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Sloughing off the burdens: Ada's and Isabel's parallel/antithetical quests for self-actualization in Jane Campion's film The Piano and Henry James's novel The Portrait of a Lady
Literature Film Quarterly, 1997 by Jeanne R Dapkus
3a. Ada has a total of three suitors in the film. The first is a man the viewers never get to see, but he is the father of her illegitimate daughter, Flora. Although he represents Ada's first sexual encounter, Campion says in her interview with Brian D. Johnson that "we imagine it was a pretty rudimentary experience" (Johnson 74). The second suitor is her husband, Stewart, who is completely wrong for her in terms of sexual chemistry, and who is also unable to recognize the importance of Ada's piano as a pathway to her heart. His inability to see her clearly eventually causes him to completely misunderstand her liaisons with Baines, and he becomes a villain, chopping off one of her fingers in a fruitless attempt to control her. He and the first suitor are her "sexless" experiences with men. Finally, there is Baines who ostensibly becomes the recipient of Ada's piano teaching after he procures ownership of the piano. For a time, he seems to exert control over Ada because he uses her desire to have her piano back to bargain for sexual favors. Baines recognizes best advantage so that he has the gratification of observing her as he engages himself in erotic fantasies. Eventually, Ada participates willingly in sexual acts with him. She does not consider him to be a person who has ensnared her into doing this. Instead, she ends up using him to release her natural self, and to gain her freedom.
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3b. Isabel has a total of four suitors in the novel. The first is Goodwood, who is an American businessman, and who most obviously represents a constant temptation to Isabel's natural side-her erotic self. "Isabel sees Goodwood as a `walking erection"' (Hochenauer 20). Ultimately, Isabel is able to reject Goodwood's advances in a final scene which illustrates perfectly her choice to accept the moral and aesthetic truths she finds in fine art and civilization rather than to give in to her natural inclinations. The second suitor is Ralph, Isabel's cousin, who is never truly in the running as a husband because he suffers from consumption. However, ironically, it is Ralph who most resembles Baines in Piano because it is he who procures the means to attempt to control Isabel in her life by ensuring that she receives seventy-thousand pounds as an inheritance. Like Baines, Ralph is interested in observing
Isabel, and he does this for his own gratification. He seems to be the character who best reflects Isabel's character, and it is through him that Isabel experiences her most profound feelings:
"Isabel," [Ralph] went on suddenly, "I wish it were over for you." She answered nothing; she had burst into sobs . . . she had lost all her shame. all wish to hide things . . . she wished him to know, for it brought them supremely together. (528)
Like Ada with Baines, Isabel does not consider Ralph as having trapped her. His gift of seventy-thousand pounds is ironically the vehicle which leads her into a fate that she could never have chosen if she had not had the money.
The third suitor is Warburton, an English lord who seems genuinely attached and loyal to Isabel. His presence is troubling to Isabel because he represents yet another compelling sexual outlet. His proclamation that he will "come to see her" results in her receiving "an appreciable shock" which she cannot pretend "was an altogether painful one." Still, she succeeds in sending him away by becoming "cold." And her coldness "came from a certain fear" (82). Of course, this "certain fear" is of what would happen if she unleashed her sexual self.
