| Summary: | 碩士 === 淡江大學 === 西洋語文研究所 === 85 === Title of Thesis: Total
Pages: 88 "Ground in the Very Mill of the
Conventional:" The Male Gaze of Henry James in The
Portrait of a Lady Name of Institute: Graduate Institute of
Western Languages and Literature, Tamkang
University Graduate Date: June 1997 Degree
Conferred: Master of Arts Name of Student: Hui-ch'uan Chang
Advisor: Dr. Alan Lindsay 張 慧 釧
林 亞 倫 博士 Abstract: Although James announces in his
preface to The Portrait of a Lady that he will "[p]lace the
centre of the subject in the young woman's own consciousness,"
we can sense that he structures the story only from a man's
point of view. In Chapter one, I have exploited this in
light of Laura Mulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema."
The male gaze exhibits male power. The heroine, Isabel,
attempts to return the male characters' gazes, but she can not
fight against male gaze indefinitely, because the male gaze is
supported by the enormous force of the conventional patriarchal
society. The power- relationship is disclosed clearly by means
of the male gaze. In Chapter two, I talk about the male
gaze of James. James provides an antifeminist filter for the
readers to see through to view Isabel. In other words, James
considers that women are inferior to men, and women should
assume a powerless position in society. From the first and the
second chapters of my thesis, we have seen clearly that the
male characters and James impose their mighty gazes on Isabel.
Further, in the third chapter, I talk about the controversial
ending of this novel, because it is relevant to the anti-
feminist stance adopted by James in this novel. Isabel is
forced by James powerful gaze to go back to her husband.
James shows sympathy for Isabel's plight when he says she is
"ground in the very mill of the conventional." However, on the
one hand, he is critisizing the convention. On the other hand,
he is supporting the convention by suggesting to the readers
that there is no better choice for Isabel than marriage. James
is an accomplice of the conventional; he has internalized the
conventional ideas to restrict Isabel's choice. Not only Isabel
Archer but also Henry James are ground in the very mill of the
conventional.
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