This study will examine and compare the characterizations of Miriam in Henry James' The Tragic Muse and Nana in Emile Zola's Nana. The study will first consider the ways James represents Miriam directly and indirectly, and will then compare and contrast James' portrayal of Miriam with Zola's portrayal of Nana directly and indirectly.
James from the first mention of Miriam shows her to be a remarkable, even mystical, woman. The author presents her in the words, thoughts and feelings of others as "the Tragic Muse," "that girl in Paris," "charming," and "the great modern personage" (James 33-35). Nick Dormer has a vague memory of her, but he met her some time ago before she became "interesting," an actress, a model, and a character of increasing grace and power in her own and others' lives. Now, Nash tells Nick, "She's really worth seeing. . . . You'll find her very suggestive. . . She is splendid" (James 35). James prepares Nick and the reader with such effusive mystery in describing Miriam that the reader and Nick are "charmed in advance" (James 36). Nash even tries to take credit for how interesting and splendid she has become: "I invented her. I introduced her. I revealed her" (James 34). These and other characters in the book from that point on are trying to understand her, love her, be loved by her, and/or take credit for her by "revealing" her or simply because they know her.
When Nick meets her to paint her, he is immediately taken with "the brave free rather grand creature who instantly filled his studio with such an unexampled presence. . . . Miss Rooth was light and bright and direct . . . She attracted crowds to her theatre" (James 36-37). She is more than merely intelligent, "capable almost of a violent play of mind" (James 37). She is "the Tragic Muse" in part because she is so superior in so many ways that she is virtually unattainable to others, "the actress beyond any one" (James 430).
Above all, as "the gre...