“The Portrait of a Lady” (post 3) by Henry James: Isabel’s mind has “a dozen capricious forces,” just as James’s mind had multiple capricious narrators

The narrator has been discussing the title character’s personal attributes. For example, Isabel liked to read. Also, “Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active; when the door was not open it jumped out of the window” (1, p. 45). And “her memory was excellent” (1, p. 47).

“Isabel had in the depths of her nature an…unquenchable desire to please…but the depths of this young lady’s nature were a very out-of-the-way place, between which and the surface communication was interrupted by a dozen capricious forces” (1, p. 47).

In other words, Isabel had a desire to please, but she was impulsive. However, instead of simply saying she was impulsive, the narrator says she had “a dozen capricious forces.” Is the latter just a more literary way of saying the same thing?

No, “impulsive” would have implied just one personality; whereas, “a dozen capricious forces” implies multiple, countable (therefore distinguishable), impulsive personalities. This multiplicity is comparable to what Professor Luckhurst says in his Introduction to this novel (see post 2) about its having multiple capricious narrators.

1. Henry James. The Portrait of a Lady [1881/1908]. Editing, Introduction, Notes by Roger Luckhurst. New York, Oxford University Press, 2009.