Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- How Strether feels about his own life when he first encounters Chad? What evidence from the text shows that that's the case?
- How does Strether find out the truth about Chad and Marie de Vionnet? How does the discovery affect his own future decisions?
- Why the heck does Henry James write in the style that he does, with all of his long, long digressions into Strether's thinking and impressions of the world? Is that kind of style effective or not? Why? Why?
- Do you think Strether has romantic feelings about Maria Gostrey? How can you separate these feelings from the positive vibes Strether seems to feel toward everyone in Europe?
- How is Strether like an ambassador? What moments in the book tend to bring up this metaphor directly?
- Why is the Newsome family so outraged at Chad's being in Paris? What specific moments in the story demonstrate those feelings?
- What does Maria Gostrey mean when she says that Strether's friend Waymarsh has the "sacred rage"?
- Why does Strether decide to head back to America at the end of the novel? Why won't he stay and marry Maria Gostrey?
- How has the Newsome family made all of its money? Does that affect your readerly view of them?
- Why does Mrs. Newsome herself never come to Europe? Is it just because she's sick, or is there some sort of strategy to the fact that she sends "ambassadors" on her behalf?