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The Portrait of a Lady
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2023
My first chapter, on The Portrait of a Lady, focuses on Isabel Archer’s promise to her stepdaughter Pansy not to abandon her. Since James does not disclose what is passing through Isabel’s mind when she decides to return to Pansy’s father Gilbert Osmond at the end of the novel, we have no way of knowing whether this promise plays any part in her reasoning. The crucial point, however, is that the promise is kept regardless of Isabel’s intentions, proof. I argue, that James views Isabel’s character as itself a kind of promise, one that exceeds the novel in which she appears.
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