The Portrait of a Lady's Rediscovery: A Literary Depiction of Contemporary Marital Quagmire in Pakistan

Abstract

Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, has spoken to women's issues regardless of caste, colors, faith, culture, and nationality across time in numerous corners of the world. The novel was a catharsis against late 19thcentury Victorian—personal, social, sexual, economic and in particular marital—constraints on American women. Although the text had poor critical reception in its own time, it was reaccredited in the 1950s. Since then, it has kept on enlightening its readers through its powerful female
characters and feminine themes. After exploring its historical threads, this study revisits how the text reflected women's individualism; how readers responded to it; and how it has contributed a change to women's position since then.