The Portrait of a Lady: Metaphors 12 key examples

Edmund calls Isabel an “original” book written in “a foreign tongue” and states that he prefers English translations. In other words, he wants women like Isabel to be easy to understand and to cater to his American taste.

This metaphor is noteworthy for a couple reasons. First, it subtly foreshadows the fact that Isabel will go on to travel to Europe and ultimately end up getting married and settling down in Italy (a non-English-speaking country). Second, Edmund’s statement implies that he believes New World American values like freedom and independence should only be held by men and not women (as comes across in his statement that he “should have no desire to marry [Isabel]” due to these qualities).

Here, Ralph explains that he keeps “a band of music in [his] ante-room” (a small room that leads to a main one, such as a waiting room) in order to “keep the sounds of the world from reaching the private apartments” and also to “make the world think that dancing’s going on within.” This is his way of saying that he acts lighthearted and happy in order to protect himself from the pain and suffering of the world and also to give the impression to others that he is a joyful person. This second reason is deeply related to the European Old World value of maintaining appearances at all times (even when, like Ralph, one is slowly dying of tuberculosis).

It is notable that both the narrator and Isabel extend Ralph’s metaphor—the narrator makes it clear that Ralph’s efforts to appear jovial are effective (by describing how people can hear the dance-music when around Ralph) and Isabel communicates that she wishes to know Ralph on a deeper level by being granted access to his “private apartments.”

The metaphor becomes clear in Ralph’s description of Isabel’s edifice, windows, roof, and doors. His description of how Isabel’s windows have “proportions equally fair” shows that he believes she is attractive and put-together from the outside, while the fact that he has “not yet stood under the roof” and believes that “none of [his keys] would fit” her door indicates that he does not feel he truly knows her beyond appearances.

The final sentence about Isabel's intelligence and "fine, free nature" suggests that Ralph sees how Isabel acts easy-going and self-assured while keeping people at a distance so that they don’t see her inner insecurities. That Isabel is not as confident or "free" as she appears to be proves to be true in her decision to marry Osmond. While Ralph expects her to reject him as she has Goodwood and Lord Warburton, she instead accepts the art collector's proposal. Ralph's confusion is likely due to Isabel's decision to keep him from entering her "house."

In stating that she doesn’t “wish to be a mere sheep in the flock,” Isabel helps Goodwood understand on a visual level the ways in which she wants to strike out on her own. Unlike a sheep in a flock, she doesn’t want to be controlled and forced to follow the rules. As she states right after, she wishes “to choose [her] fate.”

It is also notable that, in this passage, Isabel ties being poor to being independent—this shows her understanding that wealth can act as a trap. This ultimately proves to be true after she inherits some of her uncle’s wealth and becomes the target of Madame Merle and Osmond’s marriage schemes.

This metaphor—that of Isabel being a stagnant boat requiring “a little wind in her sails”—captures the way that Ralph wants to support Isabel in her search for freedom and exploration. Despite embodying certain aspects of the European Old World, Ralph clearly respects Isabel’s American New World desire for liberty.

In a second passage from Chapter 26 (after Mr. Touchett has passed and Isabel has inherited her uncle’s money), Ralph explains to his mother why he believes Isabel will not marry Osmond, using another boat metaphor in the process:

“She has started on an exploring expedition, and I don’t think she’ll change her course, at the outset, at a signal from Gilbert Osmond. She may have slackened speed for an hour, but before we know it she’ll be steaming away again.”

Cite this Quote

Here, Ralph’s metaphor remains the same—Isabel is a boat—but now, after inheriting the wealth, she does seem to have that “wind in her sails” and, Ralph believes, will continue her “expedition” instead of “slacken[ing] her speed” to marry Osmond since she prizes her freedom.

Of course, Ralph’s prediction is incorrect—Isabel does give up her explorations in order to marry Osmond, drastically changing course in the process. In proving Ralph wrong, James is highlighting the dangers of wealth—Ralph thought he could free Isabel via his family’s wealth, when really it makes her a target for people like Osmond who want her wealth for themselves.

Madame Merle’s description of Americans in Europe as “mere parasites, crawling over the surface” is an important critique of the American New World ideals of absolute freedom. The downside of freedom for American expatriates, Madame Merle suggests, is that they are left without any roots—they are free to wander but don’t have any real connection to home or community. She is also suggesting that there is a downside for Europeans as well, as they are losing their resources to parasites such as herself.

That Madame Merle goes on to compare women to parasites adds another dimension to her metaphor. Unlike the expatriates, women are not choosing to be parasites, but are forced to be because they have “no natural place anywhere,” doomed to crawl wherever they find themselves. This is an important criticism of the sexist society in which Madame Merle finds herself—women being, on the whole, subject to the power and control of men—and also an apt description of what she specifically has become (as she is a social parasite who manipulates people like Isabel in order to have access to wealth).

In comparing herself to an “iron pot” that is “shockingly chipped and cracked” but has been “cleverly mended,” Madame Merle suggests that she has been wounded in the past but has figured out how to mask those wounds, appearing to be the accomplished and self-possessed woman whom Isabel considers her to be.

Though Isabel does not pick up on it, Madame Merle is hinting here at how she wears a façade, hiding elements of her character (such as her troubled past and manipulative nature). This is one of the ways in which Madame Merle exemplifies European Old World ideals—as long as she appears to be sophisticated and confident, she can maintain a certain level of status.

Madame Merle’s assertion that when she comes “into a strong light” she will appear as “a horror” subtly foreshadows how Isabel’s opinion of Madame Merle will change when her sordid past with Osmond “comes to light.”

This metaphor—that of Isabel being a stagnant boat requiring “a little wind in her sails”—captures the way that Ralph wants to support Isabel in her search for freedom and exploration. Despite embodying certain aspects of the European Old World, Ralph clearly respects Isabel’s American New World desire for liberty.

In a second passage from Chapter 26 (after Mr. Touchett has passed and Isabel has inherited her uncle’s money), Ralph explains to his mother why he believes Isabel will not marry Osmond, using another boat metaphor in the process:

“She has started on an exploring expedition, and I don’t think she’ll change her course, at the outset, at a signal from Gilbert Osmond. She may have slackened speed for an hour, but before we know it she’ll be steaming away again.”

Cite this Quote

Here, Ralph’s metaphor remains the same—Isabel is a boat—but now, after inheriting the wealth, she does seem to have that “wind in her sails” and, Ralph believes, will continue her “expedition” instead of “slacken[ing] her speed” to marry Osmond since she prizes her freedom.

Of course, Ralph’s prediction is incorrect—Isabel does give up her explorations in order to marry Osmond, drastically changing course in the process. In proving Ralph wrong, James is highlighting the dangers of wealth—Ralph thought he could free Isabel via his family’s wealth, when really it makes her a target for people like Osmond who want her wealth for themselves.

James also intentionally frames Isabel in doorways in important moments in the novel—turning her into something of a framed portrait—such as when Ralph and Mr. Touchett first see her at Gardencourt and when Rosier is looking for Pansy at the Osmond house in order to propose to her. In this second scene, the narrator even directly states that Rosier saw Isabel as “the picture of a gracious lady.”

In more directly objectifying ways, Isabel’s romantic suitors also treat her as a piece of art. Here, the narrator describes Osmond’s desire for Isabel to join his “collection”:

We know that he was fond of originals, of rarities, of the superior and the exquisite; and now that he had seen Lord Warburton, whom he thought a very fine example of his race and order, he perceived a new attraction of taking to himself a young lady who had qualified herself to figure in his collection of choice objects by declining so noble a hand.

Cite this Quote

It's notable that Osmond decides Isabel is a piece of art worthy of joining his collection after learning that she has declined Lord Warburton’s marriage proposal. In rejecting this sort of Old World wealth and prestige, Isabel proves that she is “of the superior and the exquisite,” like all of the art he collects.

Despite being one of the more compassionate men in the novel, Ralph initially views Isabel as a piece of art in his belief that she requires “artistic completion,” inspiring his desire to help fund her explorations around the world.

Here, Osmond compares Isabel to “a silver plate” that would “give a decorative value” and that “he could tap” with his knuckle and “make it ring.” While Osmond does not believe Isabel to be “dull” or “earthen”—something close to a compliment—it becomes clear that he also does not think highly of her. In comparing her to a silver plate, Osmond is objectifying Isabel and turning her into just another piece of art in his collection.

That Osmond sees Isabel as being made of silver is also a nod to her wealth (the real reason Osmond is marrying her) rather than anything about her character or personality. The reference to tapping his knuckle against “her imagination” to elicit her wit or insight shows how, even if he respects her intelligence, he desires to have full control over how and when she speaks.

Though he knows that this is not literally the case, Rosier and his “apprehensive mind” turn the “dark and massive structure” into a dungeon or “domestic fortress.” The reason behind Rosier’s ominous interpretation of the Osmond home is that Osmond is guarding Pansy from Rosier’s romantic intentions—Osmond is focused on finding the most financially advantageous match for Pansy and, given Rosier’s lack of wealth, Osmond does not want Pansy to marry him.

A further implication in this comparison that Rosier himself may not yet be aware of is that Osmond’s home is not only a dungeon for Pansy but also for Isabel, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage with him.

In comparing her mind to a “small garden-plot” that Osmond would tend to only so that it would become “a pretty piece of property,” Isabel shows that she’s aware of how he sees her more as a piece of art or decoration rather than a full person with her own opinions and beliefs.

In this metaphor, Osmond not only wants Isabel to be a beautiful piece of land, he wants her to be a small plot attached to a large park (a metaphor for his own mind)—as Isabel states, “her mind was to be his.” Here, James is highlighting how marriage has stripped Isabel of the independence she craved at the start of the novel. All of her thoughts and opinions must now go through her husband.

The metaphors here overlap somewhat but are also distinct. First, the narrator compares Madame Merle’s “perfect manner” to a stream, describing how, initially, she “lost her courage” but how the stream “gathered itself again and flowed on as smoothly as might be to the end.”

Despite her best efforts, Madame Merle’s “startled” voice betrays her and, shifting the metaphor from a stream to the sea, the narrator describes how “the tide of her confidence ebbed” and, due to her nerves, “she was able only just to glide into port, faintly grazing the bottom.”

These metaphors help readers understand the true threat that Isabel’s knowledge of Madame Merle’s past poses—as a women who had an extramarital affair, her reputation could be completely destroyed if this information were to get out (thus the intensity of her reaction). She is terrified, but, as an adherent to Old World European ways, she does her best to act confident and in control.