Hypermimesis - another paragraph of Cara's essay -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 19:36:07 04/27/08 Sun
Author: Cara
Subject: Hypermimesis - another paragraph of Cara's essay

Lahoucine Ouzgane describes Isabel Archer�s character as �hypermimetic� , similar to Rene Girard�s description of the modern temperament in Book III, chapter 1 of Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. �If there is nothing to direct it, the mimetic tendency will operate across all forms of human behavior without distinction� . James says himself that �her imagination was ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumpred out the window� . She has been used to a reputation for profound intelligence, and as a result has been set apart socially because of it. Having developed an unconscious egoism, she claims to do many things for the sole purpose of pleasing herself, because she has been taught by others to view herself as the only person worth pleasing. Isabel�s father contributes to her rapid-mimetic-cycling, capricious nature as well. Ouzgane neglects to mention Mr. Archer in his article as an important influence in Isabel�s marriage. Isabel remembers him as �too generous, too good-natured, too indifferent to sordid considerations� . James mentions that Mr. Archer �had squandered a substantial fortune� . Thus, when Isabel marries into poverty and calls her decision high and noble , the impulse, like nearly all her impulses, is mimetic. By the time Isabel has become friends with Madame Merle, James informs us that she has taken to exclaiming, �I should like dreadfully to be so!� Isabel moves from one model to another so rapidly that until she leaves Gilbert the object of her desire is the same. She desires autonomy, whether she desires it according to Henrietta the journalist, Mrs. Touchett the eccentric, Madame Merle the mysterious, or Gilbert Osmond the inhuman and cruel.

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