The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady

by

Henry James

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Lord Warburton Character Analysis

A wealthy English nobleman and Mr. Touchett and Mrs. Touchett’s neighbor, Lord Warburton is enchanted by Isabel Archer when she arrives at Gardencourt. He has a close friendship with Ralph Touchett and an almost fatherly relationship with his two meek sisters, the Misses Molyneux, whom he introduces to Isabel. Warburton quickly falls in love with Isabel and pursues her hand in marriage. Despite his wealth, status, and many admirable personal qualities, Isabel refuses his marriage proposal for fear that she will lose her independence. He appears to accept her decision in good spirits, but later tries to marry Isabel’s stepdaughter Pansy Osmond, perhaps in order to stay close to Isabel. Despite his unusually liberal political values, Lord Warburton still embodies Old World convention as he cannot in reality accept a world where he does not exist as a patriarchal, aristocratic, and authoritative figure.

Lord Warburton Quotes in The Portrait of a Lady

The The Portrait of a Lady quotes below are all either spoken by Lord Warburton or refer to Lord Warburton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Female Independence vs. Marriage Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

Related Characters: Ralph Touchett, Lord Warburton, Mr. Touchett
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

In so far as the indefinable had an influence upon Isabel’s behaviour at this juncture, it was not the conception, even unformulated, of a union with Caspar Goodwood; for however she might have resisted conquest at her English suitor’s large quiet hands she was at least as far removed from the disposition to let the young man from Boston take positive possession of her. […] The idea of a diminished liberty was particularly disagreeable to her at present.

Related Characters: Isabel Archer, Lord Warburton, Caspar Goodwood, Mr. Touchett
Page Number: 125-126
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“If there’s a thing in the world I’m fond of,” she went on with a slight recurrence of grandeur, “it’s my personal independence.”

[…]

Isabel’s words, if they meant to shock him, failed of the mark and only made him smile with the sense that here was common ground. “Who would wish less to curtail your liberty than I? What can give me greater pleasure than to see you perfectly independent—doing whatever you like? It’s to make you independent that I want to marry you. […] An unmarried woman—a girl of your age—isn’t independent. There are all sorts of things she can’t do. She’s hampered at every step.”

Related Characters: Isabel Archer (speaker), Caspar Goodwood (speaker), Lord Warburton
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

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. […] It would be proper that the woman he might marry should have done something of that sort.

Related Characters: Isabel Archer, Gilbert Osmond, Lord Warburton
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 304
Explanation and Analysis:
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Lord Warburton Quotes in The Portrait of a Lady

The The Portrait of a Lady quotes below are all either spoken by Lord Warburton or refer to Lord Warburton. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Female Independence vs. Marriage Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.

Related Characters: Ralph Touchett, Lord Warburton, Mr. Touchett
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13 Quotes

In so far as the indefinable had an influence upon Isabel’s behaviour at this juncture, it was not the conception, even unformulated, of a union with Caspar Goodwood; for however she might have resisted conquest at her English suitor’s large quiet hands she was at least as far removed from the disposition to let the young man from Boston take positive possession of her. […] The idea of a diminished liberty was particularly disagreeable to her at present.

Related Characters: Isabel Archer, Lord Warburton, Caspar Goodwood, Mr. Touchett
Page Number: 125-126
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

“If there’s a thing in the world I’m fond of,” she went on with a slight recurrence of grandeur, “it’s my personal independence.”

[…]

Isabel’s words, if they meant to shock him, failed of the mark and only made him smile with the sense that here was common ground. “Who would wish less to curtail your liberty than I? What can give me greater pleasure than to see you perfectly independent—doing whatever you like? It’s to make you independent that I want to marry you. […] An unmarried woman—a girl of your age—isn’t independent. There are all sorts of things she can’t do. She’s hampered at every step.”

Related Characters: Isabel Archer (speaker), Caspar Goodwood (speaker), Lord Warburton
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 28 Quotes

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. […] It would be proper that the woman he might marry should have done something of that sort.

Related Characters: Isabel Archer, Gilbert Osmond, Lord Warburton
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 304
Explanation and Analysis: