The real thing

[الشهـــري]

تفضلو
The Real Thing
The Story
An artist is visited one day in his studio by a middle-aged couple, Major and Mrs. Monarch. At first the artist
assumes that they have come to commission a portrait, but he soon learns that they want, instead, to pose as
paid models. He observes that the Monarchs, though on the edge of poverty, are an eminently respectable pair,
well-mannered, immaculately poised—in effect, as their name suggests, the very embodiment of taste,
refinement, and class.
Hoping that they might prove ideal subjects for a series of illustrations he is engaged in creating for a
publisher, the artist agrees to hire them, though their very authenticity causes him to have vague misgivings.
They are the “real thing,” but they are still amateurs, and the artist is more confident of his ability to work
with his professional models, Oronte and Miss Churm.
Miss Churm is an ill-mannered cockney who “couldn’t spell and loved beer” but who can represent anything
from an aristocrat to a beggar. The artist regards her as an excellent model. As for Oronte, he is an Italian
vagrant who found his way to the artist's studio and who has become as good a model, in the artist's eyes, as
Miss Churm. He is, the narrator relates, as good at posing as an Englishman as Miss Churm is as an Italian.
Against these two, the Monarchs must compete for the artist's favor, though at first they assume that their own
credentials as aristocrats will be warrant enough for their success. Try as he might, however, the artist cannot
do anything with them. He draws Mrs. Monarch many times, in many ways, always failing to capture what he
wants. With Major Monarch the situation is worse, his representation being always gigantic and out of scale.
Eventually the artist manages several drawings with both husband and wife and sends them to the publisher
for approval.
Meanwhile, a fellow artist and friend of the narrator has returned from Paris, where he has studied some of the
great works and where he has, as the narrator says, “gotten a fresh eye.” Viewing some of the artist's
illustrations with the Monarchs as models, the friend expresses his disapproval. The artist insists that the
illustrations are good, but his friend counsels him to get rid of the models or risk his career.
Despite his friend's remonstrances, the artist continues to keep the Monarchs as models, not so much out of
respect for their gentility as out of compassion for their impoverishment. Ultimately the artist rejects them by
working exclusively with Oronte and Miss Churm. “I can’t be ruined for you,” he tells the major, petulantly.
In a final humiliation, the Monarchs plead for a position, even offering to act as servants. For almost a week
the artist keeps them on, but in the end, saddened by their failure, he pays them off and never sees them again.
Themes and Meanings
“The Real Thing” is an extraordinarily subtle work demanding, like much of the work of Henry James,
sensitivity and perceptiveness from the reader. The theme, one of James's recurring preoccupations, is the
artist's honest struggle with his material, a struggle to render a subject in all of its multifaceted meaning.