Reality, Artifice, and Art
Henry James’s short story “The Real Thing” explores the nature of art. The story opens with the arrival of an elegant gentleman and a lady—Major Monarch and Mrs. Monarch—to an unnamed artist’s studio. He is surprised to learn that they have fallen on hard times and are hoping to support themselves by modeling for the artist’s commercial illustrations. The Monarchs reason that the artist must often depict people of the higher class…
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Class in England at the End of the 19th Century
Henry James’s “The Real Thing” was published in 1892, during the late English Victorian period, and it addresses the changing social structures of its time. At this point in English history, the Industrial Revolution—along with expanding global trade opportunities created, in part, by England’s colonial empire—shifted England’s workforce and economy away from agriculture (which was controlled by the landed aristocracy), towards urban manufacturing (which primarily benefited the middle and working classes). The growing economic power…
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Money, Identity, and Class
In “The Real Thing,” Henry James explores how financial needs affect his characters’ choices, their relationships to each other, and who they can be. The down-on-their-luck aristocratic Major Monarch and Mrs. Monarch need to find jobs. The unnamed artist who narrates the story would rather paint portraits, but must instead make commercial illustrations to pay the bills. And the painter’s other models—Miss Churm and Oronte—must take what work they can to live, and…
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