In the first chapter of The Portrait of a Lady, Mr. Touchett tells Lord Warburton not to fall in love with Isabel, foreshadowing this very occurrence:
“Well, you may fall in love with whomsoever you please; but you mustn’t fall in love with my niece,” said the old man.
His son broke into a laugh. “He’ll think you mean that as a provocation! My dear father, you’ve lived with the English for thirty years, and you’ve picked up a good many of the things they say. But you’ve never learned the things they don’t say!”
“I say what I please,” the old man returned with all his serenity.
Ralph’s exclamation that Lord Warburton will think this a “provocation” prepares readers for the fact that Lord Warburton will go on to fall for Isabel and, very soon after meeting her, ask for her hand in marriage (which she declines).
It is notable that Ralph mocks his father here for the fact that he “never learned the things [the English] don’t say” and that his father replies, “I say what I please,” as this exchange foreshadows one of the major themes of the book: that of American expatriates prioritizing honesty and liberty while Europeans prioritize proper manners and respecting social norms.
In a conversation between Isabel’s sister Lilian and her husband Edmund in a flashback to the United States, Edmund metaphorically compares Isabel to a book:
“Well, I must say I should have no particular desire to marry her,” Edmund Ludlow was accustomed to answer in an extremely audible tone. “I know you say that for argument; you always take the opposite ground. I don’t see what you’ve against her except that she’s so original.” “Well, I don’t like originals; I like translations,” Mr Ludlow had more than once replied. “Isabel’s written in a foreign tongue. I can’t make her out. She ought to marry an Armenian or a Portuguese.”
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).
In Chapter 5, Isabel has just arrived in England asks Ralph to show him the ghost of Gardencourt, as her reading of English novels taught her that all old manors must have at least one ghost. In an example of foreshadowing, Ralph tells her that she will only be able to see the ghost after she has experienced true suffering:
“But I like you all the same,” his cousin went on. “The way to clinch the matter will be to show me the ghost.”
Ralph shook his head sadly. “I might show it to you, but you’d never see it. The privilege isn’t given to every one; it’s not enviable. It has never been seen by a young, happy, innocent person like you. You must have suffered first, have suffered greatly, have gained some miserable knowledge. In that way your eyes are opened to it.”
At the very end of the novel (in Chapter 55), when Isabel returns to Gardencourt to say goodbye to Ralph before he dies, she finally sees a ghost—the ghost of Ralph (he passed away the night before):
The next morning, in the cold, faint dawn, she knew that a spirit was standing by her bed. She had lain down without undressing, it being her belief that Ralph would not outlast the night. She had no inclination to sleep; she was waiting, and such waiting was wakeful […] It seemed to her for an instant that he was standing there—a vague, hovering figure in the vagueness of the room. She stared a moment; she saw his white face—his kind eyes; then she saw there was nothing.
The implication here is that, through Isabel's marriage to Osmond (during which she has and loses a child and also discovers that Osmond has only married her for her wealth, scheming with his ex-lover Madame Merle in the process), Isabel has met Ralph’s requirements for knowing true suffering. She is no longer the “young, happy, innocent person” who originally came to Gardencourt.
In a conversation between Isabel and Madame Merle (before Isabel learns about Madame Merle’s secret past affair with Osmond), Madame Merle describes herself using an extended metaphor:
“It’s very true; there are many more iron pots certainly than porcelain. But you may depend on it that every one bears some mark; even the hardest iron pots have a little bruise, a little hole somewhere. I flatter myself that I’m rather stout, but [...] I’ve been shockingly chipped and cracked. I do very well for service yet, because I’ve been cleverly mended; and I try to remain in the cupboard—the quiet, dusky cupboard where there’s an odour of stale spices—as much as I can. But when I’ve to come out and into a strong light—then, my dear, I’m a horror!”
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.”
Before the narrator has officially introduced readers to Osmond or Pansy, Madame Merle goes to visit them at Osmond’s villa in Florence. In an example of foreshadowing, Madame Merle tells Pansy that she will have a new mother one day, as seen in the following passage:
“Shall you miss mother Catherine?” she went on.
“Yes—when I think of her.”
“Try then not to think of her. Perhaps some day,” added Madame Merle, “you’ll have another mother.”
Here, Madame Merle hints at the fact that she has a plan (which she shares in the next scene with Osmond) for Osmond to marry Isabel, who she knows has just inherited a large amount of wealth after Mr. Touchett’s passing. As becomes clear over the course of the novel, their plan succeeds, with Isabel not only falling in love with Osmond and agreeing to marry him, but also developing a deep love for Pansy, whom she comes to see as a mother.
This moment is also a subtle example of verbal irony in that Madame Merle knows Pansy will not find a mother in Isabel because Madame Merle herself is Pansy’s real biological mother, a fact that Madame Merle and Osmond have hidden from Pansy her entire life.
In an example of both foreshadowing and irony, several different characters in the novel tell Isabel not to marry Osmond since, they believe, he is just using her for her wealth and she will end up unhappy.
This is an example of foreshadowing, as Isabel does go on to be very unhappy in her marriage to Osmond, who wants her money but does not value her as the independent person that she is. It’s simultaneously an example of situational irony because Isabel believes incorrectly—yet confidently—that she knows Osmond better than anyone else, viewing him as a humble art collector deserving of her love and financial support.
The following conversation between Isabel and Ralph captures the irony of Isabel’s resistance to her loved ones’ critiques of her fiancé:
“How little you trust me!”
There was a moment’s silence; the warm noon-tide seemed to listen. “I trust you, but I don’t trust him,” said Ralph.
She raised her eyes and gave him a wide, deep look. “You’ve said it now, and I’m glad you’ve made it so clear. But you’ll suffer by it.”
Here, Isabel tell Ralph that he’ll “suffer” for speaking ill of Osmond when, in reality, it’s she who suffers for the fact that she didn’t listen to Ralph. This is also an example of dramatic irony, as readers know by this point that Osmond and Madame Merle have intentionally been targeting Isabel for her inherited wealth (even if readers don’t yet understand why). This means that readers are on the same page as the characters who don’t trust Osmond.
In Chapter 5, Isabel has just arrived in England asks Ralph to show him the ghost of Gardencourt, as her reading of English novels taught her that all old manors must have at least one ghost. In an example of foreshadowing, Ralph tells her that she will only be able to see the ghost after she has experienced true suffering:
“But I like you all the same,” his cousin went on. “The way to clinch the matter will be to show me the ghost.”
Ralph shook his head sadly. “I might show it to you, but you’d never see it. The privilege isn’t given to every one; it’s not enviable. It has never been seen by a young, happy, innocent person like you. You must have suffered first, have suffered greatly, have gained some miserable knowledge. In that way your eyes are opened to it.”
At the very end of the novel (in Chapter 55), when Isabel returns to Gardencourt to say goodbye to Ralph before he dies, she finally sees a ghost—the ghost of Ralph (he passed away the night before):
The next morning, in the cold, faint dawn, she knew that a spirit was standing by her bed. She had lain down without undressing, it being her belief that Ralph would not outlast the night. She had no inclination to sleep; she was waiting, and such waiting was wakeful […] It seemed to her for an instant that he was standing there—a vague, hovering figure in the vagueness of the room. She stared a moment; she saw his white face—his kind eyes; then she saw there was nothing.
The implication here is that, through Isabel's marriage to Osmond (during which she has and loses a child and also discovers that Osmond has only married her for her wealth, scheming with his ex-lover Madame Merle in the process), Isabel has met Ralph’s requirements for knowing true suffering. She is no longer the “young, happy, innocent person” who originally came to Gardencourt.
