Vulgarity and the Pedestrian Life

     Vulgarity is a word that almost every character uses in The Portrait of a Lady; it is something that they despise because they all pretend to be aesthetics. The characters try to focus on the beautiful and desirable in everyday life. When something negative comes up, they refer to it as being vulgar. They seek to overcome the pedestrian, by living supposedly interesting lives as they concern themselves with the personal lives of everyone else. No character's private life is sacred when they are the center of attention. James paints his characters as true aesthetics, but ironically, through the way the characters act and treat each other, they become vulgar and commonplace.

     Isabel Archer is the focus of attention of almost every male character in the novel. She claims to be a strong, independent woman, but this is not the case because through her own ideals and conception of herself, she restrains and traps herself to one art form. She desires to be more than just another ordinary woman who marries someone and lives an ordinary life; she wants to be adventurous and to never make a decision that could possibly restrict her liberty. She fails though, when she marries Osmund, who restricts her more than any other man would have. She becomes the vulgar that she so detests because she becomes a wife to controlling, cruel man. Osmond destroys the future she could have had. He pretends to be an interesting art collector, but in reality, he is a low class man who is desperate for attention from others. He is the epitome of vulgar in this novel, and Isabel too becomes vulgar when she marries him.

    The other characters are just as bad though, they all put on airs of superiority and pretend to live such high and interesting lives as they involve themselves in the affairs of others. They all seek to be aesthetics, but in reality, they are vulgar and commonplace. What makes them so extraordinary? Nothing. They are just regular people with lots of money and too much time on their hands. None of the characters rise any higher as individuals. The pseudo-aesthetics are only what they try to avoid being: vulgar and commonplace.