Portrait of a Lady -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 21:31:49 03/20/08 Thu
Author: Cara
Subject: Portrait of a Lady

This probably only interests people who know that The Portrait of a Lady is the best book in the world.

Isabel Archer has grown up reading a lot, but besides this, she has no formal education. Thus, she is regarded as brilliant, but she tends to think and act in odd, erratic ways. She goes to stay with her aunt in England, and eventually meets a lady named Madame Merle, who becomes an extraordinarily powerful mediator for Isabel. By simply mentioning some of her friend Gilbert's merits in passing, Madame Merle induces Isabel to attach so much importance to him that she marries him. Gilbert is a horrible, cruel, heartless man, but Isabel marries him because she wants to live up to Madame Merle's expectations by casting off the restrictions her family puts on her and disregarding all of society's pressures to marry well.

Anyone skeptical of whether it's the best book in the world, now you know it has a genuine Girardian core.

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