Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1986 Suicide in Henry James's Fiction. Mary John Joseph Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Joseph, Mary John, "Suicide in Henry James's Fiction." (1986). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4303. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/4303 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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SUICIDK IN HENRY JAMES'S FICTION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Donnrtniont of Kn<>lisli by Mary John Joseph B.A., University of Kerala, India, 1959 M.A., University of Kerala, India, 1961 December, 1986 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from Southern University and A & M College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that enabled me to do doctoral studies under provisions of the Consent Decree. Special thanks are due to Dr. Pinkie Gordon Lane, retired chairperson of the Department of English at SUBR, for her support and encouragement and to the administrators of the Consent Decree Program at Southern University, especially Dr. Wesley Cornelious McClure, Dr. Dolores R. Spikes and Ms. Margaret S. Ambrose. Mrs. Esther Q. Moran, the present acting chairperson of the Department of English, has shown understanding and consideration with scheduling and teaching load during the finishing stages of this dissertation. Ms. Mercedese Broussard got into the spirit of the project with her efficient and undivided attention to the editing of the work. My special thanks to Prof. Daniel Mark Fogel, under whom I studied the works of Henry James and who patiently read successive drafts of this dissertation and offered expert advice. His able direction made the awesome challenge of the Master an enjoyable experience. His ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. diligence in providing progress reports on my Ph.D. program as required by provisions of my leave from Southern University made the extensions of my leave possible. The other members of my committee— Professors John R. May, J. Gerald Kennedy and Joseph Kronick— through their willingness to read the dissertation as each chapter was completed, made revisions easier. Their suggestions throughout the entire project have been invaluable. A special vote of thanks to Prof. Josephine A. Roberts for her unfailing enthusiasm and encouragement and to Prof. Patrick H. Martin of the Law Center for agreeing to serve as my minor professor. My thanks «ore due also to my husband and my children for their support and understanding. My husband Joseph's mastery of the word processing technique made repeated revisions and final formatting of this dissertation much easier than it would otherwise have been. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Dedication To the memory of my parents iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Dedication iv Table of Contents V Note on Texts Used vi List of Abbreviations Used vii Abstract viii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Suicide: General 27 Chapter 3 Autobiography 93 Chapter 4 Displacement 158 Chapter 5 The Failed Quest 202 Bibliography 271 Appendix: List of Works Studied 281 Vita 282 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Note on Texts Used For all works included in James's New York edition, the texts used are those of the 26-volume New York edition. Parenthetical references to these in the body of the dissertation are identified by the volume number in Arabic numerals separated from page numbers in Arabic numerals by a colon. The texts of tales not included in the New York edition are those from The Complete Tales of Henry James, ed. Leon Edel. Parenthetical references to these are identified by the letters "CT" followed by volume and page numbers in Arabic numerals separated by a colon. Watch and Ward is listed separately in the Bibliography. vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abbreviations Used Documentation in this dissertation follows the MLA Style Manual, 1985. As such, documentation is included in the body of the text. For the sake of convenience, the following abbreviations are used for parenthetical references to often-used sources. A Aries, The Hour of Our Death AA Alvarez, The Savage God AUT James, Autobiography, ed. F. W. Dupee CT James, The Complete Tales, ed. Edel D Durkheim, Suicide Life 1 The Life of Henry James, Vol. 1 Life 2 The Life of Henry James, Vol. 2 F Feinstein. Becoming William James L 1-L 4 Henry James Letters, ed. Edel. N The Notebooks of Henry James, ed. Hatthiessen and Murdock. P James, "Prefaces to the New York Edition" vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract A writer who emphasizes the workings of the minds of his characters by working "2ui acre of embroidery on an inch of canvas," James calls attention to the portrayal of self-willed deaths in his fiction. Writing in the period following the glorification of the suicidal deaths of Werther and Chatterton, James creates several suicidal characters. Having grown up in a highly individualistic family that emphasized the exercise of free will, and being one who revels in the probing of his characters' consciousnesses, James considered important the role of will in matters of life and death. The ruinous effects of displacement in his self-destructive characters further accentuate the autobiographical element in his suicide fiction. A journey, either physical or mental, the most inalienable part of the quest and an integral part of James's life, also symbolizes the failed quests of many of his suicides. For purposes of this study, characters who willfully courted death at their own hands through violent means cuid those who died because of the more passive loss of will to live are equally important. Therefore, the term suicide is used in the sense of Emile Durkheim*s late viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nineteenth-century definition as applying to "all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result." Thus, Daisy Miller's willful contracting of fatal malaria emd the fatally ill Hilly Theale's turning her face to the wall are as much suicidal acts as Hyacinth Robinson's putting a bullet through his heart or Agatha Grice's consumption of poison. Ten instances of physical suicide and eight instances of symbolic suicides in a total of sixteen novels and tales are closely analyzed in this study. Personal experiences, the sense of displacement resulting from trans-Atlantic travels and social mobility, and failed guests characterize James's