As a coming-of-age novel, the mood of The Portrait of a Lady shifts drastically as Isabel moves from a naïve and innocent young woman to a jaded and beleaguered adult. The mood at the start of the novel is an energetic and excited one, as shown in the following passage:
She carried within herself a great fund of life, and her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world. For this reason she was fond of seeing great crowds and large stretches of country, of reading about revolutions and wars, of looking at historical pictures.
Here, the narrator captures how young Isabel carries “a great fund of life” and a desire to see “great crowds and large stretches of country.” These descriptions show how Isabel is energetic and ready to see the world, encouraging readers to feel excited alongside her.
Compare the mood of this passage with that of the following passage from the final chapter of the novel, when Isabel feels trapped in her unhappy marriage with Osmond:
The effect of this agitation was a sudden sense of being very tired, under the influence of which she overcame her scruples and sank into the rustic seat. I have said that she was restless and unable to occupy herself […] Her attitude had a singular absence of purpose; her hands, hanging at her sides, lost themselves in the folds of her black dress; her eyes gazed vaguely before her […] How long she had sat in this position she could not have told you; but the twilight had grown thick when she became aware that she was not alone.
The narrator’s language here—that of Isabel having “a sudden sense of being very tired,” feeling “restless” with “a singular absence of purpose,” and “[gazing] vaguely before her”—contributes to a depressing and lethargic mood. It becomes clear that the excited and youthful Isabel has lost her passion and thirst for life due to her unhappy marriage and lack of independence.
As a coming-of-age novel, the mood of The Portrait of a Lady shifts drastically as Isabel moves from a naïve and innocent young woman to a jaded and beleaguered adult. The mood at the start of the novel is an energetic and excited one, as shown in the following passage:
She carried within herself a great fund of life, and her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world. For this reason she was fond of seeing great crowds and large stretches of country, of reading about revolutions and wars, of looking at historical pictures.
Here, the narrator captures how young Isabel carries “a great fund of life” and a desire to see “great crowds and large stretches of country.” These descriptions show how Isabel is energetic and ready to see the world, encouraging readers to feel excited alongside her.
Compare the mood of this passage with that of the following passage from the final chapter of the novel, when Isabel feels trapped in her unhappy marriage with Osmond:
The effect of this agitation was a sudden sense of being very tired, under the influence of which she overcame her scruples and sank into the rustic seat. I have said that she was restless and unable to occupy herself […] Her attitude had a singular absence of purpose; her hands, hanging at her sides, lost themselves in the folds of her black dress; her eyes gazed vaguely before her […] How long she had sat in this position she could not have told you; but the twilight had grown thick when she became aware that she was not alone.
The narrator’s language here—that of Isabel having “a sudden sense of being very tired,” feeling “restless” with “a singular absence of purpose,” and “[gazing] vaguely before her”—contributes to a depressing and lethargic mood. It becomes clear that the excited and youthful Isabel has lost her passion and thirst for life due to her unhappy marriage and lack of independence.
