Dance with me Henry: or Chapter 22 in which Henry gets a little naughty, well, by his standards anyway.
(To make this a blog exclusively about the Wings of the Dove click here.)
You can see Henry James the aspiring dramatist in this chapter note this funny exchange that begins with Susie recounting her response to the physician Luke Strett and his visit to talk about Milly:
I think the point of Maud being referred to as both Maude Manningham and then later Mrs. Lowder is to suggest that the two women are slipping back into the sort of rapport they both had when young friends and being a little naughty and then coming back to earth. There is more of the same sort of stuff in the chapter including Maud suggesting that she'd be happy keeping Merton Densher for herself even though she regards him as unsuitable for Kate.
The key thing here though is that this scene is meant to operate the same way the scene with Juliet's nurse does in Romeo and Juliet. When the nurse makes her appalling joke when young Juliet falls on her face that she'd have more wit to fall on her back we are meant to think what an appalling upbringing the girl has had without a responsible adult anywhere around her. Here Henry James shows us these two women making plans for Milly. If they were forthright enough to decide to just get her laid it would be better than this. Under the guise of doing the best for Milly, both women stick hard and fast in their own interest.
The problem is that scene doesn't work in Romeo and Juliet and I don't think its close relative works here. People go to see R&J meaning to find a great love story so that is what they do find even though there is no evidence in the play to back this up and they never pick up the hints Shakespeare gives us with the nurse. What do we expect to find in The Wings of the Dove? Well, we have the choice of several kinds of stories and that is looking more and more like a problem. Determined to give us complex insights into so many characters, James has at least four narratives going on at the same time.
And how much of this complexity is justified? I think a big part of the problem here is that James wanted to make more of Milly than he really needed to for the sake of the story. What we have is, in a sense, a retelling of Portrait of a Lady only we get a more sympathetic pair in Kate Croy and Merton Densher than we had in Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond. But their story is the interesting one and Milly needs to be a subordinate character in it instead of always threatening to become the main stream herself.
James reportedly thought this book inadequate because Milly was not a well drawn character and, therefore, not worthy of the memory of his cousin Minny Temple, on whom she was based. I'd say, rather, that Milly needs to be a little flatter as a character so that we can focus on the more compelling story of Kate and Merton.
(To make this a blog exclusively about the Wings of the Dove click here.)
You can see Henry James the aspiring dramatist in this chapter note this funny exchange that begins with Susie recounting her response to the physician Luke Strett and his visit to talk about Milly:
"I asked nothing," said poor Susie--"I only took what he gave me. He gave me no more than he had to--he was beautiful," she went on. "He is, thank God, interested."Chuckle, chuckle.What terribly adult women they both are all of a sudden. But they are not adult in the sense of responsible
"He must have been interested in you, dear," Maud Manningham observed with kindness.
Her visitor met it with candour. "Yes, love, I think he is. I mean that he sees what he can do with me."
Mrs. Lowder took it rightly. "For her."
I think the point of Maud being referred to as both Maude Manningham and then later Mrs. Lowder is to suggest that the two women are slipping back into the sort of rapport they both had when young friends and being a little naughty and then coming back to earth. There is more of the same sort of stuff in the chapter including Maud suggesting that she'd be happy keeping Merton Densher for herself even though she regards him as unsuitable for Kate.
The key thing here though is that this scene is meant to operate the same way the scene with Juliet's nurse does in Romeo and Juliet. When the nurse makes her appalling joke when young Juliet falls on her face that she'd have more wit to fall on her back we are meant to think what an appalling upbringing the girl has had without a responsible adult anywhere around her. Here Henry James shows us these two women making plans for Milly. If they were forthright enough to decide to just get her laid it would be better than this. Under the guise of doing the best for Milly, both women stick hard and fast in their own interest.
The problem is that scene doesn't work in Romeo and Juliet and I don't think its close relative works here. People go to see R&J meaning to find a great love story so that is what they do find even though there is no evidence in the play to back this up and they never pick up the hints Shakespeare gives us with the nurse. What do we expect to find in The Wings of the Dove? Well, we have the choice of several kinds of stories and that is looking more and more like a problem. Determined to give us complex insights into so many characters, James has at least four narratives going on at the same time.
And how much of this complexity is justified? I think a big part of the problem here is that James wanted to make more of Milly than he really needed to for the sake of the story. What we have is, in a sense, a retelling of Portrait of a Lady only we get a more sympathetic pair in Kate Croy and Merton Densher than we had in Madame Merle and Gilbert Osmond. But their story is the interesting one and Milly needs to be a subordinate character in it instead of always threatening to become the main stream herself.
James reportedly thought this book inadequate because Milly was not a well drawn character and, therefore, not worthy of the memory of his cousin Minny Temple, on whom she was based. I'd say, rather, that Milly needs to be a little flatter as a character so that we can focus on the more compelling story of Kate and Merton.
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