Mesmerized
Verena’s father is a rather notorious figure as a result of claiming to have performed miraculous cures as a result of being a mesmeric healer. Dr. Prance is not a fan, however. “She didn't believe in his system or disbelieve in it, one way or the other; she only knew that she had been called to see ladies he had worked on, and she found that he had made them lose a lot of valuable time.” The irony here is the humor at the end that both exposes his multiple failures while tweaking his claims of miraculous powers.
Olive and Verena
Chapter XVIII of the novel is an extensive and intensive examination of the relationship between Olive Chancellor and Verena Tarrant which focuses on their growing closeness, dependency, and almost perfect complementary natures. The chapter concludes with the narrator asserting that “Together, in short, they would be complete, they would have everything, and together they would triumph.” James expressly wrote in his personal journal that the relationship between Olive and Verena was intended to be a study into what he characterized as a special type of friendship between two women “common in New England.” That was a secret code for a friendship that extended into romantic love. This chapter is among the closest—if not the absolute closest—the book gets to abandoning coded language and coming right out defining the relationship as more than platonic with everything moving relentlessly toward that final line. That assertion of triumphing together gets as close to being a prediction as it is possible to get, but the irony is what keeps it from getting there. As an assertion, the closing line is ironic in light of the novel’s ending. As a promise, it would be an outright lie.
Love Story
It is appropriate to describe Basil’s feelings for Verena an obsessive desire rather than an obsessive love. Indeed, even characterizing his feelings as obsessive lust is misplaced. Basil’s desire for Verena is fueled entirely by his past life as a slave owner. Verena is desired by Basil, surely, but mostly as an object to possess or, more accurately, a possession to own. The irony is that novel is very much a love story. But the genuine love Olive has for Verena (and vice versa) is a story that cannot be told in a straightforward manner. Another layer of irony is added by virtue of modern-day context. On its surface, this story has elements of the popular present-day romantic comedy trope in which a couple who are complete opposites and totally wrong for each other wind up together by the end. The satisfying happy ending of those rom-coms becomes the deeply unsatisfying tragic irony in this case.
