Essays on Henry James

Washington Street, penned by Henry James, is a work of realist fiction, which takes on the cliché plot line of a traditional romance. In essence, a plain, naive, and inherently good young woman is pursued by an older man with ulterior motives. From within this traditional plot structure, James explores the nature of relationships, with a particular interest in marriage. Overall, he presents marriage as a troupe established for social purposes and essentially forming a simplistic social contract, with romance removed, or ruined by the interplay of social demands and questionable motives. This can be directly contrasted with the ...

Throughout time, people have asked themselves what it means to be human. This has the obvious correlate of how one should lead one’s life. If it does not have intrinsic meaning, as many people started to believe in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, then one is left to one’s own devices to make something out of it. Artists have depicted this in many ways; Henry James’ The Beast in the Jungle and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are two masterpieces that discuss the importance of making the most of one’s time on Earth. They ...

ANALYZE THE TROPE OF VIOLENCE IN ‘ANOTHER COUNTRY’

The story of an unsuccessful musician and his death is a knowingly violent one. The features of violence shape the general image of “Another Country”, revealing the deepest secrets of its characters and leading the plot to unexpected fields. The trope of violence, present in “Another Country” starts before Rufus’s death and is directly connected to him. As the story develops, violence starts to come out in other characters’ relationships. The violence, which takes place in Rufus’s life, is mainly focused around his affair with Leona and Eric. In fact, the origins of heterosexual relations are rooted ...

Literature Review: Henry James's Daisy Miller

Daisy Miller is a novella written by Henry James, first published in the Cornhill Magazine in the summer of 1878 and reprinted as a novella (James). The book serves as an allegory in which James contrasts the young American culture with the sophisticated European lifestyle he was well acquainted with (D. M. Biography). The question arises whether Daisy, Annie P. ‘Daisy’ Miller is an innocent victim, involved in societal expectations far above her understanding or whether she is as contemptible as her actions seem to suggest. James uses symbolism (D.M. Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory) in this carefully constructed novella to portray Daisy’ ...

The aim of this essay is to present you with the reflections drawn upon the reading of the novel ‘Daisy Miller’ written in 1878 by Henry James. Daisy Miller has been considered to be the first international novel by Henry James and has been treated as an international piece of writing which has managed to build a bridge between Europe and America, on behalf of literature readers throughout years. This essay will focus on the issue of innocence and the way in which it is presented in the novel. There has been lots of heated debate concerning the way in ...

The aim of this essay is to present you with an analysis and detailed description of Daisy Miller’s character. Who is Daisy Miller? She is a young girl, holding the leading character in the short story ‘Daisy Miller’ written by Henry James. Henry James, though born in America, has been considered more of an English rather than an American writer who has gained wide credibility within the borders of the literary community. He is a writer prominent for his writing style which depicts details of his era, criticizes indirectly the faults of the society and social structure of his time ...

Introduction

Unattainable love is something that all of us have experienced at some point in our life. It is both a painful and learning experience, and a subject that has inspired numerous artists both in literature and in the visual arts. It has also urged many to become better persons, although there are also others who choose to just give up in despair.

One of the most beautiful ways of expressing the sorrow, despair, and frustrations that come with unattainable love is through the art of literature. In this regard, this paper reviews three prose and three poems that dwell on the ...