Henry James, the author of "The Real Thing" was an American-born writer who was known as a key figure of the 19th century literary realism. In his short story "The Real Thing," he exposes the significant theme of illusion vs. reality.
In James's story, "The Real Thing," he exposes the struggle a middle class artist has with four different types of people to create artwork around. Mr. and Mrs. Monarch were from a wealthy socioeconomic status but lost their money and now are secretly begging to be the artist's models for his paintings. Mr. and Mrs. Monarch are clung to their used-to-be high social status, making it difficult for them to transform through his artwork for a specific job. Miss Chum and Oronte are two characters of a lower socioeconomic class, openly looking for a job to pay the bills. Miss Chum and Oronte also come for the modeling job and end up fitting the modeling position better than the Monarchs, leading to the artist keeping them for his paintings instead of the Monarchs. Mr. and Mrs. Monarch are illustrated as being "the real thing," but because they are too cookie-cutter; they cannot give the artist versatile poses or transform into anything beside themselves.
The theme of illusion vs. reality illuminates throughout James's short story "The Real Thing." The Monarchs continue to portray themselves as prestigious high social class citizens, asking for this middle class artist's modeling job as last result. James describes them as "the real thing" but in reality this illustration is just an illusion because they cannot mold themselves or transform in the way the artist needs for his paintings. The monarchs may be "the real thing" for country homes or classy conversations, but Oronte and Miss Chum are just as much impressive candids for professional modeling. This theme also connects to the fact that the Monarchs are so desperate for their jobs that they are willing to be servants for Oronte and Miss Chum. In reality, these two would never stoop to being someone else's servants because when they had money, they were the people who hired servants. They are hidden behind the illusion of striving for "the real thing" to model for money, but end up not being fit for the job.
James was able to reveal the underlying theme of illusion vs. reality through his unique writing techniques. James was able to expose that the "real thing" is not always found in the high socioeconomic well class citizens, but can be found in an "average Joe."
I really like how you talked about illusion vs. reality. I feel that it was the most important aspect of the short story. I can really tell from reading this blog that you throughly understood the story. I like your thoughts on "the real thing" always talked about in the story. Good job Madison!
ReplyDeleteI like how you explained what the "real thing" meant to the characters and how it reflected the idea of illusion vs. reality. This was very interesting and well written. You really backed up your views with great detail and comprehension.
ReplyDeleteMadison, how do you think the story would of played out if the author had the Monarchs not act like they were high class citizens. Even though they were both good looking people and you could tell with out the actions that they were previously from high class, do you think that the artist would of still been unable to paint them as characters rather than the "real thing"?
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