Abstract Henry James’ seminal early work, The Portrait of a Lady, is a tapestry woven from the threads of life philosophy, moral consideration, and narrative art, representing the quintessence of the “perfect work” he championed in “The Art of Fiction”. Following the transformative waves of Impressionism in 1870 and 1885, James embraced the avant-garde movements’ dual emphasis on artistic expression and scientific composition, integrating these principles effectively into his narrative craft. As a central theme in James’ discourse on fiction and art theory, impression and Impressionism are the linchpins of his theoretical framework, encompassing discussions on the definition, value, creative process, character psychology, and narrative perspective of fiction. In James’ novel creation, impression and Impressionism emerge as the nucleus of textual representation, permeating the entirety of his literary career.Within the pages of The Portrait, James’ Impressionist vision is on vivid display with character consciousness at the epicenter of the narrative and impressions treated as the focal points of cognitive processing. The novel’s scenic descriptions accentuate the interplay of light and color, echoing the Impressionist technique of capturing the effects of light, hue, and atmosphere. Moreover, James underlines the phenomenological correlation between subject and object in the construction of psychological or conscious modalities, particularly in the case of the tension between Isabel Archer’s subjective self-assurance and the stark reality she confronts. This tension not only propels the narrative forward but also amplifies the novel’s dramatic impact.Percy Lubbock, in his The Craft of Fiction, carries forward and expands upon James’ thoughts on fictional art of narrative, underscoring the significance of point of view in the technical execution of fiction. Lubbock’s “Seeing Eye” theory promotes the dramatization of perspectives through the modulation of viewpoints among various subjects, presenting at once the dramatic scenes and stereoscopic picturesque style of the novel. This theory serves as a potent analytical instrument for dissecting James’ impressionistic narrative artistry, especially within the target text where the transference of the “Seeing Eye” enables the novel to render a dynamic Impressionist vision. The “Seeing Eye” within the novel is in a state of perpetual motion, shifting itself between the narrator, Isabel, and the satellite characters in quick turns, creating a multifaceted and dynamic narrative system. This transference not only grants the narrator and characters their distinct visual perspectives but also, at the author’s behest, aligns the “Seeing Eye” of the narrator with that of the characters to strengthen the effect of impressions.Many have been inspired by James’ narrative theory, but few have resonated with his exposition on “impression” as Lubbock has through the “Seeing Eye” theory. In fact, the term “impression” appears nearly a hundred times in Lubbock’s The Craft of Fiction, making it an absolute high-frequency word in his novel theory. For Lubbock, impressions dominate the activities of novel creation, reading, and criticism. A close reading of the text reveals that the shifts of the “Seeing Eye” form four peaks in chapters 13, 19, 40, and 47, with Impressionist visual effects reaching their zenith. Represented by these four peaks, the transference of the “Seeing Eye” in The Portrait demonstrates James’ impressionist vision from multiple aspects, such as the co-presence of subjective and objective truth/reality, the presentation of rich and fragmented impressions, the blending of time and space, and the Image-Text presentation centered on impressions, orchestrating a unique Impressionist narrative in the novel.In all, thanks to Lubbock’s summary and enhancement of James’ novel theory, it can be seen that the design of the “Seeing Eye” in The Portrait reveals how James, in his cross-media interpretation of impressionism, freed himself from the traditional constraints of Victorian literary conventions and initiated a modern mode of novel writing, where his significant Impressionist vision was developed. This is particularly manifested, for instance, in the continual shift of the “Seeing Eye”. The formal innovation in The Portrait, whether it be cross-media visual transcription or the establishment of a scientific observation system, results in a high degree of uncertainty of impressions and subjective narration, not only providing readers with room for their own judgments and an intense aesthetic pleasure, but also realizing the moral significance of artistic works that James was committed to highlighting throughout his career.
Bao Zhongming,Wang Luxi,Hao Qing. An Analysis on the Design of the “Seeing Eye” and the Impressionistic Narrative Art in Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady[J]. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2025, 55(3): 76-87.
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