Feminine subjectivities in ruin in Henry James’s fiction: the tragic and the role of focalization in Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Wings of the Dove

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5902/2176148590000

Keywords:

Henry James, Tragic, Focalization

Abstract

In Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Wings of the Dove, Henry James explores cultural tensions between Europe and the United States, intertwining them with a tragic dimension. In these works, young protagonists face ruin due to cultural ignorance or misinterpretations of context, with tragedy also shaped through focalization. In Daisy Miller, the tragic element is still incipient; in The Portrait of a Lady, it emerges through the focus on Isabel Archer's subjectivity; and in The Wings of the Dove, it appears veiled and hermetic. James thus innovates by isolating tragic protagonists, reflecting modern suffering and subverting classical models of tragedy.

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Author Biography

Larissa Garay Neves, Universidade Federal de Jataí

Doutora em Estudos Literários pela Universidade Federal de Santa Maria/RS (2021), onde concluiu o mestrado (Estudos Literários) e a graduação em Letras/Inglês. Atualmente, é docente no Curso de Letras Inglês da Universidade Federal de Jataí.

References

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Published

2025-10-06

How to Cite

Neves, L. G. (2025). Feminine subjectivities in ruin in Henry James’s fiction: the tragic and the role of focalization in Daisy Miller, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Wings of the Dove. Letras, 71, e90000. https://doi.org/10.5902/2176148590000

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