Henry James’s The Ambassadors: The Main Character’s Double Consciousness Implies the Author’s Multiple Personality

The following statement is made on the second page of the novel, in the introduction of the main character:

“…his relation to his actual errand might prove none of the simplest. He was burdened, poor Strether—it had better be confessed at the outset—with the oddity of a double consciousness. There was detachment in his zeal and curiosity in his indifference.”

Strether’s errand was to act as “ambassador” from a wealthy American woman to her prodigal son in Paris, to get the son to return home.

Most readers of the novel will be unfamiliar with the term “double consciousness” (see my last post on the synonyms of “multiple personality”), and will mistakenly think that the character is being described as simply indecisive and ambivalent. But James highlights the fact that he is saying something extraordinary about the character when he emphasizes “the oddity of a double consciousness” and that it must be “confessed.”

Self-Contradiction, Not Ambivalence

James explains what he means by “double consciousness” when he says, “There was detachment in his zeal and curiosity in his indifference.” That is, the character was self-contradictory, not just ambivalent. Let me illustrate the difference between self-contradiction and ambivalence.

Suppose you offer ice cream to Person A on two occasions. On one occasion he accepts it gladly, explaining, “I love ice cream.” But on another occasion, he declines it, explaining, “I do love ice cream, but today I can’t afford the calories.” Person A is ambivalent about ice cream, since he loves it, but doesn’t want to get fat.

In contrast, you offer ice cream to Person B on two occasions. On one occasion he accepts it gladly, explaining, “I love ice cream.” But on another occasion, he declines it, explaining, “I hate ice cream and always have.” Person B has been self-contradictory. He evidently has one consciousness (personality) who loves ice cream and another one who hates it.

Gratuitous Multiple Personality

Thus, Henry James, when he says that Strether has double consciousness, is implying that the character has multiple personality. But what, then, should the reader think if multiple personality, per se, never becomes an issue in the novel? In fact, it never does become an issue in The Ambassadors. So when James raises the issue of multiple personality by describing his main character as having double consciousness, it is an example of what I call “gratuitous multiple personality.”

As I have said in previous posts, gratuitous multiple personality in a novel suggests that multiple personality was a personal issue of the author. When “it had better be confessed” that someone has multiple personality, it was James’s confession about himself.

Henry James. The Ambassadors [1903]. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Adrian Poole. Penguin Books, 2008.