HEIRESS OF ALL THE AGES
241
American, virtually a European, whom she takes to be what he
is not-a decent compromise between the moral notions of her
American background and the glamor of the European fore–
ground. Osmond, whose special line is a dread of vulgarity, em–
ploys a kind of sincere cunning in presenting himself to Isabel as
the most fastidious gentleman living, concerned above all with
making his life a work of art and resolved, since he could never
hope to attain the status he actually deserved, "not to go in for
honors." The courtship takes place in Rome and in Florence,
where Isabel is swayed by her impression of Osmond as a "quiet,
clever, distinguished man, strolling on a moss-grown terrace above
the sweet Val d'Ama ... the picture was not brilliant, but she
liked its lowness of tone, and the atmosphere of summer twilight
that pervaded it. . . . It seemed to speak of a serious choice, a
choice between things of a shallow and things of a deep interest;
of a lonely, studious life in a lovely land." But the impression
is false. Only when it is too late does she learn that he had mar–
ried her for her money with the connivance of Madame Merle,
his former mistress, who had undertaken to influence her in his
behalf. This entrapment of Isabel illustrates a recurrent formula
of James's fiction. The person springing the trap is almost in–
variably driven by mercenary motives, and, like Osmond, is
capable of accomplishing his aim by simulating a sympathy and
understanding that fascinate the victim and render her (or him)
powerless.* Osmond still retains some features of the old-fash–
ioned villain, but his successors are gradually freed from the
encumbrances of melodrama. Merton Densher
(The Wings of the
Dove)
and Prince Amerigo
(The Golden Bowl)
are men of grace
and intelligence, whose wicked behavior is primarily determined
by
the situation in which they find themselves.
Osmond reacts to the Emersonian strain in Isabel as to a
personal offence. He accuses her of wilfully rejecting traditional
values and of harboring sentiments "worthy of a radical news–
paper or a Unitarian preacher." And she, on her part, discovers
that
his fastidiousness reduced itself to a "sovereign contempt
'It
seems to me that this brand of evil has much in common with the
"un·
,udonable sin" by which Hawthorne was haunted-the sin of
using
other people,
of
w'riolating the sanctity of a human heart." Chillingsworth in
The Scarlet Letter
il
e~~e~~tially
this type of sinner, and so is Miriam's model in
The Marble Faun.
Ia
James, however, the evil characters have none of the Gothic
mystique
which
ia
ID
be
found
in
Hawthorne. Their motives are transparent.
