Patterns of imagery and figurative language in the novels of Henry James, with special reference to The Ambassadors, The Wings of the dove, and The Golden bowl
Date
2015-09-10
Authors
Saner, John Sutherland
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Abstract
The central purpose of this dissertation is to set out and
analyse James's use of the image-pattern as a stylistic device
in the novels. Through constantly regarding the imagery as complementary
to theme, it emerges that James's technique in his
employment of imagery progresses from an early, rather simple form
to the highly complex and mature state of the final novels. In these
final works, it is submitted, James's art, especially in the field of
imagery, reaches its zenith.
In the Introduction, imagery is defined and stress is laid upon
the necessity for always examining imagery within its context in the
novel. It is repeatedly averred that the value of imagery should
emerge primarily from its function as part of the work of art, and
not as a result of any preconceived ideas as to its nature. Also
explained in this section of the dissertation are the reasons for
choosing the novels actually selected for close Scrutiny.
Chapter One contains a survey of critical attitudes to James's
use of imagery. It "here becomes apparent that those critics concentrating
closest upon the texts themselves, approach most nearly
the true character of the various image-patterns.
Roderick Hudson and The American are examined in the first part
of Chapter Two, and both are seen to contain images predominantly twodimensional
and relatively simple, although small advances in technique
are perceptible in the later Work. In part two, the image-patterns
of The Portrait of a Lady are seen to possess a density and complexity
not apparent in any previous novel> but The Old Things, written after
The Portrait, displays a lack of cohesion within its image-structure.
This disparate quality of the imagery is demonstrated to be at variance
with the book's tightly woven thematic content.
In Chapters Three, Four and Five, a very close examination of the
image-patterns in The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove and The Golden
Bowl is undertaken in order to show the progress James made as he
advanced from his earlier works, and also the final maturity he
achieved in his use of the image.
In the Conclusion the various findings of the dissertation are
drawn together. It is then pointed out how James's concept of the
image as a stylistic device is linked to his major themes in a more
general and universal sense than merely within the works themselves;
in short, that the image-pattern is one of the most rewarding avenues
of approach in the examination of James's art.
Description
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
for the Degree of Master of Arts.
Johannesburg, 1976