Georgina's Reasons

Synopsis

Henry James's 1884 tale “Georgina's Reasons” presents readers with an insoluble hermeneutic problem regarding its heroine's motivation. This essay applies four interpretative frameworks — theological, political, scientific and geographical — to the question of the heroine's “reasons”. Each way of interpreting the story aligns with a genre of nineteenth-century fiction: sensation novel, New Woman novel, naturalism and the international tale. The problem of the heroine's motivation thus provides an occasion for consideration of the stylistic choices available to James in the mid-1880s, and of the capacities and limitations of each style for developing his chosen subject — a woman whose unconventional and destructive behaviour defies rational understanding. Although — or because — Georgina's reasons consistently elude the reader's interpretative grasp, their pursuit prompts critical reflection on the kinds of knowledge that different fictional styles facilitate or occlude. Such reflection, I argue, is the critical profit yielded by James's decision to situate his enigmatic heroine within a multi-generic narrative.

Similar Bookshelves