The Portrait of a Lady

Ralph is the adult son of Mr. and Mrs. Touchett, and Isabel’s cousin. He has tuberculosis, and many of his actions and inactions are defined by his illness. James describes his physicality and illness as closely connected: “Tall, lean, loosely and feebly put together, he had an ugly, sickly, witty, charming face […] He looked clever and ill—a combination by no means felicitous” (22).

Unlike Gilbert, Ralph represents positive elements of aestheticism (See: Background). Since he is dying of his illness, he enjoys the beauty of art as a counter to his suffering and impending demise. He is generous and self-effacing, even persuading his father to give half of his own inheritance to Isabel to facilitate her independence. He is an incisive judge of character, disliking Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond from early in his acquaintance with them, even though he knows he cannot hope to win Isabel for himself. At the end of the novel, Isabel defies Gilbert by visiting Ralph in England shortly before his death, emphasizing how close their bond has become.

Mr. Touchett is a secondary character in Portrait. He is an old American who has lived and made his fortune in England through banking. He owns Gardencourt and has acclimated to English culture, though he is still markedly different from the English. Mr. Touchett is intelligent and genial. He is ill with gout, and Ralph is focused on taking care of him.

Mr. Touchett has an important role in the plot of the novel. His death is the catalyst for the plot, since he gives Isabel the inheritance that changes the course of her life. His acceptance of Ralph’s proposal to give Isabel the fortune indicates his respect and love for his son, as well as his generosity. While he is generally portrayed as content with his life and evidently charmed by Isabel’s company, he expresses regret about his martial situation and Mrs. Touchett’s absence.

Lord Warburton is the owner of Lockleigh and a neighbor of the Touchetts. Physically, he is described as having “a noticeably handsome face, fresh-coloured, fair and frank, with firm, straight features, a lively grey eye and the rich adornment of a chestnut beard” (21). One of Isabel’s primary suitors, Lord Warburton represents the European ideal of masculinity. He is paired as a character with Caspar Goodwood, Isabel’s other long-standing suitor. At the same time, he is a foil to Caspar Goodwood, who represents a more stereotypical American type. Lord Warburton is also interested in liberal politics and becomes a statesman later in the novel.

Like Lord Warburton, Caspar Goodwood is contrasted with the malicious Gilbert Osmond. Caspar is representative of an American disregard for social convention. He rejects typical niceties and makes a bold and sexually charged appeal for Isabel even after she is married. James associates Caspar with imagery of armor to emphasize his hardness and traditional masculinity. Isabel thinks that “he was naturally plated and steeled, armed essentially for aggression” (164).

Caspar’s primary trajectory as a character is his increasing self-control. While he is aggressive and committed to pursuing Isabel, he generally maintains control throughout the early part of the novel. For example, when he comes to see Isabel after she writes to inform him about her engagement, she resents his “remarkable self-control” and is annoyed by his “dumb misery” (329). His self-control is characterized as connected with his masculine character, described as a “manly staying of his hand” (329). At the conclusion of the novel, he makes a less- controlled gesture of love for Isabel and kisses her passionately.

Henrietta Stackpole is initially Isabel’s exemplar of an independent woman. She “offered so high an example of useful activity that Isabel always thought of her as a model” (64) and is a journalist who writes letters for the Interviewer. She is brash and desperate to write letters with radical views, displaying a disregard for the ethics of writing about those with whom she interacts. She is a secondary character in the novel who represents a stereotypical type of American woman, full of modern confidence: Ralph suggests that Henrietta “does smell of the Future—it almost knocks one down!” (105). Henrietta also tries to offer advice to Isabel whenever she can, although their friendship sometimes cools during the novel.

Madame Merle is a widow and Mrs. Touchett’s friend. She takes a particular interest in Isabel after meeting her. Near the end of the novel, Isabel learns that Pansy is a product of an affair between Madame Merle and Gilbert, which occurred during her marriage. Madame Merle’s motivation for manipulating Isabel to marry Gilbert is based in part on her desire to provide for the daughter she has never been able to acknowledge. Like several other characters, she is a Europeanized American. Merle is French for blackbird, and the expression “un fin merle” connotes cunning.

Isabel immediately admires Madame Merle, although she also senses that “she was not natural […] her nature had been too much overlaid by custom and her angles too much rubbed away […] She was in a word too perfectly the social animal” (199). This impression is significant because it foreshadows how practiced Merle is in being able to conceal that she is Pansy’s mother, while functioning as an exemplary member of social society. Madame Merle is characterized primarily through her interactions with and machinations over others, rather than by individual action. As Isabel observes, she “existed only in her relations, direct or indirect, with her fellow mortals” (199). Along with Gilbert, she functions as an antagonist in The Portrait of a Lady. However, while Gilbert lacks redeeming qualities, Madame Merle does express care about what happens to Pansy, and eventually questions and acknowledges her bad actions.

Gilbert Osmond is Pansy’s father, Madame Merle’s former lover, and eventual husband to Isabel. He is the antagonist of the novel, and James portrays him in the tradition of a Gothic villain. He is often associated with materiality and the leitmotif of coins, which suggests his obsession with money and appearance.

Gilbert is characterized in part by what he lacks and his selfishness. Madame Merle initially describes him as a clever, distinguished man who lives in Italy with “no career, no name, no position, no fortune, no past, no future, no anything” (203). Similarly, Ralph describes Gilbert as vague and unexplained. Madame Merle notes that Gilbert paints poorly and is indolent, but that he is good to his daughter: “[I]f it were a career to be an excellent father he’d be very distinguished” (204). His gaze is “at once vague and penetrating, intelligent and hard” (233). Gilbert is petty and opportunistic. He questions Madame Merle about Isabel’s fortune when she suggests he take an interest in her, and he describes Ralph as a “long jackanapes” (246) when asking if Isabel’s cousin will be in the way of their plans.

Despite his amorality, Gilbert is similar in some ways to Ralph, as both are European Americans and collectors of art. Like Lord Warburton and Caspar, Ralph and Gilbert are both paired and set up as foils for one another. James uses Gilbert to critique the movement of Aestheticism (See: Background). He views both Isabel and Pansy as objects in his collection. He is domineering, evidenced by his desire to remove Isabel’s thoughts and control her actions, and his decision to send Pansy to the convent. Gilbert is a complex character, but he doesn’t change significantly during the course of the novel. Rather, his character trajectory is defined by Isabel’s gradual shift from being charmed by him to understanding his true, bad character.

Countess Gemini is Gilbert’s sister. She is in a bad marriage and inspires salacious rumors due to a string of public affairs. Isabel initially observes that she is a “woman of high fashion” (258). Countess Gemini is abrasive: Both her personality and her failure to comply with sexual and social norms mean that she is limited in society.

The Countess is a foil to Gilbert in that she is honest in spite of what others will think. Compared to his artifice, she is characterized as very natural. When the Countess speaks to Isabel about her engagement, she tells her that she is happy about it for her own sake since it will elevate her social status, but that she is not happy for Isabel’s sake. She is critical of her brother, and willing to express her honest thoughts on his character: “You’ll be tired when you go home, if he shows you all his bibelots [knick-knacks] and gives you a lecture on each” (260). Countess Gemini functions as a secondary character in the novel. She is important to the novel’s theme of The Interplay Between Freedom and Gender, because she doesn’t adhere to societal expectations of marriage and is punished in society for it.

Pansy is Gilbert and Madame Merle’s daughter. She is 15 when she first appears in the narrative and has just returned from years being raised in a convent. Pansy is a model of passive and subservient femininity: She is “evidently impregnated with the idea of submission […] she was a passive spectator of the operation of her fate” (239). She is likened to “a blank page, a pure white surface” (315). She is innocent and youthful, even when she ages by several years later in the novel. She is a foil to Isabel, as her driving principle is to please others rather than acting of her own volition.

Isabel enjoys Pansy’s company and feels responsibility for her, even before she becomes her stepmother. Isabel says Pansy reminds her of an “ingénue in a French play” and is different from both American and English girls: “Pansy was so formed and finished for her tiny place in the world, and yet in imagination, as one could see, so innocent and infantine” (281). Pansy’s significance as a character is primarily in how her father treats her, as her situation reveals more of his tyrannical and selfish nature.