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THB UUMANISII Of HBNRY JAMES: A STUDY 07 THB RELATION BBTWESN THSliS AND IMAGERY IN THE UITSR HOVELS by ROTH TAYLOR TODASCO, B.A. , M.A. A DISSERTATION IN ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Technological College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved August , 1^ C TEXAS TECHNOLOGICAL COkkf^GP LUBBOCK. TEXAS HBRARY ^: : I i jssm ri ^01 73 Copyright loy RUTH TAILOR TODASGO 1963 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply indebted to Professor John C. Guilds for his direction of this dissertation and to the other members of my committee. Professors Joseph T. McCullen, Jr., Harold L. Simpson, Alan Lang Strout, and Everett A. Gillis, for their helpful criticism. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE INTRODOCTION 1 PART TWO HUMANISM: THE FIGURE IN THE CARPET 12 Chapter I William James and the Ethics of Creativeness 12 Chapter II Humanist Tradition and "the Full Life" ... 27 PART THREE THEME AND IMAGERY IN THE LATER NOVELS 33 Chapter I The Spoils of Poynton . • 33 Chapter II What Maisie Knew 44 Chapter XII The Awkward Age 54 Chapter IV The Sacred Fount 64 Chapter V The Wings of the Pove 75 Chapter VI The Ambassadors 94 Chapter VII The Golden Bowl 113 Chapter VIII The Ivory Tower 141 Chapter IX The Sense of the Past 150 PART FOUR CONCLUSION 156 BIBLIOGRAPHY 164 ill PART ONE INTRODUCTION American literature was approaching the spring tide of the naturalistic interpretation of human nature when Henry James spoke out with a fully articulated philosophy of humanism, attributing to man the intellectual, moral, and aesthetic power to shape cre­ atively the elmsente of experience. It is the purpose of this study to show that the novels of James's later period reflect clearly the varied aspects of his oonc<^tion of life as a purely human, but dar­ ing, enterprise, and further to show the relationship between this conception and the novelist's thematic use of imagery. His humanism ^ The tern "humanism" is used here in a recognizable philo­ sophic sense, explained fully in Part Two, Chapter II. However, the numerous special meanings which the word has acquired would seem to Indicate that an early clarification is necessary. James's humanism consists, briefly, in the recognition that man, as an intel­ lectual, moral, and aesthetic being, is "the measure of all things." The novelist's appeal is to the purely human possibilities of experi­ ence as opposed to the supernatural or the merely natural. His view of life, as it is revealed in his later works, subscribes to the complete autonomy of the Individual, who finds in this world and in no other all the Ingredients for a fulfilling existence. Though divorced from otherworldly sentiments, James maintains, on the other hand, that the individual is no n^re puppet in a deterministic universe. Concerning the varioua meanings which "humanism" has taken on in the course of history, Edward P. Cheney describes them as mani­ festations of the impulse to emphasize that which is characteristi­ cally human: "[Humanism] may be the reasonable balance of life that the early hoBanists discovered in the Greeks; it may be merely the study of the htoMtnities or polite letters; it may be the freedom from religioaity and the vivid interest in all sides of life of a Shakespeare or a Goethe; or it may be a philosophy of which man is the center and sanction. It is in the last sense, elusive as it la, that Humanism has had perhaps its greatest significance since the sixteenth century" (Encyclopedia of the Soci •! Sciences [1937], VII, 541), is seen as the controlling idea of the novels, giving them a conso­ nance of meaning that is unappreciated when they are considered in isolation of each other. His pervasive use of imagery is seen as the medium through which his vision becomes objective. It is generally recognised that James's mature writing began after his excursion into the theatre. The years 1892 to 1897 mark a kind of germination which proved fatal to his success in that medium but which provided an experience in composition that was to have radi­ cal results in his later fiction. Not only did he come to a better understanding of the dramatic presentation of character, but even more importantly for this investigation, he realized as never before the value of imagery as a means of projecting his inner vision. Since complete coverage of James's later works is not feasible, this study has been limited to the novels of his mature period beginning in 1897, novels i^ich sufficiently demonstrate the harmony between his humanistic point of view and his advanced conception of the function of imagery: The Spoils of Poynton, What Maisie Knew, The Awkward Age, The Sacred Fount, The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, The WMSKM**' II»II MWI aMMMMMMMv^B^^ ^mmmtmmmmmmt^mm MWMM«MB mmm/^t^miXimmt M^HMB ^mmam^^m .mmmmimmmmm.' mm.mmmmmm ^t^iimim,imtm^mKmmmmtmmmmtimmmmmmmmm mmmmmmim Golden Bowl, The Ivory Tower, The Sense of the Past. Studies of James's use of imagery (which have mushroomed in the past decade) are in unanimous agreement about his profound awakening to the possibilities of metaphor in the projection of consciousness. Alexander Holder-Barell writes: "The change from the use of coounon to more significant metaphors comes between The Portrait and The Old Things [The Spoils of Poynton], and it is very likely that James's experiments ^^ with the drama had a decisive influence on his more careful choice of »«2 hia metaphors. Examinations of James's late revisions for the New York Edition show him especially preoccupied with imagery. His revi­ sions, saya F. O. Matthiessen, "meant for him literally re-eeeing, as a few Instances of The Portrait may amply attest. He was determined that no abstractions should be inertly on his pages." Increasing interest in James's use of pictorial art as a fictional device has led to numerous suggestive studies. Matthiessen focusses on the com- 4 positional value of art allusions, Austin Warren on imagery as an 5 instrument of myth. The limitations of these views are pointed out by Adeline Tintner, who maintains with some fortunate reservations that art objects in James "give out a meaning proper to themiselves." "In James* fiction art . has become a collection of idols in a a religion satisfying all human needs." One of the most exhaustive studies of the novelist's use of art has recently been offered by Viola Hopkins, who examines the "pictorial effects and art allusions permeating his fiction, both early and late." All of these plunges 2 The Development of Imagery and its Functional Significance in Henry James * s Novels (Basel, Switzerland, 1959), p. 21. ^ "James and the Plastic Arts," Kenyon Review, V (Autumn 1943), 538. ^ tt>id., pp. 533-550. "Myth and Dialectic in the Later Novels," Kenyon Review, V (Autumn 1943), 551-568. ^ "The Spoils of Henry James," PMLA, LXI (March 1946), 239-240. "Visual Art Devices and Parallels in Fiction of Henry James/' PMLA, LXXVI (December 1961), 561. :* iT into James's artistic resources are confronted and occasionally con­ founded by the problem of achieving the proper balance between mean­ ing and teehniftue* Too often the balance la upset in favor of the latter, the device itself becoming the weightiest element in the dis­ cussion at the sacrifice of its relation to meaning. The present inveatigatlon has aought not only to avoid this unfortunate dichot­ omy, but has also encompassed the full range of James's allusions. "Image," as it is used in this paper, includes the artistic reference along with any figure which communicates with immediacy the feel of experience in a way idiich discursive language cannot. It is any com­ parison that pictorially reveals a character's state of consciousness or his essential attitude toward another. Austin Warren has divided JaoMs's images into two types: the conventionally beautiful meta­ phor, valuable for the momentary "pretty" effect it achieves, and the "emblematic perception," an image that reflects "a total feeling of .«8 the nature of the world, or the nature of a person. The distinction is sound, although the implications of the latter type in relation to James's humanistic values have not been explored. That is the task undertaken here. Since a piece of literature dies when meaning is divorced from form, the aim has been to guard the rapport between James's philosophical assiM^ptions and his technique. It is maintained that he relies on imagery as the most profound device available to give concrete embodiment to his humanism, and that his achievement as a novelist can be properly evaluated only through an understanding of this rapport between technique and idea. ® Warren, p. 556. To elucidate the idea, it will be ahown that the philosophy of the novelist's brother, William James, is particularly relevant to an understanding of the dynamic humanism espoused by Henry. Leav­ ing aside the question of direct lines of influence, the present approach will Juxtapose the a«ture views of these two sensitive and communicative brothers, in the belief that no two bodies of thought, one couched in the terms of philosophy, the other in the language of fiction, could express the same major premise without offering valuable complementary inaights. In order further to clarify the idea of humanism as it has emerged from the novels, a brief account will be given of the historical backgrounds of the humanistic atti­ tude. It is perhaps not too much to say that Henry James marks the expression par excellence of the humanistic point of view in itaaerican literature.
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