Summary
Still on edge and nervous after his last conversation with Juliana, a few days later the narrator decides to go and speak with Juliana himself. To his surprise, her wheelchair has been wheeled downstairs, where he finds her sitting by a window that overlooks the garden. Juliana asks the narrator if he wishes to rent rooms in the house for six more months, forcefully implying that she strongly wishes that he would do so. The narrator is taken aback by her upfront request, and sees it as a desperate attempt on Juliana’s part to greedily extract even more money out of him. He tells Juliana that he can’t afford such a luxury, and that he doesn’t even know whether he will have enough money to feed himself for the next few months. Juliana, unfazed, asks the narrator about his work writing and selling books, and he reveals that he works as a biographer.
Although he tells Juliana the genre of books he writes (biographies), the narrator is careful not to reveal his subject matter, and instead subtly hints that he writes about men who attach themselves to “clever women,” hoping that Juliana will take this as a compliment and understand that he is interested in Aspern. Juliana, however, does not respond well to his hints, and instead declares that she doesn’t like critics or those who dig up the past. They then return to discussing the renting of rooms once more, and the narrator eventually agrees to continue renting the rooms but on a month-by-month basis.
Juliana then shows the narrator a small painted portrait of Jeffrey Aspern under the pretense of asking the narrator how much she could possibly sell the portrait for. The narrator, still unwilling to reveal his connection to Aspern, pretends not to know who Aspern is. Juliana explains that her father painted the portrait of Aspern—confirming the narrator’s own theory that Juliana is the daughter of an artist. She tells the narrator that she doesn’t wish to sell the portrait to anyone who doesn’t know of Aspern, forcing the narrator to think on his feet and quickly attempt to backtrack his previous denial in order to convince her to sell the portrait to him. He praises the portrait’s quality and tells her that he is interested in buying the portrait.
Miss Tita comes into the room. Juliana and the narrator conclude their conversation, and Juliana tells the narrator that she feels in better health than she has in a month, despite Miss Tita’s concern that their conversation has worn Juliana out. She tells the narrator she will come downstairs again tomorrow and that she wishes to keep a close eye on the narrator. As Juliana leaves, she tells the narrator that she wants one thousand pounds as payment for the picture.
Later that evening, the narrator meets Miss Tita, who tells him that Juliana is very ill. Miss Tita believes that her aunt is dying, and the narrator urges her to call for a doctor. Miss Tita accuses the narrator of causing her aunt distress and making her condition deteriorate, which the narrator denies. The narrator cannot hide his desire to search for the papers but Miss Tita tells him that they can’t touch the room or move around furniture, even though she does point out the box where she last saw the letters. They are interrupted by a servant who informs Miss Tita that a doctor has arrived.
The narrator, left on his own, nervously paces around the room, debating how he should proceed. He wonders if Juliana is dying and grows increasingly anxious. Miss Tita returns to tell the narrator that the doctor believes Juliana will recover. They discuss Miss Tita’s attachment to Juliana and the narrator urges Miss Tita to break away from her aunt. The narrator continues to question Miss Tita about the letters’ location and Miss Tita begins to agonize over whether she should disobey her aunt by giving the narrator the letters or continue to do her aunt’s bidding. Although she has looked for the letters, she hasn’t found them.
The narrator decides to reveal his true identity to Miss Tita. He tells her his real name—which he still obscures from the reader—and tells her about his biographical work on Jeffrey Aspern. They debate where the letters could be and Miss Tita tells the narrator that he will just have to wait and observe Juliana for longer. After they finish talking, the narrator is plagued by the thought of the letters’ location. He wanders through the house and notices that the door to Juliana’s room has been left open. Hoping to find the letters or at the very least try and ascertain where they could be, he goes in and sees a secretary desk, where he believes the letters are. As he reaches out to touch the desk, he turns around to see Juliana at the doorway in her nightgown. She lifts the veil that covers her eyes (in order to protect them, she constantly wears a protective veil and the narrator has never seen them) and glares at the narrator, hissing at him with fury. The narrator, extremely startled and terrified, runs out of the room as Juliana falls into the arms of Miss Tita in a violent spasm.
Analysis
Chapters VII-VIII bring the novela to its climax—the narrative “high point” of the plot—with Juliana’s collapse at the conclusion of Chapter VIII and the moment of piercing eye contact between the narrator and Juliana. It is in this moment, as the narrator finally crosses the boundaries of privacy by trying to open the secretary desk, that Juliana unveils her eyes; the symbolic significance is extremely overt, with Juliana revealing her true eyes in order to see the narrator’s true character. This final scene is also notable for its gothic atmosphere and environment. Juliana’s “white tottering figure” standing in the dark doorway is a haunting image and contributes greatly to the novella’s drama. Much of The Aspern Papers’ horror-like qualities—haunting physical spaces, old buildings and dark corridors, mysterious figures—can be found in James’s subsequent work The Turn of the Screw and are an important feature of James’s style.
The psychological plot also grows increasingly complex as Juliana appears to know the narrator’s true intentions but will not confront him about them directly. Likewise, the narrator, too, elects to try and remain secretive about his quest for the letters. Juliana taunts the narrator with the portrait of Aspern in the hopes of extorting more money out of him. Even as she shows him the portrait, the narrator desperately tries to maintain his cover and denies knowing Aspern, which in turn causes Juliana to tell him that she won’t sell him the portrait. His plan to act as if he doesn’t know of Aspern backfires, demonstrating that despite his best attempts, Juliana is one step ahead of him in the complicated, unspoken negotiations in which he and Juliana are engaged.
The final paragraphs of Chapter VIII also exemplify Henry James’s ability to create narrative tension through his style. The form—the way in which the passage is written—is directly linked to the atmosphere, tension, and emotions that the narrator feels. For example, as he reaches out to touch the secretary, the sentences become shortened and punctuated by dashes, coming in quick bursts or fragments. This stylistic technique is sometimes referred to as a “staccato” series of sentences or fragments, borrowing the Italian word used in music to describe short, sharply punctuated music notes in order to describe the short, dramatic sentences and fragments that come in quick succession.
The “staccato” technique accelerates the pace of the action, building tension and creating a deeply engrossing portrait of the narrator’s inner thoughts. Similarly, in the moments where the narrator is pacing and debating what he should do next, the style used to describe his thoughts mirrors the way he thinks and what he says as well. His sentences grow longer and circle back on one another, restating the same facts over and over again as he feels doubt about how he should go about trying to extract more information out of Miss Tita or find the letters himself.
Through her position of power in relation to the letters, Miss Tita emerges as a key character in the novella. Although readers don’t have the same level of access to her interior thoughts as they do the narrator’s, she demonstrates a deep psychological depth in her conflicted relationship with Juliana. She is deeply devoted to Juliana but also wishes to help the narrator. When he asks her if she has looked for the letters, she tells him that she has, and adds on that she has done so “for him,” emphasizing how devoted she is to helping him. However, she also can’t distance herself from her aunt. When the narrator asks her to look again for the letters, she refuses. The narrator’s central conflict—his desire to access the letters and Juliana’s refusal to let him see them—is directly mediated by Miss Tita’s relationship with Juliana, since the narrator sees manipulating Miss Tita as one of his only ways of accessing the letters. What Miss Tita decides to do with this power—which she recognizes she possesses—is crucial for the plot’s conclusion and the narrator’s quest.
