The clash of cultures in Henry James: The portrait of a lady, The wings of the dove and Daisy Miller

Abstract

To conclude this work, it is important to recall our new and old motive of Henry James and to peg it to the fact that, even though he had the intention, through these three novels and perhaps some other of his writings to pay tribute to his cousin Minny Temple, whose spontaneity and restless spirit he portrayed through Daisy Miller, Isabel Archer, and especially Milly Theale as the ideal image of the American girl. But that was not his sole purpose. James also portrayed America, through this image of a young lady, unknowing, but self-reliant independent and innocent, in the face of the knowing world, i.e. mostly Europe. The American young lady is very famous in James's creation of international theme, and even though she always had character flaws, she always ends up a victor in the battle of the conflict of culture and conventions, which was often the main theme of James's stories. But James was not exonerating America from her blames, apart from the character flaws mentioned above, one major fault which James saw in American was her lack of culture. And this fault was more noticeable in Americans abroad.