Freedom and morality in Henry James’sNovel the Portrait of a lady

Abstract

Abstract This study aims at probing the sort of freedom practiced by Isabel Archer theheroine of the great American realistic writer Henry James and his novel “the Portrait of a Lady” a nineteenth-century character who struggles to assert her social and sexual independence in a male dominated society. Although Isabel inherits a fortune that supposedly enables her to have more autonomy, she is negatively affected by her incapacity to imagine her life outside of the social convention. The study examines the Expatriate life of this character abroad in the Old World and the effects that it left upon her future .Beside, to explore her feelings and behavior in a society with different values. The findings of the study reveal the clash of values and how the American expatriate character maintains her values and the traditions that she was brought up with in a foreign society.Finally, all those things are presented through the fictional character and the course of events in the plot