Throughout A Portrait of a Lady, the theme of entrapment continually rears it head, based mainly around the women of the film text. Isabel, obviously, is trapped by her husband and her own ideas and ambitions. Madam Merle feels so attached to Pansy and, to some extent, Osmond, that she is forced to stay around. Pansy is trapped by her father's ideals and demands, as well as her own willingness to comply to them.

By far, Isabel Archer's case is the most obvious of entrapment in A Portrait of a Lady. When we first meet Isabel, she is an independent woman, but is also naïve and inexperienced. This naivety lets her think she is in control, and consequently leads her into bad decisions. This si demonstrated when she marries Osmond. She sees him as refined, with inexplicable taste, but she later finds out he is, in fact...