Universitatea din Craiova

Facultatea de litere
Masterat: Studii de limba si literaturi anglo-americane
Valori culturale americane

Henry James
The International Journey towards Understanding
The Ambassadors

Mateescu Mihaela
Anul I

Born in New York in a family with an intellectual and financial background, Henry James
spent his early years travelling back and forth the Atlantic, being educated in great European
cities: Paris, London, Bonn. The author embarked on a journey towards understanding the spirit
and art of Europe. Settling in England, he found there an environment that best suited his
personal comfort and boosted great literary works.
In his preface to the New York text edition of the novel, James rates The Ambassasors
frankly, quite the best all around of my productions. He describes his delight in its creation,
acknowledging that the theme of the novel raised his artistic faith to its maximum (1909, vii).
The Ambassadors is in many ways a typical Jamesian novel in that it deals with the
psychological interior of a character obsessed with self- reflection. When James defines the
novel in The Art of Fiction as a history of experience, referring not to the experience of the
external event with the outer world as a stage, but to the experience of the perceived event with
consciousness as a stage.
Experience is never limited and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility a
kind of a huge spider web of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of
consciousness, and catching every air-borne particle in its tissue (1884, 5).
In The Ambassadors, Lambert Strether Henry James alter ego- (in a letter to his friend
James admitted that Strether bears a vague resemblance to its creator) is the chamber of
consciousness and the spider web of experience is the fabric of the novel as it is suspended in
Strether. His experiences, observations, thoughts, and reflections essentially compose the novel.
Even though it is not told in Strethers voice, his point of view fills the work and he is the central
consciousness.
Strether travels to Europe as an ambassador trying to bring back Chad Newsome, the
son of a friend, future fianc, because the son got involved in some romantic adventure. Chad is
expected to return to Massachusetts, continue the family business and settle down in marriage.
In the confrontation between two worlds, as the American travels to Europe, Strether fails
to persuade the other characters to act as he would like them to, and ultimately, he himself is the
one who changes the most, as the world he enters and continually observes, has a great influence
and affects him profoundly.
The 55- year-old editor from Woollett decides to undertake the mission of saving Chad
and bringing him back to family security, understanding the success of the task will settle his
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own relationship with Chads mother back in Massachusetts. Self-reflexive nature, Lambert
Strether wonders what life experience he must have missed not having a wife or a son for such a
long time. The journey he undertakes soon makes him understand the shortcomings of his own
life, the flattening routine in Woollett. As he travels, a new world opens, and he comes to
appreciate the freedom and depth of experience in the old world, new meanings and perspectives
appear in his mind. We could argue therefore the protagonist points to a turning point in authors
views towards the American characters. The novel contains none of the embarrassment found in
earlier works, where fellow American characters seemed incapable of appreciation of the
fineness and subtlety of European culture.
Strether longs to live and enjoy life to the full. In his discussions with Maria Gostrey,
however, he points to his incapacity and regret of not having taken the most of his life
experiences. Even more, now as he finds himself middle-aged, he deeply fears he will never be
able to fully live and feel. It is only in Paris where he begins to feel truly lived moments.
Following Miss Gostreys guidance, Strether gains confidence, learns to trust his own judgment,
manages to overcome his regret over the unlived past and begins to enjoy the present. Maria
teaches him the language of fine discrimination and prepares him to fully apprehend reality.
Once in Paris, Strether is ready to judge himself Chads position and he approaches him with
great caution to see and understand his new environment. The idea of helping Chad fulfill his
potential in the family business in Woollett, radically changes in the end when Strether is
convinced the young mans life would be richer and more profound in Paris.
The same theme of living life to the full appears in Strethers relationships with other
characters, too.
Live all you can; its a mistake not to. It doesnt so much matter what you do in
particular, so long as you have your lifeThe right time is any time that one is still so
lucky as to have Dont, at any rate, miss things out of stupidity Live! (Book fifth,
chapter 2, 217-218).
He speaks to little Bilham about the benefits of truly living life and advises the young man not to
make his own mistakes and this is the point when he articulates one of the most profound lesson
he has learned in Europe.
Nevertheless, Strether fails to convince Chad not to return to America, and, ultimately,
his own refusal of Maria Gostrey and return to Woollett represents the final acceptance that life
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has in fact passed him by; he does not renounce the freedom and openness he has found Europe,
he simply finds himself too old and too tied to his own life in Woollett. Or, it may also be James
avoidance of a facile reconciliation of oppositions-American provinciality versus European
sophistication.
Strethers journey is the journey of liberation from a cramped emotional life into a freer,
more gracious existence. Yet, it should be noted that James does not naively consider Paris a
perfect place for stunted Americans. Strether learns about the reverse of the European coin when
he sees a desperate Madame de Vionnet at the prospect of losing Chad. Stretcher does not
abandon his American style to adopt a more elegant European way; rather he learns to evaluate
every situation on its merits and sets himself free of the old prejudices. The final learning from
Europe is to distrust preconceived notions and other peoples perceptions and to rely only on
ones own observation and judgment.
In his position as an ambassador, Strether finds himself caught in a conflict between
desire (his concerns about gaining experience and pleasure) and duty (working on behalf of
others). He comes to Europe with some curiosity and intends to combine the act of recuing Chad
with the opportunity of learning about the European way. He is thus, from the very beginning,
burdened with a double consciousness. Should he be faithful to his mission of bringing Chad
home once he no longer believes in that mission?
Postponing action in a long process of deliberation, Strether is convinced that Paris-the
Babylon in the American perspective-has actually improved Chads character and he comes to
blame the young man for his lack of imagination not wanting to remain in the openness of the
old world.
In the end the role Strether prefers for himself is that of an observer, yet enriched by his
new experience, more trained in the art of life.

References:
James H, The Ambassadors, 1909, New York: Charles Scribners Sons
James H, The art of Fiction, 1888, London: Macmillan and Co
Victoria Leigh Bennet, Naming and Identity in Henry Jamess The Ambassadors on https:
tspace.library.utoronto.ca
Zacharias G W, A companion to Henry James, 2008, Oxford: Willy-Blackwell
West R, Henry James, 1968, New York: Kennikat Press
SparkNotes editors. SparkNote on The Ambassadors.SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC 2006.
Web 14 Jan.2014
books.google.com
www.scribd.com