Isabel Archer and Anna Karenina

"named after a great figure in literature, and while she'd argued for Isabel Archer or Anna Karenina, Richard had insisted that Mrs. Dalloway was the singular and obvious choice." (10)

Isabel Archer is the protagonist in The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James. The character is a headstrong girl who confronts her destiny. Anna Karenina is a work of fiction written by Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina has an affair, because she is dissatisfied with what she has. Clarissa is not rebellious like either of these women. She wonders if she is satisfied with the life she leads, but does nothing to change it like these women did. She is more like Clarissa Dalloway in Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf, because she settles with what is comfortable and safe.

~"The Portrait of the Lady" The Literature Network. September29, 2008.
~"Anna Karenina" The Literary Network. September 29, 2008.