The Portrait of a Lady: Chapter 39 Summary & Analysis

The narrator shifts to the topic of Ralph and Isabel’s relationship, explaining that Ralph never spoke to Isabel about his objections to Gilbert Osmond again.  He suspects that his voiced objections to Isabel about her husband means that the cousins can never be friends again. Consequently, Ralph has barely seen Isabel since she got married. He reflects on her wedding, a quiet and simple affair at a small American chapel with Ralph, his mother, Pansy, and the Countess Gemini in attendance. Madame Merle sent her apologies, unable to leave Rome, and Isabel’s friend Henrietta Stackpole was not invited. In fact, Henrietta wrote forcefully to Isabel stating that if invited, she would have attended to witness the marriage and to criticize it.

Upon meeting Isabel again after Lord Warburton’s entry to her Thursday evening party, Ralph realizes he should not have given up on Isabel’s friendship so easily. He “had played the wrong card” and “lost the game,” and Isabel now “always wears a mask” around him. Ralph is also keenly aware of Isabel’s change in disposition; she is no longer a curious, spirited, and carefree young woman, but instead an indifferent married lady who has a “fixed and mechanical” serenity permanently painted on her face. The relationship between the cousins is now stilted and formal. Ralph concludes that Isabel no longer represents freedom—she represents her husband. He also concludes that Osmond is a man who has pretended to live by admirable values, but this was always a façade. Instead Osmond lives for admiration from others and his resulting feelings of superiority.

Osmond has never considered Ralph as a threat. However, once when Ralph overstayed his welcome in Rome, Isabel’s husband protested. Ralph left so he wouldn’t cause further trouble between the couple. This time, Ralph decides to stay in Rome instead of moving on to visit Sicily as intended. He suggests he may have to defend his cousin from her husband’s arguments.

Later, Ralph asks Lord Warburton how his relationship with Pansy is developing. Ralph wonders if the nobleman is interested in getting close to Pansy merely so that he is also nearer to Isabel. Warburton is angry at Ralph’s assumption. But the nobleman does wonder what Isabel will think of his interest in Pansy.