel is continuously diluted with false perceptions of reality. Before the truth surrounding her marriage to Osmond is revealed to her, Isabel asserts to Henrietta, "I married him before all the world; I was perfectly free; it was impossible to do anything more deliberate"(407). In reality, however, this was in fact not the case. Isabel was a victim of scheming and manipulation in order to secure Pansy with money and the possibility of a noble suitor. Although Pansy's well-being may have been the motivation behind Isabel's deception, she also represents a beacon of truth and a source of startling wisdom for Isabel. Ironically enough, Pansy ends up controlling her fate more than the economically independent Isabel was able to.

Pansy's dealings with Lord Warburton prove her capability to somewhat control her future. After Isabel discovers how Pansy was able to deny Warburton so certainly without angering her father she becomes, "touched with wonder at the depths of perception of which this submissive little person was capable; she felt afraid of Pansy's wisdom" (394). Isabel's fear of her wisdom stems from her own insecurities of the wisdom of her own life choices. Isabel is struck by Pansy's cleverness and is in the same sense mourning the lack of her own in her present situation. She continues to ponder Pansy, "There was something brilliant in her lucidity…Pansy had a sufficient illumination of her own, and Isabel felt that she herself had no light to spare from her small stock" (394). Within Pansy, Isabel sees, "brilliant lucidity" and "illumination"; adjectives of clarity, light, and truth. Isabel, once an inspiration of independence and light herself, now longingly looks upon someone she once thought so different from her.

Isabel's discovery of the truth in Pansy's thoughts and actions parallels her journey of discovery of the truth of her marriage to Gilbert Osmond. Isabel and Pansy's lives were both dependent upon the will of Osmond. After Pansy's silent rebellion against marrying Lord Warburton and subsequent stay in the convent her will to do her father's will is strengthened. As Pansy is relating this to Isabel, Isabel " laid her hand on Pansy's as if to let her know that her look conveyed no diminution of esteem; for the collapse of the girl's momentary resistance (mute and modest though it had been) seemed only a tribute to the truth of things" (462). Pansy's ability to realize the "truth of things" emphasizes Isabel's lack of ability to do so in her own life. Once the truth had been revealed to her, it was too late for Isabel to change her past. However, Isabel's ironic twist of fate is left unfinished, as well as that of Pansy's. James leaves the story of Isabel Archer in a state of unanswered discord. The "truth of things" may seal both Isabel's and Pansy's futures to that of Gilbert Osmond, or perhaps the "truth of things" could set them free.

Works Cited
The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James Cc. 1999 New York