As an early modernist novel, the writing style of The Portrait of a Lady is somewhat unconventional. While the book begins with a normal third-person omniscient narrator who weaves in and out of the minds of the various characters—sharing the Touchetts’ opinions on Isabel when she arrives, as well as her opinions of them—around Chapter 18 things start to shift.
The narrator starts to withhold information (specifically about what’s beneath Madame Merle and Osmond’s scheme for him to marry Isabel) and then, in a thoroughly unexpected move, the narrator jumps forward several years, not granting readers insight into why and when Isabel decided to accept Osmond’s proposal. Instead, readers simply reunite with Isabel after she has not only married Osmond but also has had and lost a child with him. At this point, the narrator stays completely out of Isabel’s mind, leaving readers to guess how she feels about her marriage and her new life amongst the aristocratic European elite.
Then, starting in Chapter 42, the narrator almost seems to merge with Isabel’s consciousness and no one else matters—readers witness every thought and emotion Isabel has as she navigates Lord Warburton’s interest in marrying her step-daughter Pansy as well as her discovery that Pansy was the result of her husband and Madame Merle’s secret affair (and that Madame Merle manipulated her into marrying Osmond so Pansy could benefit from Isabel’s inherited wealth).
In a final experimental move, the book ends with Henrietta speaking of Isabel’s decision to stay with Osmond (instead of running away with Goodwood) rather than showing readers Isabel’s decision-making process or including a scene in which she returns home. James’s decision not to allow readers this sort of closure is a stylistic choice—unlike in a more traditional Victorian romance novel where every character completes their arc, his characters remain in the midst of their journeys.
At the level of prose, James’s writing style is highly descriptive and detailed, with many metaphors and moments of evocative imagery. The chapters in which the narrator remains close to Isabel’s inner feelings reveal the emotionality of James’s writing, such as in the following passage:
Isabel wandered among these ugly possibilities until she had completely lost her way; some of them, as she suddenly encountered them, seemed ugly enough. Then she broke out of the labyrinth, rubbing her eyes, and declared that her imagination surely did her little honour and that her husband’s did him even less.
The layering of imagery—readers see Isabel “wander[ing] among these ugly possibilities” (about Lord Warburton’s intentions with Pansy) and “[breaking] out of the labyrinth”—as well as the closeness with which the narrator captures Isabel’s inner experience are two key characteristics of James’s style.
