Past Perfect Retrospection in the Style of Henry James

Abstract

f HE AIM OF THIS ESSAY iS to show the unusual importance of the past perfect tense and retrospection in the late novels of Henry James-especially to describe the effect of his use of this tense and to consider its relation to his art. In his late works, James tends to enlarge the sphere of the past perfect tense and in complementary fashion to reduce that of the normal narrative tense, the past. The effect is of reduced action and event; those movements which remain are more indirect, less palpable, less objective. The inaction is the corollary of a greater subjectivity in a world of remembrance, reflection, impression, and interpretation. Such a style is important to the unity of the last novels in its relation to the sustaining of the consciousness of the central character. Related as these many matters are, the use of the past perfect tense is at once a symptom and an important factor; analysis of it may better our understanding of the other elements of James's art. Appropriately enough, since the novel most pleased James himself, The Ambassadors uses the past perfect tense for retrospection most effectively. There are of course moments in every novel when the past perfect tense is natural and necessary, because the author relates actions prior to those which are happening at the time. Such moments may be brief glimpses into the past or long flashbacks, but in the traditional novel they are rare-simply because to proceed through reminiscence is to risk slowing the novel and reducing its vividness. The point to be made about James's use of the past perfect tense is, therefore, dual: he uses it more often than other writers and he uses it precisely in order to explore the reminiscences of his characters.