Isabel’s Tragic Marriage in The Portrait of A Lady

Abstract

In The Portrait of A lady Henry James presents the character conflicts in three levels: the double-folded characters of the heroine Isabel Archer, her idea of ideal marriage and the cultural conflicts between Europe and America to provide the reasonableness and necessity for her marital tragedy. He highly praises Isabel for her strong belief in and persistent quest for her ideal and shows how difficult this quest is in the real world.