Isabel's "Indefinable": The Fate of Liberal Feminism in James's The Portrait of a Lady

Abstract: This essay places the marriage plot in Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady in the context of the rise of liberal feminism. This essay argues that by showing how Isabel's conventional marriage is both created and maintained by her assertion of her rights as a woman, the novel invites readers to consider the limits of the model of liberal selfhood as a path to meaningful freedom for women.