294
PAR.T ISAN REVIEW
must reali ze - sooner and mo re sharpl y than Ill ost pe rsons - that the
mere fac t of be ing human exposes one to circumscripti ons more abso–
lute than poverty. Still , her ability
to
act free ly persists. She asserts the
surviva l of her own potenti ality, asse rts James's romanti c fa ith
111
the
human will , acting eve n in her dying to fulfill her own curi ous pre–
dicti on, "since J've li ved all
thcsc
years as if
I
we re dead,
I
shall di e no
doubt, as if I were ali ve ."
The recei ved wi sdo m abo ut J am es is th at he inve rted the Aristotelian
hi erarchy whi ch pri vileges pl o t o ve r charac te r. But Milli cent Bell shows
with great subtl ety how pl o t, in its va ri o us meanin gs of intri gue, conspi–
racy and narrati ve, works in contradi ctory fas hi o n to test, o ppose, and re–
veal character. One casualty of the J amesian narrati ve is the marriage plot,
which no lo nge r promises th e happy reso luti o n that o ne finds in much of
Vi ctori an " rea list" fi cti o n . M arriage does not close
Port ra it
4
a Lady,
it fails
in the middl e o f the novel and m akes possible Isabel Arche r's awareness of
the inhospitality o f the world to the drea m of p lenitude. Th e effect of
Bell's reading is to m ake character and pl o t, th e main constituents of nar–
rative, th e ve ry content o f J ame s's fi ctio n . Wi t ho ut los ing connection to
realism, the novels become all egori es o f th e m aking o f fi cti o n.
D espite hi s seve ral admiring refe rences to the w o rk o f Milli cent Bell,
Ian B ell 's foc us is elsewhe re. His study osc illates be twee n the Jamesian
text and th e consume r m ark etpl ace th at eme rged at th e time of James's
writing (1832- 60). T he logic o f James's imaginati o n , acco rding to Ian
Bell, parti cipates in the logic o f the mark etpla ce. T hus
Wash ;/l,~to/l
Sqllare
is an arena fo r competin g m arket fo rces. Ca therin e Sl o pe r, " th e com–
modifi ed Ca th erin e, wo rth 'eighty tho usand a yea r'," becomes the obj ect
of a compe titi o n am o ng he r fa the r Dr. Slo pe r, her ho usekeeper Mrs.
Penniman , and he r suito r Townsend , "within the frozen world of market
practi ce ." Bell wants us " to see an intimate relati o nship betwee n forms of
writing, forms of hi story and fo rms o f finan cial behavi o r." Bell does not
declare his mo tive to be dem ystifi ca ti o n o f the m o ral-aesth eti c idi om of
the Jamesian tex t , but some thing like it seems to be at w o rk when he
chides other criti cs fo r di sc ussin g T ownsend as a " heartl ess love r" or "an
interloper," since "such ca tegoriza ti o n inevi tabl y sea ls him o ff from mate–
rial history."
The effect of such an approach is to di spl ace o ur foc us from the moral
ambiti o n of the fi cti o n to its all eged compli city w ith w hat o ne may pre–
sume to be the very targe t o f its criti cism . At least this is th e presumption
of Milli cent Bell when she w rites abo ut
W ;/l,Qs
4
the DO/Ic:
In
this novcl James presents through symboli c acti on and language the
