이사벨과 에머슨

Abstract

Isabel Archer is a typical American in the sense that she is innocent, ignorant of evil, and has a keen moral sense. Most of all, she makes much of her own self. For this reason, many critics argue that Emerson is reflected in Isabel. Emersonian transcendentalism has a great influence on her, so that she maintains that the individual is opposed to society and that the self should predominate over circumstances. Emersonian traits affect her action, particularly in her choice of husband. Even after Isabel realizes the true nature of her husband and learns that Osmond married her for money, she does not abandon the responsibility of marriage. Many critics think that the decision is the result of her mental growth. Granting that her final decision is the indication of her development in a sense, it seems more persuasive to argue that she did not change much in other respects. Her real problem in the choice of her husband was not so much ignorance of reality as repression of instinct and spontaneous emotion. At the final stage, her mind and will power is even stronger than before. She puts absolute emphasis on her self at the cost of the harmonious relationship of the self and the outer world. The same can be said of Emerson. Critics argue that Emerson radically changes from a naive idealist into a mature pragmatist. However, it seems that his change, like Isabel's, is not fundamental. Emerson simply became more shrewd but did not realize that his self-oriented attitude was the real problem.