The Portraits of Some American Girls by Henry James

Henry James\u27s originality in manipulating "the international theme" does not lie in a superficial observation by an outsider. It lies in expressing, by the technique of point of view, the deep complications between the international situation as he understands it, and his moral attitude towards it. This study is to examine the American heroines of some international tales written during the middle period of his creative activity. This also refers to Yvor Winter\u27s moral viewpoint of the transatlantic conflicts, and to Leon Edel\u27s comments on each tale. In this investigation, much attention is paid to the language of the texts and to James\u27s technique of point of view, both of which are to produce some stylistic effects on the readers\u27 minds. In Madame de Mauves a puritanically chaste girl is made a victim of her French husband who thinks adultery is not so fatal to their relation. The observer of this story, however, reveals so much sympathy for the beautiful sufferer that he seems not to be qualified to evaluate the situation objectively. Four Meetings shows an intense American nostalgia for Europe, embodied in an American old maid. This innocent girl is also made a victim of her corrupted cousin in France, and fails to fulfill her passion of studying the Old World. Daisy Miller, an innocent but coquettish American girl, makes her own way in spite of much criticism from her sophisticated compatriots in Geneva and Rome. She dies of malaria, which symbolizes her defeat by the corrupted world, and she proves to be the most innocent at the end of the story. The tragedies of the two American girls in Four Meetings and Daisy Miller appeal to us as pathetic stories mitigated by the buffering function of the observers\u27 objective and fair descriptions. In The Siege oj London, conversely, an American lady with a past of multiple divorces succeeds in entering the London society by being engaged to a young English nobleman. Pandora also succeeds in getting a post in the diplomatic service for her fiance from the President of the United States. The observers of these two tales present them in "a light vein of ironic comedy," for they are objective, critical, and not involved in the conflicts of the stories. The successful heroines\u27 common idiosyncrasy can be defined as the American provincial quality, which proves to be invulnerable to the corrupted world. James, however, gives up the idea of developing this provincial type after this effort, because he is supposed not to be sympathetic with this provincialism on account of the defective attribute of its vulgarity. The types of the five heroines surveyed here are varied in their ways of living and destinies. But these varied types are supposed to reflect the novelist\u27s inferiority complex for the Old World. Out of his complex, James is supposed to create an antagonistic character among the Americans to counteract the traditional world\u27s value. This sensitive novelist, however, is inclined to express his complex indirectly through the observer\u27s viewpoint. James\u27s complicate technique, therefore, leads to the rendering of delicate effects on the readers, and his originality can be found in a unique combination of his complex and technique