Watch and Ward: James's fantasy of Omnipotence - Henry James

Rather than examining and expressing her own emotions, Nora learns the necessity of concentrating on the emotions and reactions of others. Like most children, she perceptively picks up on Roger's need to disavow part of herself: "Nora seemed by instinct to have perceived the fitness of not speaking of her own affairs, and indeed displayed in the matter a precocious good taste" (41). What to the narrator seems "good taste" we regard as proof that Nora has already learned how to parent her new parent. Deferring to Roger's "discomfort" about her past, Nora never has a chance to express her feelings about what must have been traumatic events. Nora learns that to speak would "pain" her already "overburdened" new parent (to use Kohut's terminology), and Nora of course cannot afford to do that.

Moreover, by implication, Roger's "pained" expression in reference to Nora's past probably leads in her mind to the conclusion that it - and she - are shameful. She believes, as every child will, what Roger believes - that is, that the aspect of herself that is her past life is bad and that his invalidation of that part of her is for her own good. When, on one Christmas Eve after having been with Roger for a few years, she insists on talking about her biological father and her past, she says, "I want for an hour to be myself and feel how little that is, to be my miserable father's daughter" (65). Without Roger, Nora accepts that she is nothing. And presumably, by bringing up her past on this one occasion and speaking of it, she can exorcise it from herself, so that from this point on she is free to live only to make Roger happy and to be for him what he needs her to be: "She disinterred her early memories with a kind of rapture of relief." From Nora's point of view in this last sentence we abruptly shift to Roger's point of view in the next sentence: "Her evident joy in this frolic of confidence gave Roger a pitying sense of what her long silence must have cost her. But evidently she bore him no grudge, and his present tolerance of her rambling gossip seemed to her but another proof of his charity" (66). Despite James's explanation here, we question Nora's motives for so "disinterring her memories." She does so to mollify Roger, not to cure her drama. The child can mirror her parent only by rejecting in herself what is rejected by the parent; thus Nora's sense of worth depends upon her role as Roger's object.

This sudden shifting between Nora's and Roger's points of view, as if Nora needed Roger to complete her thoughts, as if Roger felt compelled to finish Nora's sentences, occurs elsewhere in the text. It not only embodies the relationship that is growing between Roger and Nora, but it also suggests a flaw in James's text. Roger gives to Nora with the express expectation that he will eventually receive back from her, and his peace of mind depends on her growing sense of obligation and gratitude. Roger needs her to mirror him, and he lets her know that her worth depends on how much she can reflect back to him the image of himself he wants reflected: