Personality reveal in the narrator's speech Andrea Ramos Moysén College

“The Aspern Papers” by Henry James is about a nameless man who is willing to do anything in order to achieve his goal concerning an obsession with a writer. In the story, this nameless character who is both the narrator and the main character, depicts two personalities: the art lover who “can’t live without flowers” (James 56) and wants to take care of the Bordereau’s garden, and the self-interested man who practices “hypocrisy and duplicity in the name of his dedication and in order to secure Aspern’s letters from his one-time mistress Juliana Bordereau” (Brylowski 215). Through his actions one can get to known directly his personality but, since he is an unreliable narrator because of his theatrical self, the reader is incited to find other ways of noticing his true personality. Therefore, we get to know his real personality in the indirect way, by analyzing the style of his discourse. In “The Aspern Papers” by Henry James, the self-interested personality of the narrator is revealed in his discourse without the need of an omniscient narrator.

In order to have a reveal of the main character’s personality, we need the aid of both the direct and indirect clues. Thnlude his actions; his whole quest on wanting to own the Aspern...