Classics and the Western Canon discussion
James — The Portrait of a Lady
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Week 6 — Chapters 26-31
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Mr Osmond appears to be a devoted father. And Isabel appears to be impressed with his daughter, Pansy, a young lady who seems to be the direct opposite of Isabel in her values and behavior. What about Pansy appeals to Isabel? Pansy is such an interesting character. To me, she's like a blank slate, on which every other character projects their own thoughts or value. Of all the characters, she's the most mysterious one. We never get an internal point of view for Pansy (and we get short windows into nearly all the others' thoughts : Henrietta, Mr Osmond, Madame Merle, Mrs Touchett, Ralph and of course Isabel). Her main traits of character are that she is a kind child, and obedient... It seems more like someone who was afraid to be abandonned when she grew up, or she heard to many time that children (and girls) should be seen but not heard.
Susan wrote: "Mr Osmond appears to be a devoted father. And Isabel appears to be impressed with his daughter, Pansy, a young lady who seems to be the direct opposite of Isabel in her values and behavior. What about Pansy appeals to Isabel?."This may be going out on a limb, but I think Isabel might envy Pansy a bit. Isabel thinks Pansy is a "blank page" but I don't think she is, at least not anymore. She has been perfectly formed by the nuns and she has a very clear role to play -- she does whatever pleases her father. She is the picture of convention, she conforms perfectly. Curiously, Osmond considers himself to be "convention itself." He says he should like to explain this comment, and then doesn't. But I think it might be what Isabel finds so interesting about him. Maybe she finds the conventional satisfying somehow. Osmond puts no restrictions on Isabel and tells her that he is in love with her as if it really didn't matter. He then sends her away with a small request -- to visit his daughter. Why?
Oh boy, there was a lot going on in these chapters & was my favorite thus far in the story. I was sorry to see Lord Warburton rejected once again and G. Osmond wheedling his way into Isabel's life and thoughts as he ascertains whether she would make a good wife for him. Although those thoughts don't run deep to they? He deems she is pleasant & interesting but not much more than that and of course that money.I am enjoying Mrs. Touchett more and more and both Madame Merle & Gilbert Osmond less. The latter related to their duplicitous, manipulative behavior. They seem to be after Isabel's money although Osmond I'm sure would be happy to be married again & to the "pleasant" Isabel and assist with Pansy moving into young womanhood.
Madame Merle seems to be losing her luster in Isabel's eyes by the end of Chapter 31.
Pansy again seems to behave too young & submissive for her age and now it seems we have been told she has no thoughts of her own, is not clever, and only wishes to do what is expected and please her father. I think she intrigues Isabel, and I wonder since they are so dissimilar if Isabel is already thinking how she could help Pansy be more independent and in charge of her own life if she became her stepmother. Hmm,.. Pansy may be the key to Isabel accepting Osmond's courtship and Osmond knows it.
My favorite quotes come from Mrs. Touchett: I don't think I know what you mean, you use too many metaphors. I could never understand allegories. The two words in the language I most respect are Yes and No. LOL.
Apologies, Mrs. Touchett intimated, were of no more use than soap bubbles, and she herself had never dealt in such articles.
It helps me when I read these to pronounce her last name as Touche!
In Rome, Isabel unexpectedly meets Lord Warburton, just back from a trip to the East. He expresses his feelings to Isabel again, and she tells him hers are unchanged. Gilbert Osmond comes to Rome and spends time with their party. Lord Warburton meets Isabel a few times and then tells her he is heading home, and Gilbert Osmond becomes aware that Isabel has rejected Lord Warburton. As Isabel prepares to join Mrs Touchett in Florence for a trip to Bellaggio, she tells Mr Osmond she is leaving, and he tells her he’s in love with her. She demurs, but before they part, he asks her to visit Pansy while she’s in Florence, and Isabel does.
The story now picks up a year later. Isabel is in Florence at the Palazzo Crescentini, waiting for a visitor. She spent five months of the last year with her sister, Lily, and her family visiting in Paris and Switzerland. When she returned to Italy, she proposed a trip to the East to Madame Merle, who accompanied her on a three month trip to Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. Afterwards, Isabel visited Madame Merle in Rome, and while she was there, Gilbert Osmond came to Rome for a three week visit during which he saw Isabel almost every day. Now, Isabel has returned to visit her aunt in Florence. Ralph has been in Corfu but is expected shortly.
I have so many questions, but will start with Mr Gilbert Osmond. Mrs Touchett and Ralph don’t like him as a suitor to Isabel, but Madame Merle does, and it looks like she is doing her best to make a match between them and to smooth his path. Why then does Madame Merle tell him he is unfathomable and “an abyss”? What does he have to offer Isabel? Is she any more receptive to his suit than Lord Warburton’s or Caspar Goodwood’s?
Mr Osmond appears to be a devoted father. And Isabel appears to be impressed with his daughter, Pansy, a young lady who seems to be the direct opposite of Isabel in her values and behavior. What about Pansy appeals to Isabel?