This paper purports to read “Portrait of a Lady” in terms of Henry James’ influence. Unlike the influence of French Symbolist poets, H. James’s influence has not drawn many critical attentions. Eliot is greatly indebted to H. James in many ways. First of all, it is James from whom Eliot had learned that poetry ought to be as well written as prose. Also, as Eliot himself said, he was stimulated by the method to make a place real not descriptively but by something happening there and to let a situation, a relation, and an atmosphere give only what the writer wants in James’s stories. Under the inspiration of James, Eliot can cultivate his gift for dramatic verse. So, we can say the dramatic quality of Eliot’s poetry which is no less than in James’s stories, is not irrelevant to the Jamesian method. Considering such influence of James, this paper aims at comparing Eliot’s “Portrait of a Lady” and James’s The Portrait of a Lady and “The Beast in the Jungle”, in the light of the character’s failure and frustration. Especially, Eliot’s “Portrait of a Lady” and James’s “The Beast in the Jungle” portray a man who fails in having relations with a woman in common. In both of works, each man is distinctively selfish. We can investigate more concretely in what ways “the egotism of a man” is expressed and presented as a hindrance in human relations in both works.

• 한현숙(서울대학교) | Hyun-Suk Han