Isabel's Portrait is Painted in the Negative Space of Others' Desires

I suppose we can do a journal entry type response here. That is fitting considering my own opinions regarding Isabel.

In the first half of Portrait of a Lady, Isabel’s personality dominates the other characters. She obsesses over independence. Her obsession grows to the point that it is prompting other characters to do exactly what she herself fears to do: operate under someone else’s command. The men each desire her, but she desires for them to leave her alone—to cease their affection. Yet why should the men themselves not be independent and choose to love her?

Isabel’s belief grows into a problem only because of the principle behind it. She wants to remain independent. Initially, it is an acceptable belief. She wants to see the world and learn new things for herself. That independence can be admired and, to her credit, she attempts to retain that goal throughout, refusing Lord Warburton for greater knowledge that comes from independence. Unfortunately, the principle comes to control Isabel herself and she cannot escape her own rules. As Isabel frets over Mr. Touchett’s death, she cannot clearly decide whether she should accept the inherited money. Even earlier than his death, she explains that she wants to live untied to anyone and have a candid if not adventurous life (133-134).

In the same scene, Isabel reveals that she does not logically know her actions. The end becomes to remain free of the influence of others and not to best achieve the dream she has of seeing the world. I fear that her character will become childlike, refusing only because others desire, and placing her in a situation in which others control her by reverse psychology despite all her beliefs that she is independent. The rest of the novel should reveal her outcome, but at the moment, I believe she remains independent only to the extent that she operates opposite of others’ wishes—but never strictly on her own.