Patterns of Imagery and Figurative Language in the Novels of Henry James, with Special Reference to the Ambassadors, the Wings of the Dove, and the Golden Bowl
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PATTERNS OF IMAGERY AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN THE NOVELS OF HENRY JAMES, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE AMBASSADORS, THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, AND THE GOLDEN BOWL. John Sutherland Saner ' A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the Degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg, 1976 •May this piece of work be worthy of its dedication to Colin James Young, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere appreciation is due to Father F.C.D. Cull for the watchful and acute eye he has cast upon this work throughout its production. Also, many thanks to my patient typist, Mrs. Mery11 Johnston, my proof readers, Vicky Anderson, Janice Thomson and Liz Shorten and especially the girls in the Wits Inter Library Loans office for their untiring work in procuring material which would otherwise have been inaccessible. v.i ABSTRACT The central purpose of this dissertation is to set out and analyse James's use of the image-pattern as a stylistic device in the novels. Through constantly regarding the imagery as com plementary to theme, it emerges that James's technique in his employment of imagery progresses from an early, rather simple form to the highly complex and mature state of the final novels. In these final works, it is submitted, James's art, especially in the field of imagery, reaches its zenith. In the Introduction, imagery is defined and stress is laid upon the necessity for always examining imagery within its context in the novel. It is repeatedly averred that the value of imagery should emerge primarily from its function as part of the work of art, and not as a result of any preconceived ideas as to its nature. Also explained in this section of the dissertation are the reasons for choosing the novels actually selected for close Scrutiny. Chapter One contains a survey of critical attitudes to James's use of imagery. It "here becomes apparent that those critics con centrating closest upon the texts themselves, approach most nearly the true character of the various image-patterns. Roderick Hudson and The American are examined in the first part of Chapter Two, and both are seen to contain images predominantly two- dimensional and relatively simple, although small advances in technique are perceptible in the later Work. In part two, the image-patterns of The Portrait of a Lady are seen to possess a density and complexity not apparent in any previous novel> but The Old Things, written after The Portrait, displays a lack of cohesion within its image-structure. This disparate quality of the imagery is demonstrated to be at variance with the book's tightly woven thematic content. In Chapters Three, Four and Five, a very close examination of the image-patterns in The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl is undertaken in order to show the progress James made as he advanced from his earlier works, and also the final maturity he achieved in his use of the image. In the Conclusion the various findings of the dissertation are drawn together. It is then pointed out how James's concept of the 'V vii image as a stylistic device is linked to his major themes in a more general and universal sense than merely within the works themselves; in short, that the image-pattern is one of the most rewarding avenues of approach in the examination of James's art. iy CONTENTS ;kx : PREFATORY NOTES . ... ‘ • v ABSTRACT ............. vi INTRODUCTION ............................................ 1 CHAPTER ONE : A Survey of Critical Attitudes ..... 17 CHAPTER TWO : Imagery in the Earlier Novels Part One : Roderick Hudson and The American ...... 57 Part Two : The Portrait of a Lady and The Old Things , 83 CHAPTER THREE : The Ambassadors ..... 115 CHAPTER FOUR : The Wings of the Dove..................... 159 CHAPTER FIVE : The Golden Bowl .................... 195 CONCLUSION : 239 FOOTNOTES : 251 BIBLIOGRAPHY : ............................ 291 V PREFATORY MOTE AND ABBREVIATIONS Throughout this dissertation American spellings have been corrected up to their English equivalents in each instance. Brackets have been used where the parenthetical statement does not form part of the flow of a sentence. In all other instances they have been omitted. Abbreviations : The following abbreviations have been used wherever, in the interests of concision, they have seemed applicable: a) The Art of the Novel for The Art of the Novel.by Henry James. Intro, by R. P. Blackmur. London : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. b) Notebooks for The Notebooks of Henry James. Ed. by F. 0. Matthiessen and Kenneth B. Murdock. New York : Oxford University Press, 1961. c) Short Stories for The Complete Tales of Henry James, in twelve Volumes. Ed. by Leon Edel. London : Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962 - 64. d ) Henry James : Bibliography for A Bibliography of Henry James, by Leon Edel and Dan H. Laurence. London : Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957. e) Wings for The Wings of the Dove. f) The Portrait for The Portrait of a Lady. g) Critical Essays for Henry James : A Selection of Critical Essays. Ed. by Tony Tanner. London : MacMillans, 1968. h) The Question of Henry James for The Question of Henry James : A Selection of Critical Essays. Ed. iy F . W. Dupee. New York : H. Holt and Co., 1945. INTRODUCTION There are two things which I am confident I can do very well: one is an introduction to any literary work, stating what it is to contain, and how it should be executed in the most perfect manner; the other is a conclusion, showing from various causes why the execution has not been equal to what the author promised to himself and to the public'. Ben Jonson In 1909 Henry James wrote We can surely account for nothing in the novelist's work that hasn't passed through the crucible of his imagination, hasn't, in that perpetually simmering cauldron his intellectual pot-au-feu, been reduced to savoury fusion. We here figure the morsel, of course, not as boiled to nothing, but as exposed, in return for the taste it gives out, to a new and richer saturation.! Here then, is the way James imaged the transforming, enriching and unifying power of the novelist's mind. Since an image is primarily a projection of the imagination, in this passage, through the use of the cooking figure, J^nes suggests how closely imagery is connected with the function and inspiration of this artistic faculty. In short, a study of imagery such as the present one, ultimately leads directly back to the source of all creativity, a source to be found in the artist's imagination. Such a study, therefore, sets out to analyse art in the most objective fashi i; that is, by measurement solely against the intentions of the mind which has produced it. Only then will its true worth emerge, for 'the deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer'.^ It is the con tention of this dissertation that James's use of imagery in the novels, particularly in his last completed three, bears out T.S. Eliot's assertion that his fellow American 'had a mind so fine that no Idea could violate it'.3 In the same way as he thought imagery and the imagination to be closely allied, so James always believed that subject and style Were inseparable in a work of art; for him they formed an 'organic whole'. In 'The Art of Fiction' (1884), he discusses how the 'idea' or subject of a novel, and its form, are Indissolubly connected, writing that in proportion as (a) work is successful the idea permeates and penetrates it, informs and animates it, so that every Word and every punctuation-point contribute directly to the expression, in that proportion do we lose cur sense of the story being a blade which may be drawn more or less out of its sheath. The story and the novel, the idea and the form, are the needle and thread, and I never heard of a guild of tailors who recommended the use of the thread without the needle, or the needle without the thread A The noteworthy feature of this passage is James's use of vivid imagery to illuminate what he is asserting. By this method he points 3 implicity to the close relationship which should exist between imagery and content. Significantly too, the metaphor of the tailors with their needles and thread is used, James here suggesting, in figurative form, the importance of carefully piecing together the various materials which need to be joined so as to fashion a novel suited to be called a work of art. Again, the imagery is even more revealing, for a tailor sews garments from patterns, and patterns of imagery are amongst the most noticeable technical devices James uses to hold together and shape the themes upon which his attention is centred. These patterns of imagery, and their connection with the themes, are the focus of this work. Since, therefore, imagery and subject-matter are so closely inter twined, a study of the former should lead to a clearer understanding of the central themes of James's novels. As F. W. Marsh says, it seems reasonable to suppose ... that a poet's genius will appear most clearly in the figurative images that he creates to convey his meaning, that study of a poet's imagery will reveal the poet's basic intentions concerning teality.-’ ® There seems no reason to assume why this should not be equally so for a novelist. Similarly, Northrop Frye regards the 'examination of ... imagery ... With a view to bringing out its distinctive pattern',6 as the starting point of formal criticism.7 Following the impact of these statements, it is the purpose of this dissertation to show how James's image-patterns, expecially those in the later novels, are finely used to illuminate and suggest the particularity, complexity, and ultimately the universality of his themes.