Comment on the technique adopted by Henry James in The Portrait of a Lady.

This is an awesome novel and I am pleased to see that you
are studying it in class. Of course, Henry James is a master novelist, and uses many
different techniques as part of his style. However, one element that stands out in this
novel is the way that he uses ellipses, or the skipping over of elements of the plot
that are actually key to the narrative. One key example of this is Isabel's wedding to
Gilbert Osmond. Notice how the marriage is completely ommitted between chapters 35 and
36, and we only hear about the fact of Isabel's marriage to Gilber Osmond as if it were
an incidental event through the mouths of Mr. Rosier and Madame Merle. Interestingly,
this technique of deliberate ommission is used to highlight when Isabel selects social
mores over her independent character. This not only is featured to avoid her wedding,
but also her acceptance of Gilbert's proposal and her final cataclysmic decision to
return to Rome at the end of the novel. It is almost as if during these moments that we
are losing the true independent nature of Isabel Archer as she chooses to be with
Gilbert Osmond. In a very real sense, we lose sight of her as she is dominated by her
husband and the expectations that society places on her.