at modern personage," Miriam represents the new woman, a woman utterly free and unburdened by social or self-restrictions which would keep her from expanding her consciousness or her artistry as far as she possibly can, restrictions which other women and men accept for themselves. She is portrayed by others as a special woman, and she shares this view of herself, as in this passage in which she describes her vision of life and self in comparison to that of Peter:
"He's such a curious mixture," she luxuriously went on; "sometimes I quite lose patience with him. It isn't exactly trying to serve both God and Mammon, but it's muddling up the stage and the world. The world be hanged! The stage, or anything of that sort---I mean one's artistic conscience, one's true faith---comes first" (James 44).
Others may see Miriam as something akin to aa angel, but Miriam i
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