4.4 Intermediate Space
4.4.3 French Ruralism
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a shock, I could still feel it serene, nothing betrayed, . . .” (xxxii). James highlights Strether’s final maturity, which mainly comes from his prime faculty of imagination.
Thus his serene feeling is an attestation to his maturity along with the changed perspectives, which are released from local prejudices in Woollett. Strether — the
“painter” of his own life — will be capable of peace himself in serenity when he faces dilemmas in his life with a cosmopolite’s vision.
Furthermore, Strether’s recognition of his “belated vision” (393) in Book Eleventh shows the aftereffect on him. His understanding of and compassion for Marie de Vionnet could be traced from the wonderful impression he gets from the surrounding: “there was nothing of violence in the change — it was all harmony and reason” in Madame de Vionnet’s spaces (402-03). Strether’s talks with Miss Gostrey exhibits his new discovery of Madame de Vionnet’s fragility originated from her devoted love for Chad: “She’s [Mrs. Newsome] the same. She’s more than ever the same. But I do what I didn’t before — I see her” (436). His perception of Madame de Vionnet’s virtue of her devoted love for Chad demonstrates his changed perspective, which exhibits not only his growing intimacy with Madame de Vionnet, but his release from moral strictness. In spite of his admittance of something different than before, Strether will return to the United States with his topophilic feelings for Paris.
His imaginative faculties provoked by his revelations in Paris will allow him to accept all flexible human perspectives and knowledge all over the world.
4.4.3 French Ruralism
The French pastoral scenes provide Strether with an inspirational background for artful creativities in connection to his homely intimacy. In The Ambassadors, at the rural sites near Paris, Strether’s meditation of his fondness of “French ruralism”
(380) could be seen as a typical demonstration of the initiation of an intellectual life.
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The paintings of the romantic landscape painter Lambinet symbolize Strether’s unfulfilled dream in his prime that is “beyond a dream of possibilities” (380). For example, on a train from Paris to the countryside, Strether recalls the charming effect that Lambinet’s pastoral painting had on him in a dusty day at an art exhibition in Tremont Street, Boston. His bargaining for a work of art he had dreamed for was his first sweet “adventure” (380) even though he could not afford to buy Lambinet’s painting at last. Now the picturesque French landscape he has seen in real life symbolically draws him closer with his sweet dream he longs for his whole life.
Strehter finds inner harmony in Lambinet’s French picturesque paintings, which is shown from his empathy with his paintings that is with “a composition, full of felicity, within them [Lambinet’s paintings]” (381).
In effect, by retaining a distance from his American hometown, Strether gains visions of what he really wants. He prefers solitude than staying with his American compatriots. For example, at hillsides in the suburb of Paris, his pleasure in the enjoyment of the surroundings shows his topophilic feeling in expressions such as
“full of felicity” (same wordings describing Lambinet’s pictures as above), “his heart of content,” and “sense of success, of a finer harmony in things” (383). Most of all, Strether’s love for Lambinet’s French scenes speaks out his wish of escaping from his original life in Woollett. Mrs. Newsome and Woollett represent both conventionally and morally restricted life. He regards Mrs. Newsome as a woman of “delicacy and discretion” (45), who is “behind the whole thing” in Woollett (45). Strether’s [lifting]
the “last veil” in “the prison-house” (46) reveals his withdrawal from her. In a sense, his consent (“Yes — I really think that described her”) in response to Miss Gostrey’s judgement of Mrs. Newsome (“She’s just a moral swell”) suggests Mrs. Newsome’s powerful dominance and influences of strict moralities upon Strether’s mentality (46).
James’ interest in Lambinet’s paintings can be associated with Strether’s
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fondness of the Lambinet’s pictures. In James’ “A Small Boy and Others,” he could not conceal his appreciation for Lambinet’s paintings. The painter is famous for his French pastoral landscapes drawing in an impressionist manner in the nineteenth century. James regards him as one of the few masters who drew finely interesting landscapists and attracted the collectors in the New York and Boston markets. James’
description that it was a “comfortable time” (193) reveals his fondness of Lambinet’s paintings, in which he finds inner harmony. Strether also finds inner harmony with Lambinet’s pastoral paintings, which symbolize a beautiful dreamscape of an intellectual life in connection to his youthful spirit. Strether’s infatuation with
Lambinet’s paintings suggests the same intimate nearness like James’. It is reasonable to suggest that James instills his fondness of Lambinet’s paintings to characterize Strether’s topophilia for Paris.
In a nutshell, this chapter proves how Strether’s intimate nearness is associated with his young consciousness in connection to his artful pursuit and freedom in different interior and intermediate scenes in Paris. This chapter also exhibits that Strether’s visiting Paris is his liminal phase. His separation from his American hometown Woollett, his cheerful sense of alienation in the crowd, and his short journey away from central Paris to the suburbs of Paris all show his spiritual renewal and a seeking of one’s space as in a primitive home.
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Chapter Five Conclusion
This thesis contributes to scrutinize not only James and his figure Strether’s topophilia for Paris are in line, but Strether’s homely intimacy with Paris through a demonstration of his seeing in different places in Paris — from local prejudices to a cosmopolitan vision. In Chapter One, I introduce my purpose of the research and my argument for James’ topophilia in response to the literature disputes that mainly focus on James’ romanticized vision and his alienation from European cultures. In Chapter Two, I firstly introduce the interconnectedness between primitive home and
topophilia. I disclose James’ topophilia according to his early spatial experiences in Europe, which is essential to his observances and reading spaces. James’
cosmopolitan and Benjamin’s concept of homing in a distant world are further explored. Accordingly, how a cosmopolite like James and Benjamin find spatial intimacy everywhere mainly lies in their empathy/spatial infatuation with
kaleidoscopic things in spaces. In Chapter Three, I elucidate how the flâneur, the city walker, exhibits one’s sense of nearness to the streets of Paris in terms of Baudelaire’s metaphor of streets as rooms, I then look at the flâneur’s fondness of a universal life filled with kaleidoscopic things in Paris. I also explore how Paris becomes the city for the flâneur by explaining the renovation of Paris. I discuss how Benjamin and James’
cosmopolitan Paris becomes a distant world by examining their early spatial
experiences in Paris. Finally, I look at how Strether uses walking as a way to acquire his homely intimacy in connection to his perception of his belated youth. In Chapter Four, I show the interconnectedness between the act of collecting and the process of
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homing. Also, the interior and intermediate spaces in association with one’s sense of spatial intimacy in this novel are discussed. This chapter firstly examines and
compares main characters including Miss Gostrey’s crowed rooms and Madame de Vionnet’s grand mansion. The interior spaces of the two young intelligences from different family background, Chad and Little Bilham, are then excavated. Their dwellings symbolize their young spirit and freedom, which are what Strether longs for. Intermediate spaces containing balcony and pastoral scene in suburb of Paris stand for the transitional spaces for Strether. Alienating himself from his original communities, Strether discovers his self-becoming and changed values.
By investigating James’ characterization of Strether’s consistently reflective and analytic perspectives, this thesis shows how James’ focus on the different settings in Paris helps the readers’ gradual realization of Strether’s transformed self in
response to the varieties and flexibilities of lives. In spite of his failed mission of taking Chad back to Woollett, Strether eventually decides to return home with the flexible perspectives beyond Woollett respectability and moral absolutes. James’
depiction of different scenes corresponds to his concept of “‘tightness’ of the place”
which intensifies “the strength of any respectable hint” (xxxiii). These spaces bring his figure Strether numerous revelations and inspirations, which serve as his liminal spaces. James highlights, Strether experiences “the authenticity of concrete existence”
(xxxiii). Thanks to James’ “intimate connexion of things” (xxxiv), he exhibits how Strether acquires his imaginative capabilities from spaces in Paris. The implication of spaces is just like “a child’s magic-lantern — a more fantastic and more moveable shadow — a more fantastic and more moveable shadow” (xxxiii). However, Strether is not really converted to Parisian values and styles either, because he longs for a simple relationship instead, which is shown from his content with the “essential freshness of a relation so simple” (413-14) with Miss Gostrey’s company.
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Nevertheless, Strether values his new perception of cosmopolitanism beyond other restricted local absolutes in Woollett or elsewhere. His acquiring insights from the wonderful spatial experiences in Paris is the core of my conclusion that he has been through his liminal stage in the transitional spaces of Paris.
This thesis perceives Strether to be in his marginal period of his middle-life, whose revisiting Paris is both a symbolic and physical removal from his American town to Paris, spatially and culturally. James’ depiction of Strether reveals his topophilia of Paris. It also provides the flexible perspectives under numerous spatial revelations and inspirations. In other words, Strether’s journey in Paris can be seen as a marginal phase at his middle age, whose true maturity comes from his
self-discovery of intellectual and spiritual freedom through these Parisian spatial practices.
The intermediate spaces, especially the pastoral places in the suburbs of Paris, provide Strether more than a familiar landscape which he has firstly experienced in
Lambinet’s pastoral painting in Boston. His journey attests to his transition, a liminal process of initiation through being away from his original communities. Strether feels a strong sense of isolation from those people including Mrs. Newsome, the Pococks and the lawyer Waymarsh, who represent pragmatism and social sternness in Woollett.
Furthermore, he recognizes those pastoral scenes in the familiar French landscapes because of his passion for Lambinet’s impressionistic paintings, which symbolize an intellectual connection with his mind, a primitive home which makes his mind at peace.
This thesis therefore concludes that Strether should be situated in the
intermediate/transitional spaces, especially in the inner-garden in the rural sites where his visions become much more penetrative into the essence of people and things in Paris. As discussed in Chapter Four, Strether’s journey to the suburbs of Paris shows his feelings of “wonder” containing the sense of “liberties” and inner harmony when
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he is at the hillside (382). It is a remarkable moment of ease (see quote “the taste of idleness”) for Strether, especially after the Pococks and Waymarsh’s departure for Switzerland altogether. His delight about their departure discloses his self-willed seclusion from his original communities. Expressions like Strether’s finding “some proof of his freedom,” his “lost himself anew in Lambinet,” his moment of being
“luxuriously quiet, soothed and amused by the consciousness of what he ha[s] found,”
and “a murmurous couple of hours” that “how happy ha[s] been his thought” (383) show how Srether finds a different but happier self . These wordings exhibit his self-becoming in the transitional phase in his rite of passage. From his enjoyment in solitude at the hillside, Strether’s keen awareness of “a composition of felicity” (381) of the familiar pastoral landscape exhibits his profound topophilia, which is in
connection to the inner harmony he finds in Lambinet’s pastoral paintings.
Lambinet’s paintings represent Srether’s primitive home, which is at the most intimate corner of his mind in connection to his prolonged youthful spirit for artful pursuit.
Thus, Strether’s self-discovery of a renewed self in the suburbs of Paris exhibits his crossings at his liminal state.
Different scenes suggest James’ gradual unveiling of Strether’s course of vision.
James has commented on the liminal state of Strether’s position as a “belated man of the world” (xxxvii). The change of his visions at the final scenes in this novel, his final visit to Madam de Vionnet’s historical mansion as well as his farewell in Miss Gostrey’s little Dutch-looking dining room, explicitly indicate his finding of a transformed self.
Just like Miss Barrace claims, no one could resist the wonderful “fault” of the
“dear” “old light” of Paris (145-46):
We’re all looking at each other — and in the light of Paris one sees what things resemble. That’s what the light of Paris seems always to show. It’s
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the fault of the light of Paris — dear old light! (145-46)
Paris delivers Strether numerous wonderful impressions, like the significance of Lambinet’s painting from the beginning to the end. Strether’s topophilic emotions would never fade away wherever he goes. His final recognition of his feeling of felicity justifies my assumption of his intimacy with Paris, even with the dark sides lurking behind it. Strether’s trip could be regarded as his spiritual initiations. His mature self recaptures his young consciousness so he may go elsewhere with his imaginative capabilities and flexible perspectives to face all possible challenges or illusions in his later life.
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