Publication:

Marriage and Freedom : Isabel Archer's Choice in the Portrait of a Lady.

Resumen

Henry James (1880-81) narrates the story of a fictional American lady called Isabel Archer who decides to move to England to live with her aunt and later inherits a great fortune. The novel’s story is set during the late nineteenth century, which is an epoch that has a broad historical context with transitions and revolutions in different academic fields. This analysis treats the issues developed in the book that explore, on the one hand the possibility of a woman to be free in a nineteenth century Victorian society that demands adherence to traditional beliefs in order to belong to the high, intellectual and respectful elite. On the other hand, the book presents the possibility of marriage in which women have autonomy over their decisions and lives in general.