Power Games in The Wings of the Dove—the “Worker” IS the “Worked”

Year 2014, Issue: 40, 95 - 108, 01.10.2014

Agnes Pokol-hayhurst

Abstract

Within a multidisciplinary framework that focuses on the concept of reciprocity in Henry James’s fiction, this article’s point of departure is that in James’s fictional world society is a battlefield and social interaction a series of power games. The focus is on The Wings of the Dove, where James’s understanding of the dynamics of “give and take” can be gleaned when looking at his depiction of the system of the “worker” and the “worked.” The aim here, however, is to show that these power games yield a far more balanced exchange than critical opinion has hitherto claimed; they move along the lines of Do ut des—a Latin phrase meaning “I give so that you may give”—which beautifully corresponds with the Maussian tenet of the impossibility of a free gift. This is to say that Milly Theale’s is not a story of victimization but that of triumphant counter-manipulation; Aunt Maud the mistress of Lancaster Gate , Lord Mark, and Lionel Croy are less exploitative and therefore morally less reprehensible

Keywords

Henry James’s late novels, multidisciplinarity, capitalism, victimization, fragmentation, manipulation, free gift

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