Partial Paper Introduction -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 19:38:50 04/27/08 Sun
Author: Cara
Subject: Partial Paper Introduction

In Henry James' novel "The Portrait of a Lady", Isabel Archer selects models that possess what she considers independence or autonomy. Several times she repeats a mimetic cycle in which autonomy is both the criterion by which she selects her models and the object for which each model inspires her desire. Though Isabel develops her desire for autonomy mimetically � that is, by imitating Henrietta and Mrs. Touchett and Madame Merle�s desire for autonomy � she moves from one model to another rapidly enough that her desire remains primarily object-related. Until after her marriage with Gilbert, her desire does not cross the �threshold� of mimetic rivalry that renders its object inconsequential. When Isabel finally attains what she believes to be the highest autonomy by marrying Gilbert Osmond, she becomes tragically disillusioned. She expected her husband would free her from trivial concerns and arbitrary societal pressures. But discovering that he participates continually in a mimetic cycle of his own, she becomes disillusioned and blames her frustration on his malicious character. She searches briefly for a model, until Ralph Touchett reappears on the scene, completely dependent, and sacrificing his health in order to visit her. She adopts this self-sacrificial model very soon, rupturing her marriage and discarding her pride in order to pay respects at his deathbed. With this rupture Isabel becomes free from the mimetic domination of her former models. She only finds such freedom, however, having adopted a model of love according to which she must relinquish her desire for autonomy. After becoming somewhat conscious of the mimetic mechanism, Isabel is freed from the mimetic cycle in which she had participated throughout the novel by adopting a model of self-sacrificial love, which transforms her object-related mimetic desire for autonomy into the sacrifice of desire altogether.

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