The Artistic Ambition Of Henry James - 7075 Words

In the 2013 documentary, The United States of Amnesia, Gore Vidal said, â€Å"Art is not a democracy,† he explains further, â€Å"in fact, art is the enemy of democracy.† According to this viewpoint, the gifted artist is one to whom the ancient Greeks said were favoured by the muses of creativity: accordingly, such divine help is undemocratically dished out. It is because of the writer’s imagination and astuteness in carefully selecting and arranging words on a page, to convey the complex emotions of their characters, is testimony to their artistic ambition of invoking in the reader sublime awe. Furthermore, the creating of art (whether it is literary or any other) is one of the driving factors that fuel the artist’s ambition. Great art transcends†¦show more content†¦Such artistic drive is heightened by sexual desires: resulting in either the creation of artworks, or the diminishment in its quality and number. In addition, James investigates the mother’s ambition to exercise control and profit from their children. These conflicting and competing desires increase the narrative tension of James’s novel: the only choice is the self-destruction of the artist through death — and the surrendering of one’s morals in favour of wealth — leading to an apathetic existence. Overall, the consequences of ambition are viewed by the writer in a negative light whereby the only redeeming quality is the possibility of reciprocated love — this, nonetheless, may take a lifetime to achieve. At the start of Roderick Hudson, James focuses his authorial attentions on Rowland Mallet, where we are shown the character’s viewpoints, his history and most importantly how he interacts with the other characters in the novel. What the reader discovers about Rowland Mallet is that he is a wealthy man who does not advocate nor does he live a luxurious, ostentatious lifestyle. Instead, he is frugal and such parsimony, we are told, results from a stern puritan father. Moreover, it seems James knows all too well the angst Rowland, in the years to come, would face. Essentially, Rowland, â€Å"cared nothing for†¦money† (James, Roderick, 58), but what he cherishedShow MoreRelatedThe Art Museum When I Was At The Asian Museum883 Words   |  4 Pagescollection for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844  ­ 1926) was an American impressionist painter who, similarly to the most privileged artists of her generation (Henry James condescendingly called them the â€Å"White Marmorean Flock†), traveled to Europe in the late 1860s to pursue artistic training. 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