A Magnificent Form?: The Shape of Domination in Henry James's Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl

Abstract

<p>Using the psychoanalytic framework provided by Jessica Benjamin, this thesis examines relationships of domination in four of Henry James's novels: <em>Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, </em>and<em> The Golden Bowl</em>. Combined with triangular theories of desire, Benjamin's intersubjective model illuminates the subtle and intricate relationships of domination and submission in James's writing. For James, as for Benjamin, identity and subjectivity are negotiated in and through relationships. These relationships are not simply struggles for power, but struggles between individuals who desire both attunement and assertion. As in sadomasochistic relationships, these desires often manifest as, respectively, submission and domination. In these four novels, subjectivity is bound up with the problems of desire and freedom. The Jamesian heroine desires both recognition and attunement with others; she also both fears and desires freedom. The world through which she moves is both a world of objects and objectification, and a world of other subjects and relationships. Attempting to move through this world fraught with contradictions, the Jamesian heroine will, in the more optimistic novels, find herself in intersubjective relationships. In the darker novels, she becomes eternally caught in the sadomasochistic cycle of domination and submission.</p>