Isabel
Archer is the lady whose ‘portrait’ James offers us in the novel.
She is the woman “affronting her destiny”. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph wonders, “What will she do?” Towards the close of the novel,
Henrietta asks Isabel, “What have you done with your life?” Between
these two questions lies the tragic-comedy of the life of Isabel.
The
character of Isabel Archer is fully developed by James. Her development is the
development from happiness to suffering, from love to hatred, from vivacity to
dispiritedness. Isabel’s character is the central character around which other
characters, such as Ralph, Caspar, Lord Warburton, Henrietta, Osmond, Madam
Merle and the Touchetts rotate.
One of
the distinguishing features of Isabel’s character is her deep love for liberty
and freedom. It is her innocence and independence which attract Daniel
Touchett to give her financial freedom. She tries her best to maintain her
mental freedom even in the face of adversity and also to maintain her dignity
and individuality throughout. It is this quality that draws Ralph to her.
Neither Ralph’s sympathy nor Lord Warburton’s glamour can overcome her sense of
freedom, and eventually, both are fascinated by her.
Another
feature is her romantic idealism. From the very beginning, Isabel’s approach to
life is romantic, idealistic and theoretical. James observes that she is a person of many
theories; her imagination is remarkably active. One can notice how
Isabel puts her theories of self-development into practice. One of the methods
is that of refusal or rejection. She avoids any commitment to anyone. Caspar
Goodwood suggests coercion, oppression and constraint on the plain physical
level. Lord Warburton suggests immobilisation on the social level. Isabel
rejects the first on physical reasons and the second on theoretical grounds of
indefinite expansion.
Isabel
is a pretty young woman of sparkling vivacity. She brings freshness and charm
wherever she happens to be; however, she is sexually cold and frigid. When she is
faced with an emotional situation, such as her suitors proposing to her, she
becomes unnerved and fear-ridden. From her lovely physical make-up, mental
independence and rich legacy, the reader can well deduce that Isabel was
apparently made for happiness, but events took such a sharp turn that she fell victim to her own idealistic notions. Her ‘sentience’ is the vital force of
her ‘choice’, but her choice deceives her because she wishes to see life whole
and full. She chooses Osmond, prompted by his idealism and sophistry, and this
wrong choice lands her in misery and sorrow.
Her choice
of Osmond as a husband is a result of both admirable and not-so-admirable elements in her nature. Her excessive confidence in her own judgment, her sense
of her own superiority, her shying away from indications of violent passion, are
no less weighty elements in her decision than her eagerness for experience, the
liveliness and freshness of her responses, her admiration for what seems to be
unworldliness, the superiority to things material, a devotion to things
beautiful. The qualities and shortcomings of Isabel are explained, even
her return to Osmond- her fear of sex, her high sense of marriage, her moral
seriousness, her pure conscience, her linking to a civilised way of life, her
promise to Pansy and her preference for a life of suffering. In the words of Richard Chase, “Despite her deeply
repressed sexuality, Isabel remains among the most complex, the most fully
realised and the most humanly fascinating of James’s characters.”
