Henry James Paste
In the story, Arthur Prime is introduced as the son of a clergymanand his wife, both of whom have recently died. We first meet Arthur as heand his cousin, Charlotte, are discussing going through his parent'sbelonging after his death. He seems to be reticent to go through thebelongings, telling Charlotte that he wishes she would look at the few newthings he has found. The first impression that the reader gets of Arthur isthat he "seemed somehow to brood without sorrow, to suffer without what shein her own case would have called pain." This clearly insinuates that heis shallow and unfeeling, and his disdain of his aunt's "awful" and "cheap"jewelery shows his disregard for sentimentality at least in this regard.He is a man concerned with appearances and propriety, and criticizes thejewels as "trappings of a ruder age than ours. Actors do themselves betternow." He is absolutely insistent that the jewels are worthless, suggestingthat any value would suggest that his aunt was once a 'kept' woman of thestage, of less than sterling character. As the story moves on, Arthurreveals himself to be deceptive, as he argues that the pearls are indeed
Guy's motivations about the authenticity of the pearls aresignificantly clearer than Charlotte's. Motivation Arthur, Charlotte, and Mrs. Guy wears the pearls as if they were her own, and wants to buythem from Charlotte. He cannot admit their value to his cousin Charlotte, and yet heultimately sells them, thus implicitly recognizing their value. Guy's than either asArthur's or as her own (Charlotte's). She iscaught up in the "touching" mystery of the pearls, wearing them in "secretsessions", and dreams of how selling them would improve her life. She is clearly enamored of thepearls and wishes to keep them, even noting feeling "a haunting passion"for the pearls, as they gave her "dreams" of sophistication and passion inher relatively uneventful life. However, her story about buying the pearls from a shop may not betrue, as Charlotte had given Mrs. To her, the pearls are away to inject passion and beauty into her rather dull life. Rather than standing by his word aboutthe pearls and returning them to Charlotte, he locks them in a drawer andsays he will have them assessed at Bond Street, simply in order to provethat they are fakes. Apparently, money is moreimportant than either virtue or honesty, and need not be reconciled withself-awareness. Guy mayhave visited him directly to buy the pearls. Guy immediately knows the value of the pearls, andstrongly urges Charlotte to keep them without telling Arthur of theirvalue. At the same time, she cannot bring herselfto lie to her cousin about the nature of the pearls. However,she feels that she has come into the pearls under false pretenses.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
