Quote 4
He had
never before, to his knowledge, had present to him relics, of any
special dignity, of a private order. . . . [These objects] marked
Madame de Vionnet’s apartment as something quite different from
Miss Gostrey’s little museum of bargains and from Chad’s lovely
home; he recognized it as founded much more on old accumulations
that had possibly from time to time shrunken than on any contemporary
method of acquisition or form of curiosity.
At the start of Book Sixth, Strether
joins Chad in a visit to Madame de Vionnet’s apartment. During this
visit, he begins fully to notice the differences between American
culture, American culture in Europe, and European culture. In a
way, his feelings about Madame de Vionnet’s rooms as compared to
Miss Gostrey’s rooms serve as a metaphor for the difference he observes
between Americans and Europeans in Europe. When Strether first enters
Miss Gostrey’s room, pages before the above incident, he is bewildered
by the ornate crowdedness of her quarters. His Woollett-born puritan ethic
finds fault. He thinks the rooms are oppressive, because they are
“charged with possessions,” an “empire of things.” He finds Miss
Gostrey’s decorations to be a “form of curiosity” and feels her taste
speaks negatively of her desire to acquire, to collect, to horde. This
clashes with Strether’s puritan idealization of the renunciation of
the “lust of the eyes and pride of life.” When he enters Madame de
Vionnet’s home, however, he finds a different brand of acquisition.
Madame de Vionnet’s possessions speak not of a “contemporary acquisition”
but of an ancient brand.
Madame de Vionnet’s apartment symbolizes Europe and the grandeur
of European culture. The objects that decorate the walls are not
objects collected to declare a personal voice. Rather, they are “old
accumulations” that demarcate her position in an ancient line, in
a French tradition much greater than herself. Madame de Vionnet’s
possessions say more about her lineage and her place in European
tradition and genealogy than they do about her own desire to define
herself. Unlike Miss Gostrey, who decorates based on taste, surrounding
herself in things that speak to who she thinks she is, Madame de
Vionnet’s decorations are inherited, not chosen by her but
chosen for her at birth. While Miss Gostrey could
redecorate, Madame de Vionnet’s decorations are as essential to
her being as something like her nationality or genetic makeup. In
realizing this, Strether begins to perceive the immaturity of American
culture. He begins to see what can be learned from Europe, a place
where the “self-made man” is rare, and not idealized. Madame de
Vionnet’s rooms let Strether begin to understand the reality and
profundity of the differences between America and Europe, Americans
and Europeans.
