Answer 2 of your 3 questions. He sets character in situation, and the plot grows out of subject matter and situation. No one ever works in a James novel. Author tends to disappear from work. Strong emphasis upon dialogue.
Scenes are always social situations.
Sometimes, the effect is very over-refined. A novel has no moral purpose. There is an old-fashioned distinction between the novel of character and the novel of incident. . . . No good novel will ever proceed from a superficial mind. Visit our Student Writing page and read some of the student papers on Cat's Cradle 2.