Striving to leave fidelity-criticism behind this comparative analysis treats Henry James'
Portrait of a Lady and its cinematic counterpart by Jane Campion as complementary versions of
Isabel's story. The graphic integration of stills functioning as visual evidence emphasizes the
dialogic quality of this comparison based on non-essentialist feminist and post-structuralist
principles. Mainly focusing on literary and visual strategies employed by both media to
represent wo men on page and screen this analysis shows how those strategies result in a
non-affirmative realism preventing both novel and movie from killing their 'ladies' into art.
