人们可以相信詹姆斯对“灾难的想象”的说法；他的许多主人公最终都不开心，但他给了他们胜利的光环。这是因为这些角色取决于他们自己的正直感，胜利与幸福无关。它与内心的安顿有关，这是一种使它们整体的运动。
(One can believe James's claim to an "imagination of disaster"; so many of his protagonists are unhappy in the end, and yet he gives them an aura of victory. It is because these characters depend on such high degree on their own sense of integrity that for them, victory has nothing to do with happiness. It has more to do with a settling within oneself, a movement inward that makes them whole.)