The Portrait Of A Lady:between Realism And Modernism

In the19th century, with the advent of the Women’s Liberation Movement and the outbreak of the Civil War, America was rife with social disturbances and great changes which had a great impact on people’s life and ideas. Under the circumstances, great changes have also taken place in the literature creation, with Realism and Modernism alternatively as the predominating literature. The novel The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, an outstanding writer living in this period, was the typical literary production during this period.Realism tends to mold the typical characters under the typical circumstance and insist on the authenticity of the writing materials as well as the material’s embodying the time spirit. Henry James in the novel successfully shapes the images of the women in the new period after the Women’s Liberation Movement and acutely penetrates into the social problem that the American citizens blindly worship the European world. Modernism breaks the traditional creation patterns and shifts their focus to the uncertain world, one full of ambiguities. This is embodied in the novel through Henry James’s characterization of the characters’ambiguous personalities as well as his adoption of the uncertain points of view. What makes the novel more valuable is the integration of Realism and Modernism through Isabel’s return.Endowed with the dual features, The Portrait of a Lady is a novel between Realism and Modernism. It marks Henry James’s great mastership in the literature creation which is shown through his interpretation of the time spirit and the penetration into the social problems.