The Wings of the Dove

Analysis of Milly's multi-characters in the book 'The Wings of the Dove'

Throughout his novels, Henry James created a typical type of American girls, they all encounter misfortunes in the conflicts between European and American cultures, one of the examples is Milly Theale in James's book 'The Wings of the Dove'. In the book, Henry James uses multi-perspectives to imply Milly's lifesome characters, which include her pursuit of freedom, her loss of self-identity, her ingenuousness and kindness.

In James's novels, he always focus on the pursuit of freedom and life experiences. Like those other women characters James created, Milly desires freedom and aspires experiences of lives. Milly owns things that others envy for: wealth, beauty, intelligence... but she is not satisfied with her status and would like to experience lives in London. For Milly, only if she had experiences all kinds of lives her own lives would be worth. The reason for Milly's choice of visiting Europe is that 'It had rolled over her what she wanted of Europe was 'people'' (1). Milly wants those experiences and encounters with different people to fulfill her life. People regard Milly as 'princess' and 'American heiress', but what she wants are more than these.

In the preface James mentions that except self-confidence Milly seems like own all other things: freedom, wealth, beauty, intelligence and charisma...However, after Milly arrived in London she starts to reconsider her own identity. Lord Mark tells Milly that 'Nobody here, you know, does anything for nothing' (2), Milly shows aversion towards what Mark says, she replies that 'You're blasé, but you are not enlightened. You're familiar with everything, but conscious really of nothing. What I mean is that you've no imagination'(3). However, Lord Mark's words evoke Milly's self-reconsideration: who am I? what I come for? Ingenuous Milly is eventually different from worldly Europeans, she is eventually an outsider.

After all, Milly's ingenuousness is considered as her biggest identification. After Milly got to know the relationship between Kate and Merton her will to survive vulnerable 'she turned her face to the wall'(4). Although she is betrayed by her two best friends, Milly chooses to forgive them; and sacrifice herself in order