Book 10 Summary and Analysis
Summary
Chad has a large dinner party in order to display his life in Paris more fully to his family. Strether talks with Bilham about the effect of this on the Pococks. Although Sarah is impressed with such an occasion, she believes that it could be done just as easily, and perhaps even better, in Woollett. Bilham offers Strether his help, which Strether gratefully accepts. Although at one time Strether wanted Bilham’s help in convincing Chad to marry Mamie, now he wants his help to do the exact opposite. He wants Bilham to be the one to marry Mamie. Strether promises to leave him all his property in his will. Mamie, like Strether, had come to Paris to save Chad, in her case by marrying him. Now that she is set free from that mission, she may do what she wants; that is, marry Bilham. By doing so, she would “save” Strether by removing one reason for Chad to return to Woollett.
With Miss Barrace, Strether talks of the effectiveness of the party in convincing the Pococks of the change in Chad. Miss Gostrey is not present because she still wants to avoid any responsibility in the situation. Miss Barrace speaks of “losing” Waymarsh to Mrs. Pocock. Jim, in the meantime, has been entertained by Madame de Vionnet, since Chad has his hands full with Sarah.
A week later, while Strether is at breakfast, Waymarsh comes in, dressed like a Southern planter and fresh from the flower market with Sarah Pocock. He tells Strether that Sarah will come to visit him in one hour. Strether, semi-jokingly, asks if she is coming to kill him. Waymarsh replies that she is coming to be very, very kind to him, and he expects him to be the same to her. He also tells Strether that he and the Pococks are leaving for a month in Switzerland and then sailing for home. It is clear that Strether is not going to be invited on the trip. When Strether asks if Sarah had received instructions from her mother to break off their mission and return to Woollett, Waymarsh says he knows nothing of Mrs. Newsome’s cables. Strether knows that this is a lie. Before he leaves, Waymarsh once again urges him (but with less intensity than before) to leave Paris.
When Sarah arrives, Strether feels it is clear that she has come for nothing less than his submission. Strether thinks that Sarah is claiming that Chad has put the full responsibility for his remaining in Paris on him. Sarah calls Strether’s conduct an outrage to ‘women like us.” She, and her mother as well, are shocked that he would compare Mrs. Newsome with Madame de Vionnet and find the latter superior. When Strether once again asks if she thinks that Chad has improved, Sarah says that the change in her brother is “hideous.” As Mrs. Pocock storms out the door, Strether realizes it is all at an end.
Analysis
As Strether realizes that his future in Woollett as the husband of Mrs. Newsome and the step-father of Chad is now all but history, he looks to little Bilham as the most likely person on whom he may bestow his legacy. From the moment that Strether saw the young artist on the balcony of Chad’s apartment, there was an instant connection. Now Strether has chosen him as a surrogate son, leaving him his entire estate on the event of his death. However, on a less emotional level, Strether also sees him as his “savior,” marrying Mamie and thus giving Chad less of a reason to...
(This entire section contains 970 words.)
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return to Woollett and assume his place as a leading man of business and society. Chad’s remaining in Europe has become Strether’s self-imposed mission; it replaces the rejected mission assigned to him by Mrs. Newsome.
Miss Barrace, who functions as a somewhat comic character, has lost Waymarsh and his “sacred rages” to Mrs. Pocock. Although she is not a significant player, Miss Barrace nevertheless serves as a means to entertain the men at loose ends; at this point, that man would be Jim Pocock. Jim has fallen in love with Paris, much as Strether had but without losing his view of its decadence. He enjoys it as an observer rather than as a participant. He will return to his proper role as the subservient husband of Sarah Pocock when the time comes to leave Paris.
Waymarsh continues to be the lackey of Mrs. Pocock, informing Strether that Sarah, like a queen, will grace Strether’s presence within the hour. Sarah continues to believe that she, through her mother, controls Strether’s destiny. In fact, however, he has already assumed that his destiny lies elsewhere than as the husband of Mrs. Newsome. He is willing to accept the news, but he does not want to leave Chad at their hands on their terms. His disdain for Waymarsh and Sarah comes to the fore in a very vocal manner. Through his own actions, and almost on his own terms, he ends his relationship with the ruling family of Woollett.
The freedom that Strether felt on his arrival in Europe has now been handed to him in earnest. His failure as an ambassador has proved his failure as a prospective husband. His frustration with the Pococks stems more from their refusal to see Europe as a positive good than through his own rejection by Mrs. Newsome. He is fighting against the old worldview that has survived in New England against the new civilization that has emerged in Europe in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In a sense, therefore, the New World has become the old world that must give way to the rise of a world that is broader, less restrictive, and less bound by morality.
